Early Modern French and Dutch Connections

2019 ◽  
pp. 312-327
Author(s):  
James Eglinton
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Edict Of Nantes ◽  
Three Phases

This chapter traces the development of early modern Scottish Reformed theology vis-à-vis its exchanges with contemporaneous variants of the same tradition in France and the Netherlands. It charts these developments against the backdrop of Muller’s view of early modern Reformed theology as having developed in three phases: (i) early orthodoxy (c.1565 to c.1640), (ii) high orthodoxy (c.1640 to 1725), and (iii) late orthodoxy (1725 to c.1780). This essay locates the Franco-Scottish Reformed relationship as most fruitful in the period of early orthodoxy, which was facilitated by a brief, fragile period of French religious toleration under the Edict of Nantes. In comparison, Dutch–Scottish Reformed connections spanned the entirety of the period and beyond, with theological influence moving from Scotland to the Netherlands, and vice versa. This chapter aims to explain why early modern Scottish Reformed theology’s relationships to its closest continental neighbours developed so differently.

Reformed Theology between 1600 and 1800

2016 ◽  
pp. 166-178
Author(s):  
Richard A. Muller
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Significant Alteration ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Three Phases

Early modern Reformed theology embraced a wide variety of styles, genres, and doctrinal variants expressed within the broadly and sometimes vaguely defined confessional boundaries presented in a series of regional and national confessions. Its development between 1600 and 1800 (roughly distinguishable into three phases: early orthodoxy extending from ca. 1565 to ca. 1640, high orthodoxy from ca. 1640 to 1725, and late orthodoxy from 1725 to ca. 1780) saw the rise and decline of scholastic models, a significant alteration of exegetical assumptions, and a massive shift in philosophical understandings, framed by patterns of confessionalization and deconfessionalization in the nations, states, and movements that belonged to the Reformed branch of the magisterial Reformation.

Arminian, Remonstrant, and Early Methodist Theologies

2014 ◽  
pp. 386-401
Author(s):  
Keith D. Stanglin
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
The State ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Common ◽  
Enlightenment Philosophy ◽  
Dutch Reformed Church

This essay describes the principal and distinctive theological elements of various forms of early modern Arminianism. Beginning with Jacob Arminius, it sketches the historical development and background of Arminianism in the Netherlands, its continuation in Dutch Remonstrant theology, and its manifestation in the Methodism of John and Charles Wesley in England. These contexts were quite different from one another. Arminius forged his theology in the context of the Dutch Reformed Church. Remonstrant theology developed outside the state church and in conjunction with Enlightenment philosophy. Wesleyan Methodism was nurtured by an Anglican Arminianism that found new life in evangelical revival. Despite the differences, the essay also traces elements of the common legacy that unites these divergent forms of Arminianism, such as the abiding concern over antinomianism, the plea for religious toleration, and the doctrine of a God who wants to be in eternal communion with all people.

Orthodox Radicals

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Bingham
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Infant Baptism ◽  
English Revolution ◽  
Baptist Identity ◽  
Ongoing Project

Orthodox Radicals explores the origins and identity of Baptists during the English Revolution (1640–1660), arguing that mid-seventeenth century Baptists did not, in fact, understand themselves to be part of a larger, all-encompassing “Baptist” movement. Contrary to both the explicit statements of many historians and the tacit suggestion embedded in the very use of “Baptist” as an overarching historical category, the early modern men and women who rejected infant baptism would not have initially understood that single theological move as being in itself constitutive of a new group identity. Rather, the rejection of infant baptism was but one of a number of doctrinal revisions then taking place among English puritans eager to further their ongoing project of godly reformation. Orthodox Radicals thus complicates our understanding of Baptist identity and addresses broader themes including early modern religious toleration, the mechanisms by which early modern groups defined and defended themselves, and the perennial problem of historical anachronism. By combining a provocative reinterpretation Baptist identity with close readings of key theological and political texts, Orthodox Radicals offers the most original and stimulating analysis of mid-seventeenth century Baptists in decades.

Grace and Freedom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Muller
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
The Will ◽  
Libertarian Freedom ◽  
The Church

Grace and Freedom addresses the issue of divine grace in relation to the freedom of the will in Reformed or “Calvinist” theology in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century with a focus on the work of the English Reformed theologian William Perkins, and his role as an apologist of the Church of England, defending its theology against Roman Catholic polemic, and specifically against the charge that Reformed theology denies human free choice. Perkins and his contemporaries affirmed that salvation occurs by grace alone and that God is the ultimate cause of all things, but they also insisted on the freedom of the human will and specifically the freedom of choice in a way that does not conform to modern notions of libertarian freedom or compatibilism. In developing this position, Perkins drew on the thought of various Reformers such as Peter Martyr Vermigli and Zacharias Ursinus, on the nuanced positions of medieval scholastics, and on several contemporary Roman Catholic representatives of the so-called second scholasticism. His work was a major contribution to early modern Reformed thought both in England and on the continent. His influence in England extended both to the Reformed heritage of the Church of England and to English Puritanism. On the Continent, his work contributed to the main lines of Reformed orthodoxy and to the piety of the Dutch Second Reformation.

The Paradox of “A High Standard of Public Honesty”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Kennedy ◽  
Ronald Kroeze
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Side Effect ◽  
High Standard ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Liberal Politics ◽  
Patronage Politics ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter takes as its starting point the contemporary idea that the Netherlands is one of the least corrupt countries in the world; an idea that it dates back to the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In this chapter, the authors explain how corruption was controlled in the Netherlands against the background of the rise and fall of the Dutch Republic, modern statebuilding and liberal politics. However, the Dutch case also presents some complexities: first, the decrease in some forms of corruption was due not to early democratization or bureaucratization, but was rather a side-effect of elite patronage-politics; second, although some early modern forms of corruption disappeared around this period, new forms have emerged in more recent times.

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