The book deals with different sorts of authoritative sources, predominantly but not exclusively written ones, on which Christian communities have based their identity from the period of early Christianity to the twentieth century. Issues addressed are the processes leading to the development of authoritative traditions as well as the effects these have had on the identity of Christian churches or confessions. Special attention is paid to the crisis which the belief in authoritative sources has experienced since the rise of modernity.

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. Willemien Otten and Theo Salemink - Prologue: Religious Identity and the Problem of Historical Foundation 2. Charles Hallisey - The Surprise of Scripture's Advice PART I: IDENTITY AND MODERNITY A. Catholicism 3. Urs Altermatt - The Ambivalence of Catholic Modernisation 4. Staf Hellemans - How Modern is Religion in Modernity? 5. Anton Houtepen - Modernity and the Crisis of Spiritual Authority in the Nineteenth Century. The Case of Papal Infallibility 6. Theo Clemens - A Textbook for Theological Formation from Mechelen. Its Importance for the Identity of the Roman Catholic Clergy in the Netherlands B. Protestantism 7. Frits Broeyer - Reformed Notions of Identity: The Dutch Reformed Church Between 1829 and 1869 8. David Bos - University Education as a Mark of Ministerial Identity in Nineteenth Century Dutch Protestantism 9. Jan Jongeneel - Mission in a Globalizing World: Christ, Christianity and the Remaking World Order C. Judaism 10. Judith Frishman - True Mosaic Religion. Samuel Hirsch, Samuel Holdhiem and the Reform of Judaism 11. Els Kooij-Bas - The Brunswick Rabbinical Conference and Anti-Reform Response on the Questions of Authority 12. Theo Salemink - Modernity as Neo-Paganism. A Catholic Answer to Liberalism, Socialism and National Socialism PART II; SOURCES OF AUTHORITY FROM EARLY CHRISTIAN TO POSTMODERN TIMES A. The Early Church 13. Jaap van Amersfoort - Pagan Sources in the Pseudo-Clementine Novel 14. Johannes van Oort - The Emergence of Gnostic-Manichaean Christianity as a Case of Religious Identity in the Making B. The Middle Ages 15. Karla Pollmann - Re-Appropriation and Disavowal: Pagan and Christian Authorities in Cassiodorus and Venantius Fortunatus 16. Gerard Pieter Freeman - St.Francis - God's Authority and the Pope's Approval 17. Daniela Muller - Heretical Religious Women and the Authority of Traditional Sources 18. Willemien Otten - Authority and Identity in the Transition from Monastic to Scholastic Theology: Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux 19. Marcia Colish - Authority and Interpretation in Scholastic Theology 20. Jan Hallebeek - The Roman Pontiff as Direct Judge of Appeal and the Identity of the Latin Church C. From Reformation to Postmodernity 21. Eugene Honee - Die Autoritat von Schrift und Tradition in den Religionsverhandlungen des Augsburger Reichstages vom Jahre 1530. (With an English Summary) 22. Paul van Geest - Transformation in Order and Desire. Thomas a Kempis' Indebtedness to St. Augustine 23. Willem van Asselt - Scholaticism Protestant and Catholic: Medieval Sources and Methods in Seventeenth Reformed Thought 24. Marcel Poorthuis - The Improperia on Trial. On a Recent Debate in the Netherlands between Jews, Protestants and Roman-Catholics 25. Gerard Rouwhorst - Historical Periods as Normative Sources. The Appeal to the Past in the Research on Liturgical History 26. Peter van Rooden - Power and Piety in Contemporary Church History and Social Science D. Christian Origins: A Continuing Debate 27. Frances Young - Books and Their 'Aura': the Functions of Written Texts in Judaism, Paganism and Christianity during the First Centuries CE 28. Elizabeth Clark - Creating Foundations, Creating Authorities: Reading Practices and Christian Identities