- Landels, William
- (1823-1899)
- Scottish Baptist pastor in London for 28 years
- opposed Spurgeon on the "Down Grade Controversy."
- Latimer, Hugh
- (c 1485-1555)
Hugh Latimer
- British preacher and Reformer
- Roman Catholic but denied authority of Rome
- twice imprisoned by Henry VIII
- burned at stake under Mary Tudor saying, "We shall this day light up such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out!"
- Latourette, Kenneth Scott
- (1884-1968)
- Baptist missionary, church historian
- taught in China and Yale
- Wrote A History of Christianity
- Laud, William
- (1573-1645)
William Laud
- Archbishop of Canterbury
- advisor to Charles I
- beheaded by Puritan Parliament for his persecution of Puritans and for trying to impose the Prayer Book on Scotland.
- Because of him, thousands of Puritans fled to New England.
- Law, William
- (1686-1761)
William Law
- tried to refute Deist Tindal's arguments
- God's actions are not always according to human reason
- his devotional works influenced John Wesley
- wrote
- The Case of Reason
- A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, The Spirit of Love
- Lawson, James
- (1538-1584)
- Successor to John Knox
- his great zeal made him intolerant
- fled Scotland
- Lee, Robert Greene
- (1886-1978)
Robert Lee
- US Southern Baptist pastor in Memphis for 35 years
- memorized his sermons
- Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
- (1646-1716)
Leibniz
- German philosopher
- God has created the best of all possible worlds
- Wrote Monadologie.
- Reality is a harmonious whole governed by the laws of mathematics and logic.
- Leland, John
- (1691-1766)
- pastor in Ireland
- against Deism.
- Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich
- (1870-1924)
Lenin
- Communism is the classless society
- Christianity is just a tool of the ruling class to control the working class by the offer of the reward of the after-life
- he changed Marx's view by introducing the idea of historical materialism.
- Leo I (the Great)
- (c 400-461)
Leo I
- Pope
- papal supremacy over imperial authority
- persuaded Attila the Hun to stop raiding Rome
- Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
- (1729-1781)
Gotthold Lessing
- German philosopher
- rejected biblical revelation
- prepared way for critical study of Bible and liberal theology
- Leuba, James Henry
- (1867-1946)
- professor at Bryn Mawr College
- wrote
- A Psychological Study of Religion
- The Psychology of Religious Mysticism
- Positivist
- Naturalist
- Lever, Thomas
- (1521-1577)
- Anglican preacher
- fled England
- influenced by Calvin
- returned to England
- very outspoken
- Lewis, Clarence Irving
- (1883-1964)
C. I. Lewis
- US philosopher, professor at Harvard
- wrote
- Survey of Symbolic Logic
- Mind and the World-Order
- Held conceptual pragmatism: a version of the pragmatic theory of meaning, knowledge, and verification.
- Lewis, Clive Staples
- (1898-1963)
C. S. Lewis
- Anglican novelist
- lay theologian
- Arminian
- apologetic to intellectuals
- taught at Oxford and Cambridge
- LIBERALISM
-
- Sometimes called Modernism.
- Includes most Protestant religious philosophies that attempt a reconciliation of science, humanism, and traditional Christianity.
- Stresses the ethical teachings of Jesus and a social gospel.
- God is conceived as man's fellow worker in reforming the world.
- Human nature is essentially good.
- It says "Religion is a feeling of creaturely dependence on God" (Schleiermacher).
- Religion is that which "adds strength to frailty, fulfillment to frustration, wholeness to incompleteness" (Bewkes).
- LIBERTARIANISM
-
- Also called Indeterminism as a contrast with Determinism.
- Not all events (e.g., moral choices) are caused.
- The self is an agent with free will which transcends formed character and can act contrary to character or inclination in making moral choices.
- A person is free if and only if he could have acted or chosen differently.
- Determinism applies only to the person as observed, i.e., as empirical phenomena subject to laws, not to the self.
- Conscious or rational choice (act) and "being caused by x" are different things.
- Responsibility is possible either by acting according to inclinations that happen to be good or by acting contrary to inclinations that are not, as, e.g., in cases of moral temptation.
- Free will is a necessary condition of responsibility.
- LINE
-
- See Divided line
- Livingstone, John
- (1603-1672)
John Livingstone
- Scottish preacher
- at age 27, his sermon resulted in conversion of 500 people.
- Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn
- (1895-1981)
D. M. Lloyd-Jones
- Medical doctor turned preacher
- Welsh Presbyterian
- Calvinist
- successor to G. Campbell Morgan at Westminster Chapel
- wrote Preachers and Preaching
- Many of his sermons have become classic examples of expository preaching.
- Locke, John
- (1632-1704)
John Locke
- British philosopher
- first modern empiricist
- A forerunner of Deism.
- wrote
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- The Reasonableness of Christianity.
- The mind at birth is a tabula rasa (blank tablet) on which are impressed experiences (impressions) which produce simple ideas.
- Simple ideas are joined by reflection to form complex ideas.
- Even abstract ideas such as cause, substance, or logical implication reduce to simple ideas.
- There are no universal, necessary or a priori innate ideas independent of experience (unlike Plato or Kant).
- Certain qualities (such as extension, shape, etc.) are presented to all knowers as the objective primary qualities.
- These qualities give rise to the subjective.
- Revelation cannot contradict reason; knowledge comes by reflection on sensations.
- LOGIC
-
- see Epistemology for contrast
- LOGICAL POSITIVISM
-
- a form of Phenomenalism held by A. J. Ayer who stated that the neutral sense data are the ultimate units of experience which are given.
- Mind and matter are both logical constructs of actual or possible sense data, not metaphysical entities.
- Statements about mind (mental statements) or matter (physical object statements) are both fully translatable into sense data or observation statements.
- LOGOTHERAPY
-
- See Frankl
- Loisy, Alfred Firmin
- (1857-1940)
- wrote
- Autour d'un petit livre
- The Birth of the Christian Religion
- L'Evangile et l'Eglise
- Founder of French Roman Catholic modernism
- wrote
- LOLLARDS
-
- a medieval Dissenting group who followed John Wycliffe.
- Some were martyred, but many recanted when put on trial.
- They encouraged lay preachers; denied transubstantiation; encouraged use of Bible in English; pacifistic; condemned pilgrimages, auricular confession, and veneration of images; denied purgatory and priestly celibacy.
- Lombard, Peter
- (c 1100-1160)
- Sometimes called Peter of Lombard.
- theologian
- Bishop of Paris
- standardized Roman Catholic theology
- combined logic and devotional commitment
- his view replaced by Aquinas
- Wrote Four Books of Sentences
- Said that the dilemmas of faith were to be resolved by reason.
- emphasized seven sacraments
- Longenecker, Richard N.
-
- Prof. of NT at Wycliffe College, Toronto
- wrote
- "The Acts of the Apostles" in The Expositor's Bible Commentary
- Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period
- The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity
- The Ministry and Message of Paul
- Paul, Apostle of Liberty
- Lorimer, George C.
- (1838-1904)
- US Baptist
- converted actor who became a Baptist preacher
- memorized his sermons
- Lucar, Cyril
- (1572-1638)
- Calvinist Patriarch of Constantinople murdered by Muslims.
- Lucretius
- (c 96-55 BC)
Lucretius
- Roman philosophical poet
- disciple of Epicurus
- After his wife gave him a love philtre, he went insane and committed suicide.
- He promoted Epicurean doctrine through his book De Rerum Natura which dealt with physics, psychology, and ethics.
- Luther, Martin
- (1483-1546)
Martin Luther
- Key figure of Reformation
- excommunicated from Roman Catholics
- his translation of the Bible standardized German language
- married Katherin Bora
- wrote profusely
- Ninety-five Theses
- On the Papacy at Rome
- Address to the German Nobility
- The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
- Larger Catechism
- Smaller Catechism
- Lectures on Romans
- Lectures on Galatians
- Table Talk
- Bondage of the Will
- wrote hymns saying that the Devil should not have all the best tunes
- wrote "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."
- He was influenced by Brethren of the Common Life.
