Books about Antinomian from Amazon.com

The Antinomian controversy—a seventeenth-century theological crisis concerning salvation—was the first great intellectual crisis in the settlement of New England Transcending the theological questions from which it arose, this symbolic controversy became a conflict between power and freedom of conscience. David D. Hall’s thorough documentary history of this episode sheds important light on religion, society, and gender in early American history.
This new edition of the 1968 volume, published now for the first time in paperback, includes an expanding bibliography and a new preface, treating in more detail the prime figures of Anne Hutchinson and her chief clerical supporter, John Cotton. Among the documents gathered here are transcripts of Anne Hutchinson’s trial, several of Cotton’s writings defending the Antinomian position, and John Winthrop’s account of the controversy. Hall’s increased focus on Hutchinson reveals the harshness and excesses with which the New England ministry tried to discredit her and reaffirms her place of prime importance in the history of American women..
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What is repentance? How can the "whole life of the believer" be spent repenting? Is not the Christian to live a life of joy, free from the guilt created when sin is exposed by the Law of God? Luther's answers to these questions will help today’s Christian gain greater insight into Christian living.

In his Antinomian Disputations, Martin Luther attempts to demonstrate that having been redeemed in Christ, a Christian's life is not what which is lived beyond the parameters of the 10 Commandments given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Instead, the prime imperative of the 10 Commandments, that of love, is actually defined and shaped by them. In Christ, therefore, the Christian is not free to abolish the Law, but free to fulfill it, as Christ Himself did. In that even the Christian is still confronted by sin, however, the 10 Commandments cannot be simply the goal of Christian living, but actually must still confront the Christian, driving the Christian to daily repentance. Paraphrasing Luther from the Disputations, "In that Christians still die with as much frequency as non-Christians, Christians must still have sin. In that Christians still have sin, the Law is needed to expose that sin." Thus the first of Luther's famous 95 Theses is explained: "When our Lord and Savior Jesus! Christ said 'Repent,' He meant for the whole life of the Christian to be one of repentance.".
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What is the relationship between the Mosaic Law and the New Testament Christian? What is the standard for Christian conduct? Where does the Christian find his code of ethics? Are the Ten Commandments the highest expression of God's unchanging moral law? Many serious sudents of the Bible disagree on the answers to the above questions. In this booklet, Tom Wells defends the position of many--including John Owen and John G. Reisinger--who hold that there are two distinct covenants, rather than a twofold administration of the same covenant, and that each covenant has its own law. Tom writes, "Often when I am talking to someone who disagrees with me on the matter of the Mosaic Law, I feel the urge to cry out, 'but we are Christians!' (By 'we', I mean both my fellow Christian who does not see things my way, and myself.) Why would I want to do that? Because as a fellow slave of Jesus Christ I fear that he is not granting the Lord Jesus his crown rights. I do not often cry that out, of course. Even believers who outstrip me in love to Christ would hardly know what I was talking about. The message is not difficult, however. A slave looks to his master for his orders.".
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In an examination of transatlantic Puritanism from 1570 to 1638, Theodore Dwight Bozeman analyzes the quest for purity through sanctification. The word "Puritan," he says, accurately depicts a major and often obsessive trait of the English late Reformation: a hunger for discipline. The Precisianist Strain clarifies what Puritanism in its disciplinary mode meant for an early modern society struggling with problems of change, order, and identity.

Focusing on ascetic teachings and rites, which in their severity fostered the "precisianist strain" prevalent in Puritan thought and devotional practice, Bozeman traces the reactions of believers put under ever more meticulous demands. Sectarian theologies of ease and consolation soon formed in reaction to those demands, Bozeman argues, eventually giving rise to a "first wave" of antinomian revolt, including the American conflicts of 1636-1638. Antinomianism, based on the premise of salvation without strictness and duty, was not so much a radicalization of Puritan content as a backlash against the whole project of disciplinary religion. Its reconceptualization of self and responsibility would affect Anglo-American theology for decades to come..
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