Reformed orthodoxy

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Reformed orthodoxy or Calvinist orthodoxy was an era in the history of Calvinism in the 16th to 18th centuries. Calvinist orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Lutheranism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation. Calvinist scholasticism or Reformed scholasticism was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Calvinist Orthodoxy.

Theologians used the

Roman Catholic opponents and the content of their theology, most Reformed theologians during this period can properly be called scholastics with respect to the method of theology, though they also used other methods.[1] J. V. Fesko describes scholasticism in this sense as "a method of doing theology that sets out to achieve theological precision through the exegesis of Scripture, an examination of how doctrine has been historically defined throughout church history, and how doctrine is expounded in contemporary debate."[2]

Continuity in Reformed theology

Part of the series on
Modern scholasticism
Title page of the Operis de religione (1625) from Francisco Suárez.
Background

Protestant Reformation

Counter-Reformation
Aristotelianism
Scholasticism
Patristics

Modern scholastics

Second scholasticism of the School of Salamanca
Lutheran scholasticism during Lutheran orthodoxy
Ramism among the Reformed orthodoxy
Metaphysical poets in the Church of England

Reactions within Christianity

The Jesuits against Jansenism
Labadists against the Jesuits
Pietism against orthodox Lutherans
Nadere Reformatie within Dutch Calvinism
Richard Hooker against the Ramists

Reactions within philosophy

Lutherans

Spinozists
against Dutch Calvinists
Deists against Anglicanism
John Locke against Bishop Stillingfleet

In the past, scholars described the

exegetical biblical theology of John Calvin and other early Reformers. This is commonly described as the "Calvin against the Calvinists" paradigm. Beginning in the 1980s, Richard Muller and other scholars in the field provided extensive evidence showing both that the early Reformers were deeply influenced by scholasticism and that later Reformed scholasticism was deeply exegetical, using the scholastic method to organize and explicate exegetical theology.[3]

Scholastic method

Medieval schools of theology used methods of instruction known as lectio-meditatio-quaestio and disputationes. In the first method, teachers would first read an authoritative text with some commentary (lectio), allow students to consider the text silently (meditatio), and finally the students would ask questions of the teacher to get at the meaning (quaestio).[4]

History

Scholasticism was used by Protestant theologians primarily from 1560 to 1790, which is known as the period of orthodoxy because of the importance of adherence to and defense of the newly written Reformed confessions of faith for these theologians.[5]

John Calvin (1509–1564)

preaching, Calvin saw theological teaching as one of the primary objectives of the church and intended his theological works to be used by both preachers and common people. Many of his criticisms of purely speculative scholastic theology may be seen as a consequence of his desire to make theology accessible and useful for the church rather than solely for professional theologians in the schools.[6]

Early orthodoxy (1560–1620)

The Heidelberg Catechism

Though scholasticism can already be seen in early Reformed theologians, especially

Cardinal Robert Bellarmine were written in the tradition of scholasticism and needed to be answered in kind. Reformed theologians such as Heidelberg professors Zacharias Ursinus and Girolamo Zanchi adopted the tools of scholastic theology such as the quaestio method to rigorously exposit the Reformed confessions.[10]

The early 17th-century

Scotist distinction between theology in itself (theologia in se) and our theology (theologia nostra), limits the degree to which God can be known by sinful man and became important in later Reformed and Lutheran theology.[13]

Through the influence of refugees from continental Europe such as

University of St. Andrews assured Calvinism's hold on Scotland.[14]

High orthodoxy (1620–1700)

The Synod held at Dort

Following the Synod of Dort, which ended in 1619, the Reformed began to give greater definition and detail to their theological system by writing comprehensive systematic theologies.

Descartes's philosophical skepticism placed reason above revelation instead of subjecting reason to biblical revelation.[19]

In the Netherlands, three strands within Reformed orthodoxy may be distinguished, though all of these stayed within the boundaries provided by the Canons of Dort.

covenant of grace. Though Cocceius himself rejected Cartesianism, some of his followers were influenced by it and this led to even more suspicion of the Coccieans on behalf of the rest of the Reformed.[22]

In France,

Formula consensus Helvetica was written primarily by Johann Heinrich Heidegger with help from Francis Turretin to repudiate Amyraldism.[25]

In England, many of the Reformed, along with some other Protestants refused to remain within the

Anabaptists practiced only believer's baptism). The 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith established a consensus among them.[26]

Late orthodoxy (1700–1790)

particular Baptist
theologian in the late orthodox period.

During the eighteenth century the scholastic method of theology began to stagnate in favor of exegetical and historical theology.[27] The Age of Enlightenment brought about greater reliance on reason and less dependence on the authority of authoritative texts such as the Bible,[28] leading to the rise of biblical criticism and natural theology.[29]

In the Netherlands the "Green Cocceians" (named after Henricus Groenewegen, Groen = Green in Dutch) surpassed the Voetians who had been dominant in the 17th century. They attempted to find a mediating position between Enlightenment thought and Reformed theology, which resulted in intense controversy with other Reformed scholastics.

particular Baptists, who taught the Reformed doctrine of limited atonement, from the influence of Arminianism and Socianism and is considered one of the most important Reformed scholastics of the 18th century.[31]

Reformed scholastic theology was more dominant in Scotland. The

In Switzerland the Enlightenment had a significant impact on the shape of Reformed theology.

Jean Alphonse Turretin, son of high orthodox scholastic Francis Turretin, along with Jean-Frédéric Osterwald and Samuel Werenfels rejected the doctrine of predestination, the Synod of Dort, and the Helvetic Consensus.[33]

Important figures

See also

Notes

References

  • .
  • Benedict, Philip (2002). Christ's Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism. New Haven: Yale University Press. .
  • Fesko, J.V. (June–July 2000). "An Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism" (PDF). The Counsel of Chalcedon.
  • Steinmetz, David C. (2006). "The Scholastic Calvin". In .
  • Wenger, Thomas L. (June 2007). "The New Perspective on Calvin: Responding to Recent Calvin Interpretations". Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 50 (2): 311–328. .

Further reading

External links