Glossary
anfechtung: German for “assault,” the word Luther used to translate the
Latin word tentatio, that is, “temptation.” This is the characteristically
Lutheran concept of temptation, which means that the devil assaults the
conscience by making you aware of your sin and weakness of faith, thus
tempting you to doubt that Christ will keep his promise to you.Anglicanism: From the Latin phrase anglicana ecclesia, meaning
“English Church,” the worldwide communion of churches stemming
from the established Protestant Church of England led by the archbishop
of Canterbury including, for instance, the Episcopalian church in the
United States.anhypostasis: Literally “without hypostasis,” the orthodox applied this term
to the humanity of Christ, which for all its completeness (including both a
body and a rational soul) is not a person in its own right, for the person
of the man Jesus Christ is the divine Word. This doctrine arose because
the humanity of Christ cannot be a person in its own right without making
Christ into two persons, one divine and one human, which is contrary to
orthodox Christology.anthropology: In theology, this refers to theories of human nature.
Anthropology is what theology or philosophy has to say about the meaning
of human existence. This should not be confused with the discipline of
cultural anthropology as represented in the anthropology departments of
American universities.antinomianism: Literally “anti law ism,” the teaching that the Law of
God no longer matters to Christians. This is almost always an accusation
made by one theologian against another, who denies the accusation. No
major theologian teaches an explicit antinomianism, but some Protestant
theologians are arguably in danger of falling into antinomianism when
they emphasize the free grace of justi¿ cation at the expense of the obligation
of sancti¿ cation and holy living (a charge Calvinists have sometimes made
against Lutherans, and Wesleyans have sometimes made against Calvinists).