The Culture of Catechesis and Lay Theology

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55
Author(s):  
Jetze Touber
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Benedictus De Spinoza ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
Lay Theology ◽  
Public Church

Abstract In the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, non-professional theologians articulated well-informed biblical interpretation, producing a lay theology that was unwelcome to representatives of the churches. Historians have long considered this lay theology as a manifestation of Early Enlightenment. It did not, however, necessarily result from the activities of rationalist philosophers usually associated with the Dutch Early Enlightenment, such as Benedictus de Spinoza (1632–1677). Equally important were the clergy’s efforts to educate laity in reading the Bible and contemplating divinity autonomously. This paper reconstructs the Dutch “culture of catechesis,” a collective effort to involve laity in reflection on religion and the Bible, dating back to at least the 1640s. Based on catechetical materials and their authors, this paper argues that the “culture of catechesis” had its roots in the Public Church itself, and that it contributed to lay theology, as much so as the outspoken programs of eccentric philosophers.

The Bible in the Political Fabric of the Dutch Republic, 1660–1710

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jetze Touber
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Biblical Criticism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Ecclesiastical Administration ◽  
Unexpected Outcomes ◽  
Public Church

Chapter 4 investigates the repercussions of biblical philology, including Spinoza’s, within ecclesiastical administration locally and regionally. The Public Church warded off the effects of biblical criticism by keeping God’s Word in the safe enclosure of the States’ Translation and credal documents. Nevertheless, within the clergy itself, individuals broke ranks and threatened to undo the hermeneutical concord. A sequence of protracted conflicts at various levels of ecclesiastical administration indicates the tensions that continuously undermined the aspirations to harmony. Biblical philology was only indirectly at play in Utrecht in the 1650s and 1660s, but it was central in the anti-Coccejan campaign in Friesland in the 1680s. The Frisian campaign in turn provoked a response from the minister Frederik van Leenhof, who became progressively more Spinozist. Van Leenhof’s example shows how humanist biblical philology and Spinozist hermeneutics could come together in the heart of the Reformed Church, leading to unexpected outcomes.

Conclusion: The Bible Human and Divine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jetze Touber
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
Biblical Criticism ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Contested Terrain ◽  
Public Church

The conclusion recapitulates the variegated dynamics at play in the interpretation and use of the Bible in the Dutch Public Church when Spinoza articulated his biblical criticism. Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus did not suddenly open the eyes of his contemporaries to the technical and philosophical problems of identifying a text with the Word of God. Rather it arrived at an extremely delicate moment, when forces from various directions were already contesting one another over the authority to interpret Scripture in their own ways. These forces had their own momentum when refuting Spinoza’s outlandish appeal to biblical philology, and responded in turn to one another inlight of the new reality. In result, by 1700 the space allowed for exegetical variety within the doctrinal enclosure of the Public Church had gradually widened, but it remained a contested terrain where innovations were easily considered, or branded, harmful to ecclesiastical unity.

Jonathan Edwards and Scripture

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Western History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
New Research

Jonathan Edwards and Scripture provides a fresh look at the important, burgeoning field of Edwards and the Bible. For too long, Edwards scholars have published new research on Edwards without paying due attention to the work he took most seriously: biblical exegesis. Edwards is recognized as an innovative theologian who wielded tremendous influence on revivalism, evangelicalism, and New England theology, but what is often missed is how much time he devoted to studying and understanding the Bible. He kept voluminous notebooks on Christian Scripture and had plans for major treatises on the Bible before he died. Edwards scholars need to take stock of the place of the Bible in his thought to do justice to his theology and legacy. In fact, more and more experts are recognizing how important this aspect of his life is, and this book brings together the insights of leading Edwards scholars on this topic. This volume seeks to increase our understanding of Edwards’ engagement with Scripture by setting it in the context of seventeenth-century Protestant exegesis and eighteenth-century colonial interpretation. It provides case studies of Edwards’ exegesis in varying genres of the Bible and probes his use of Scripture to develop theology. It also sets his biblical interpretation in perspective by comparing it with that of other exegetes. This book advances our understanding of the nature and significance of Edwards’ work with Scripture and opens new lines of inquiry for students of early modern Western history.

scholarly journals Spinoza in His Time: The 17th-Century Religious Context

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Joke Spaans
Keyword(s):  
Academic Freedom ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Open Debate ◽  
Theological Controversy ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Public Church

In one of the last paragraphs of his Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), Spinoza extolls the harmony between people of a diversity of faiths, maintained by the magistracy of Amsterdam. However, he also seems apprehensive about the possibility of the return of chaos, such as during the Arminian Controversies in the Dutch Republic in the 1610s and the English Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s. The so-called Wolzogen affair in 1668 probably rattled him. Spinoza’s fears would, however, prove groundless. Theological controversy in the public church was often fierce and bitter, but did not threaten the integrity of the State after 1619. Political and ecclesiastical authorities supported discussions and debate in which a new theological consensus could be hammered out. From the examples of Petrus de Witte’s Wederlegginge der Sociniaensche Dwaelingen and Romeyn de Hooghe’s Hieroglyphica, I will argue that such freedom was not limited to the universities, under the aegis of academic freedom, but that Spinoza’s call for free research and open debate was in fact everyday reality.

The Massacre of the Innocents: infanticide and solace in the seventeenth-century Low Countries

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stijn Bussels ◽  
Bram Van Oostveldt
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Gospel Of Matthew ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Massacre Of The Innocents ◽  
History Play

In this chapter a specific body will take centre-stage: the body of the child. Focusing on both theatre and visual arts in the Dutch Republic this contribution will discuss the most cruel and loathsome form of violence, i.e. violence inflicted on innocent children. For this, one passage from the Bible was often used, the massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem from the Gospel of Matthew. This contribution concentrates on the popularity of this biblical passage in the visual arts of the early modern Netherlands and will clarify how diverse the solace can be. Therefore, this chapter will focus on the thirties of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Republic had consolidated itself as a crucial economic and cultural player and when the Spanish Netherlands were dominated by counter-reformational discourses. Daniel Heinsius’s Latin tragedy Herodes infanticida (1632), an illustration from Jacob Cats’ Trov-ringh (1637), Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents (1637) and Joost van de Vondel’s history play Gysbrecht van Aemstel (1638) will be discussed. A detailed comparative analysis of these examples will reveal how artists, writers, painters and actors, used hurt bodies on stage, page or canvas as a means to feature the most profound fears and doubts of an era.

The Emancipation of Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic, 1590-1670

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk van Miert
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
External Development

This book argues that the application of tools, developed in the study of ancient Greek and Latin authors, to the Bible aimed to stabilize the biblical text but had the unintentional effect that the text grew more and more unstable. Spinoza capitalized on this tradition in his notorious Theological-Political Treatise, published in the Dutch Republic in 1670. But the foundations on which his radical biblical scholarship is built were laid by Reformed philologists who started from the hermeneutical assumption that philology was the maidservant of reformed dogma. On this basis, they pushed biblical scholarship to the centre of historical studies during the first half of the seventeenth century. The monograph shows how Jacob Arminius, Franciscus Gomarus, the translators and revisers of the States’ Translation (the Dutch Authorized Version), Daniel Heinsius, Hugo Grotius, Claude Saumaise, Isaac de La Peyrère, and Isaac Vossius all drew on techniques developed by classical scholars of Renaissance humanism, notably Joseph Scaliger, who devoted themselves to the study of manuscripts, (oriental) languages, and ancient history. These scholars’ accomplishments in textual criticism, the analysis of languages, and the reconstruction of political and cultural historical contexts are assessed and compared, and it is demonstrated that their methods were closely linked. Apart from this internal analysis, the book considers the external development of biblical philology. It became the cutting-edge science of the day and grew from an arcane research specialism into a fashionable science for scholars who wanted to share in the fame of being a universal critic.

The Rise and Fall of Biblical Perspicuity: Remonstrants and the Transition toward Modern Exegesis

2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith D. Stanglin
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Authorial Intention ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Historical Contextualization ◽  
The Church

The purpose of this article is to examine the biblical exegesis of two seventeenth-century Dutch Remonstrant theologians, Simon Episcopius (1583–1643) and Étienne de Courcelles (1586–1659). Their hermeneutic was characterized by an emphasis on the perspicuity, or clarity, of scripture through the use of reason, combined with the marginalization of spiritual meanings in favor of the literal-grammatical sense alone. In both of these emphases, they went beyond their theological forebear, Jacob Arminius (1559–1609), and adumbrated the methods of later Enlightenment thinkers. The stress on perspicuity and authorial intention led to increasing fascination with text criticism, linguistic analysis, and historical contextualization, highly rarefied disciplines that became prerequisites for correct, scholarly biblical interpretation. This development also pushed the question of biblical fallibility closer to the center of the doctrine of scripture. As a consequence of the philological, scientific study of the Bible, biblical interpretation was relegated to the field of scholarship and doctrinal formulation to the church. The original ideal of biblical perspicuity resulted in biblical obscurity.

APPLYING THE RIGHT MEASURE: ARCHITECTURE AND PHILOLOGY IN BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN THE DUTCH EARLY ENLIGHTENMENT

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 959-985 ◽  
Author(s):  
JETZE TOUBER
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Architectural Theory ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Proper Method ◽  
Skilled Professional ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe article reconstructs the seventeenth-century Dutch debate about the proper method to reconstruct the biblical temples of Jerusalem. It examines the involvement of Willem Goeree (1635–1711), an expert in architectural theory, in this debate which was dominated by philologically trained scholars. The article suggests that the clash between professional exegetes and a lay theologian like Goeree allows us to see hermeneutical debates of the early Enlightenment in a new light. While the skilled professional aspired to make arcane Temple scholarship accessible to a wider lay audience, theologians denied him the competence to do so, insisting on the primacy of sacred philology in interpreting the Bible. This case thus moves outside of the dogma vs reason dichotomy which dominates historiography concerning early modern biblical interpretation.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 234-248
Author(s):  
Mogens Lærke
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The State ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

This concluding chapter offers some perspectives on Spinoza’s understanding of the freedom of philosophizing. It shows how Spinoza’s conception responded to the need for new normative theories of public debate and civic engagement in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. It also confronts Spinoza’s conception of collective free philosophizing with Jürgen Habermas’s classic account of the bourgeois public sphere. While pointing to essential similarities between their conceptions, it also shows how Spinoza’s model of libertas philosophandi, based on democratic realignment of the structures of political counsel and sovereign command, and on a model of public speech driven by intellectual joy, offers a theoretical alternative to Habermas’s dialectical understanding of the relations between the state and the public sphere, and to his consensus-oriented conception of public debate.

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