An Analysis of Matteo Ricci’s T'ien-chu Shih-i from the Perspective of the Reformed Theology

“Arminianism” was the subject of important theological controversies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it maintains an important position within Protestant thought. What became known as “Arminian” theology was held by people across a swath of geographical and ecclesial positions; it developed in European, British, and American contexts, and it engaged with a wide range of intellectual challenges. While standing together in their common rejection of several key planks of Reformed theology, proponents of Arminianism took various positions on other matters. Some were broadly committed to catholic and creedal theology; others were more open to theological revision. Some were concerned primarily with practical concerns; others were engaged in system building as they sought to articulate and defend an overarching vision of God and the world. The story of this development is both complex and important for a proper understanding of the history of Protestant theology. However, this historical development of Arminian theology is not well known. In this book, Thomas H. McCall and Keith D. Stanglin offer a historical introduction to Arminian theology as it developed in modern thought, providing an account that is based upon important primary sources and recent secondary research that will be helpful to scholars of ecclesial history and modern thought as well as comprehensible and relevant for students.

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Grace and Freedom

10.1093/oso/9780197517468.001.0001 ◽

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.

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Afterword

10.1093/oso/9780198808718.003.0008 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Paul Cefalu

Keyword(s):

Reformed Theology ◽

Divine Presence ◽

Beatific Vision ◽

The World

The Afterword reviews the ways in which the features of Johannine devotion described throughout the book help to legitimate the revisionist argument that Reformed theology did not contribute to a decline in sacramental metaphysics or the disenchantment of the world. The chapter underscores the ways in which Johannine theology paradoxically testifies to divine presence through the Incarnation, despite the fact that Johannine theology does not uphold the materiality of the Eucharist and comparable rites. In addition, the chapter emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the mediated or qualified mysticism of the Johannine writings as against an ecstatic vision-mysticism. Because John’s high Christology assumes that only the Son can capably witness the beatific vision, earthbound penitents dwell in God only through the route of Christ.

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Presbyterians and Ethics

The Oxford Handbook of Presbyterianism ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190608392.013.39 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 525-537

Author(s):

Mark Douglas

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Great Awakening ◽

Reformed Theology ◽

Second Great Awakening ◽

World War ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

History Of Ethics ◽

Presbyterian Church ◽

Starting Point ◽

History Of

The history of ethics in the Presbyterian Church has been shaped by the theological commitments of Reformed theology, the church’s ecumenical and interreligious encounters, its interactions with the wider cultures in which it functions, and its global scope. Consequently, Presbyterian ethics have become increasingly diverse, culturally diffused, ecumenically directed, and frequently divisive. That said, its history can helpfully be divided into three lengthy periods. In the first (roughly from the church’s origins in 1559 to the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century), theology, ethics, and politics are so interwound that distinguishing one from the others is difficult. In the second (roughly from the Second Great Awakening to the end of World War II), moral concerns emerge as forces that drive the church’s theology and polity. And in the third (for which proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 might be a heuristically helpful starting point), ethics increasingly functions in ways that are only loosely tethered to either Reformed theology or polity. The strength of the church’s social witness, the consistency of its global engagements, and the failings of its internecine strife are all evident during its five-hundred-year history.

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