Michael Parsons is Director of Postgraduate Research at Vose Seminary, Perth, Western Australia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wales on the subject of marriage in the sixteenth century.
2006 0-7734-5804-2 It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of preaching during the period of European reformation. This book recognizes the centrality of John Calvin’s preaching to his reforming program. This study elucidates the reformer’s teaching within the very concrete historical situation in Geneva in 1550-1551. What emerges is a clearer picture of Calvin the preacher, Calvin the pastor as he struggles to commend the love of God to a difficult generation.
2013 0-7734-4539-0 This book examines Luther and Calvin on grief and lament and discovers through a close reading of letters, commentaries, and sermons that the reformers actually encourage righteous lament in times of pain and desolation. This means that the feeling of lament stems from a pure heart and is disposed to rest in God’s unfailing love, even at such times. It concludes with some pastoral insights gleaned from the reformers’ writing. Overturns the belief that Calvin’s rigorous arguments for providence and life after death essentially prevent any further consideration of lament in theology.
2009 0-7734-4684-2 This study examines Martin Luther’s interpretation of the royal psalms – Psalms 2, 45, 82, 110, 118 – by demonstrating the pastoral heart of Luther’s theology in which he underlines the importance of the spiritual kingdom, the centrality of Jesus Christ, faith, preaching and a tenacious grasp of the word of God. Each chapter examines Luther’s exposition of a specific psalm against his theological understanding of the two kingdoms.