Select Works of Jaroslav Pelikan (2 vols.)

by Jaroslav Jan Pelikan

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2001–2003

Overview

Jaroslav Pelikan was one of the foremost intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was dean of Yale Graduate School from 1973–1978, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, editor of the religious section of Encyclopedia Britannica, a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and founder of the Council of Scholars at the Library of Congress. This collection pairs two of his books that examine the connection between art and theology. Bach Among the Theologians offers a unique look into the theological influences and implications of the great composer’s work, while Fools for Christ examines six other figures in the Western aesthetic tradition and how their work grew out of their grappling with the divine.

The Logos editions these texts are designed to enhance and accelerate your study. Fully indexed texts enable near-instant search results for words, people, places, and ideas, while Scripture references appear on mouseover in your preferred translation. Find what other authors, scholars, and theologians have to say about the good, the true, and the beautiful. Pull up primary texts from modern and ancient philosophy for side-by-side comparison. With the most efficient and comprehensive research tools all in one place, you can deepen your study with just a few clicks. And with Logos tablet and mobile apps, you can take your study wherever you go.

Key Features

• Presents two volumes from one of the twentieth century’s foremost intellectuals
• Examines the theological influences and implications of Bach
• Analyzes the divine in the work of six philosophical giants

Product Details

• Title: Select Works of Jaroslav Pelikan
• Author: Jaroslav Pelikan
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock
• Volumes: 2
• Pages: 354

Bach Among the Theologians

• Author: Jaroslav Pelikan
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 172

This superb and enduring contribution to the Johann Sebastian Bach tricentennial focuses on Bach’s vocation as a musician of the church and on his work as a theologian. Although Bach is most often remembered for his music, Jaroslav Pelikan here reminds us of the message of Bach's works and of his understanding and devotion to his vocation within the church.

By relating Bach’s work to the heritage of the Lutheran Reformation—musical as well as theological—Pelikan places Bach within the context of the theological currents of his time. Maintaining that the Reformation heritage provides the underlying thematic and religious inspiration for Bach’s work, Pelikan delves into three main movements within Lutheran theology of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a framework for understanding Bach. He also demonstrates how Bach’s sacred music complements and illustrates these theological trends.

In the second portion of the book, Pelikan examines the theological motifs that are reflected in the texts Bach used and in the settings he provided for these texts. The author points to Bach's particular interest in the meaning of the cross, and to redemption and atonement through the death and resurrection of Christ. He notes the centrality of the “passions” in Bach’s lifework and their importance for the history of the doctrine of atonement. Bach Among the Theologians represents a unique inspirational complement to the many works that concentrate primarily on the composer’s personal or secular life.

This book clearly demonstrates Professor Pelikan’s keen interest in music and his command of the subtleties of its theological implications. Bach Among the Theologians is worthy of being made required reading for any serious performer of that master’s music.

—Richard Westenburg, founder and music director, Musica Sacra Head, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

Pelikan, a distinguished humanist who knows how to interrelate as well as integrate theological, historical, and musical viewpoints, now presents us with an exciting and authoritative discussion of Bach in the context of the theology of his time. No doubt, reading this book will help sharpen our ears to hear and understand better the decisive undertones of Bach’s music.

—Christoph Wolff, professor of music, Harvard University

Jaroslav Pelikan, a commanding and perceptive historian of Christian institutions and thinking, reveals to us first of all Bach’s own intellective, philosophical, and theological environment. Second, through an affectionate and wide-ranging familiarity with his works, he shows us the influence upon Bach’s basic and pervasive Lutheran orthodoxy of the strong contemporary currents of a romanticizing Pietism and a rationalizing Enlightenment. He does this with fluency, good humor, and a winning absence of missionary zeal. To the performing musician and inadvertent Protestant he presents information which is pertinent, provocative—and scarcely otherwise obtainable.

—Robert Shaw, music director and conductor, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra

Fools for Christ

• Author: Jaroslav Pelikan
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 182

Fools for Christ is a brilliant and balanced examination of the true, the good, and the beautiful. Pelikan first examines Kierkegaard and Paul, analyzing the relationship between the true and the holy. Next he examines Dostoevsky and Luther, and the relationship between the good and the holy. Lastly Pelikan looks at Nietzsche and Bach, and the relationship between the beautiful and the holy. The first section draws on the whole history of Western thought. The second looks into the background of Christian morality, and in the last reaches all the way back to the Greeks in a penetrating study of Western aesthetics. Theology, ethics, and aesthetics—they are all here. Beyond them all, Pelikan shows how the Holy cannot be captured and held by any of them, although the attempt is frequently made. Rather the Holy must remain unqualified, transfiguring within itself the experience of the true, the good, or the beautiful.

About the Author

Jaroslav Pelikan (1923–2006) was a historian of Christianity, theology, and medieval intellectualism. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago. Throughout his life he held numerous intellectual leadership positions. He was dean of Yale Graduate School from 1973–1978, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, editor of the religious section of Encyclopedia Britannica, a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and founder of the Council of Scholars at the Library of Congress. He wrote over 30 books, including Mary Through the Centuries, Jesus Through the Centuries, Whose Bible is it?, and The Vindication of Tradition.