Bulgakov's comprehensive kenotic theory is a largely neglected aspect of his theology. The article situates Bulgakov's kenoticism in the context of nineteenth–twentieth century European and Russian theology. For Bulgakov kenosis was a feature not only of the divine incarnation, but also of creation and of the inner life of the Trinity. Bulgakov distinguishes between different aspects of the divine kenosis: the suffering of compassionate and sacrificial love; the restraint of omnipotence, omniscience and other perfections; the descent into the world of temporality and becoming; the acceptance of human emotions and suffering; the identification with sinful humanity; and ultimately the experience of Godforsakenness in the incarnation. God freely limits his actions in the world by time and space. According to Bulgakov, God always acts by persuasion and never by compulsion. Incarnation for Bulgakov is a kenotic act par excellence. Critically appropriating the ideas of Thomasius and Hegel, Bulgakov argues that in the incarnation the Word retains his divine nature, but divests himself of his glory. This entails that the Son empties himself of his foreknowledge, and becomes temporarily subordinate to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Son's kenosis is matched by that of the Holy Spirit, who restricts his power in communicating his gifts to the world.

Great strides have been made in the study of John Cassian over the last half-century, and yet persistent concerns are still expressed in regard to his theological competence. Invariably, the standard against which Cassian is found wanting is Augustinian orthodoxy. And there is nothing new in this: these concerns were first expressed by Cassian's contemporary, Prosper of Aquitaine, especially in his polemic Contra collatorem. Prosper is the harbinger of medieval Augustinianism and this makes his claims seem almost inevitable in retrospect – but as this analysis will demonstrate, his evaluation and denunciation of Cassian is systematically flawed. Close attention to Prosper's work reveals not only that his criticism of Cassian was ill-considered; it also shows that Prosper's own theological insight is less penetrating than one might have hoped to find in the ‘first Augustinian’. The consequences for the study of Cassian, I suggest, are that Prosper's threadbare accusations no longer need to be entertained. But there is further significance in this finding: it is Prosper's polemic against Cassian that provides the categories that have regularly been used to evaluate the early reception of Augustinianism. If, as is shown in this paper, Prosper was an opportunistic controversialist who can be seen to have distorted, embellished and in some cases even fabricated his opponent's arguments, then we should be extremely reserved in using his polemic as the point of departure, not just for studying Cassian, but for studying the development of Augustinianism as a whole.

Aquinas's analysis of chastity as a part of temperance points the way towards a positive virtue ethic of sexuality, even though he himself did not develop his analysis in this direction. This alternative illustrates that ‘the tradition’, that is to say, the moral heritage in terms of which Christians define themselves through affirmation or rejection, is more complex than we sometimes assume, including diverse approaches to difficult topics even within one author. Even more importantly, considered on its own merits a broadly Thomistic, virtue-oriented approach offers an attractive sexual ethic which implies that ideals of restraint and consideration for others have substantive content, without tying these ideals to specific norms in a reductive or overly inflexible way.

The history of Western society is marked by the migration of monism. Christendom's concept of God was that of an Absolute Individual that enslaves: God is everything and humanity is nothing. It was replaced by its opposite – the Enlightenment's hero, man come of age – the absolute individual. Here humanity is viewed as everything and God as nothing, or at least off on holiday. Today, in keeping with the easternisation of the West, many are willing to sacrifice their autonomy for a view of reality wherein everything is God. Each outlook betrays the same fundamental weakness: a failure to provide space for otherness. What is required then is a concept of being that provides space for otherness within itself. The doctrine of the Trinity offers such a matrix of mediation. God is a sovereign community of persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – who exists freely in mutual love, and who therefore creates out of an overflow of gracious love rather than from need for communion or a drive towards consumption. There is relational space for otherness and freedom within the Godhead as Father, Son and Spirit mutually constitute one another. By extension, there is freedom to be other outside the Godhead, demonstrated in Christ's self-giving through the Spirit in the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection. In closing, it will be argued that such a model safeguards appropriate space for otherness while at the same time fostering a more profound dynamic of mystical union, which so many today seek in the easternised West.

It has been said that Calvin's preaching demonstrates a doctrine of a ‘kerygmatic real presence’. So in preaching, and in the reading of, the word, Christ is present to the believer. This might also be spoken of in terms of an encounter with God through his word, or as a personal confrontation with God and eventual justification, or as the experience of the grace of God, or perhaps as the practice and experience of faith trusting in the word. In these many ways Calvin's theology has been identified as being, to some extent, both didactic and affective. Gerrish helpfully speaks of Calvin's theology as ‘gift and response’ or ‘grace and gratitude’. It is in Calvin's preaching that this dynamic of affective and didactic, grace and gratitude is enacted.

Several historians and theologians have concluded that John Bunyan was a high-Calvinist. However, this conclusion has been challenged with the assertion that Bunyan held to a more mediate view of the atonement, often called Amyraldianism. This study seeks to evaluate Bunyan's place on the theological spectrum by evaluating his writings during his pre-prison ministry (1656–59). It sets forth the argument that, during this period, Bunyan demonstrated the Amyraldian penchant for combining real particularism with hypothetical universalism.