Pub Date : 2021-07-28DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.15
R. Holden
Milton develops a novel conception of Protestantism, a category that shapes his thought. He rejects doctrinal standards, arguing that what really matters—what makes all Protestants—is the commitment to working out one’s faith from the Bible alone (sola scriptura). He thus retains the formal, but rejects the material, principle of the Reformation. This position underlies Milton’s liberal commitments. A believer must be free to work out her faith from the Word of God; she must be free to come to an explicit faith. Milton uses this definition of Protestantism to argue against censorship. Milton also maintains the separation of church and state for theological reasons: a state church that imposed belief on Christians would be merely a ‘civil papacie’. This definition of Protestantism also underlies his arguments for tolerance. For Milton, politics are religion.
{"title":"Protestantism as Liberalism","authors":"R. Holden","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.15","url":null,"abstract":"Milton develops a novel conception of Protestantism, a category that shapes his thought. He rejects doctrinal standards, arguing that what really matters—what makes all Protestants—is the commitment to working out one’s faith from the Bible alone (sola scriptura). He thus retains the formal, but rejects the material, principle of the Reformation. This position underlies Milton’s liberal commitments. A believer must be free to work out her faith from the Word of God; she must be free to come to an explicit faith. Milton uses this definition of Protestantism to argue against censorship. Milton also maintains the separation of church and state for theological reasons: a state church that imposed belief on Christians would be merely a ‘civil papacie’. This definition of Protestantism also underlies his arguments for tolerance. For Milton, politics are religion.","PeriodicalId":296358,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132084437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-28DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.31
T. Cooper
This chapter considers the broad historical and intellectual developments that contributed to the ‘crisis of Calvinism’ in seventeenth-century England and examines how the Puritans responded and adapted to those changes. Put simply, they could abandon, moderate, or defend Calvinism. The specific example of John Owen and Richard Baxter is used to illustrate some of the mechanisms at work in this process of adaptation. Alarmed by growing Arminianism and Socinianism, Owen tried to shore up Calvinism; alarmed by Antinomianism, Baxter modified his Calvinism to incorporate a place for conditions and human agency in the process of salvation. An abbreviated survey of each man’s career will demonstrate how personal experience and historical contingency can shape doctrinal perspectives, and how they played a part in the decline of Calvinism even among the English Puritans.
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Pub Date : 2021-07-28DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.4
Ueli Zahnd
This chapter deals with the possible role of medieval scholasticism in early Reformed theology and aims at re-evaluating the triangle of medieval, Reformation, and post-Reformation thought. First, the chapter briefly reviews the question of medieval thought in Calvin’s theology, it discusses then the role of medieval scholasticism in the emergence of Reformed scholasticism, and it finally focuses on three exemplary cases of post-Reformation theologians and their attitude towards medieval thought: Antoine de Chandieu, Lambert Daneau, and Polanus of Polansdorf. In doing so, the chapter both extends and qualifies the ‘positive continuity view’ prevalent in recent research: on the one hand, on the level of explicit references, it points to the apparent discontinuity in the expressed attitude towards medieval thought between the first few and the later generations of Reformed theologians. On the other, it argues that on the level of implicit allusions and methodological imitations the doctrinal and methodical continuities between Calvin and later ‘Calvinists’ can be extended to continuities between late medieval and early Reformed theology.
{"title":"Calvin, Calvinism, and Medieval Thought","authors":"Ueli Zahnd","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.4","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter deals with the possible role of medieval scholasticism in early Reformed theology and aims at re-evaluating the triangle of medieval, Reformation, and post-Reformation thought. First, the chapter briefly reviews the question of medieval thought in Calvin’s theology, it discusses then the role of medieval scholasticism in the emergence of Reformed scholasticism, and it finally focuses on three exemplary cases of post-Reformation theologians and their attitude towards medieval thought: Antoine de Chandieu, Lambert Daneau, and Polanus of Polansdorf. In doing so, the chapter both extends and qualifies the ‘positive continuity view’ prevalent in recent research: on the one hand, on the level of explicit references, it points to the apparent discontinuity in the expressed attitude towards medieval thought between the first few and the later generations of Reformed theologians. On the other, it argues that on the level of implicit allusions and methodological imitations the doctrinal and methodical continuities between Calvin and later ‘Calvinists’ can be extended to continuities between late medieval and early Reformed theology.","PeriodicalId":296358,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism","volume":"115 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114993563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-14DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.45
H. Powell
When England’s Parliament rejected enforced Presbyterian conformity in 1648, it was because English Calvinism was never comfortable with elevating polity to a matter of confession. During the Interregnum (1649–1660) former Westminster divines (led by the now ascendant Congregationalists) sought to define orthodoxy for Oliver Cromwell’s state church. They tried repeatedly to strike a balance between enforcing confessional subscription for parish ministers, while still allowing a limited accommodation for those who could not or who would not submit—provided they did not preach or publish against those statements of faith. In the face of growing sectarianism, each confessional attempt saw an increasingly robust (and thus restrictive) Calvinism culminating in the last confession of the Puritan era, the Savoy Declaration.
{"title":"Cromwellian Calvinism","authors":"H. Powell","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.45","url":null,"abstract":"When England’s Parliament rejected enforced Presbyterian conformity in 1648, it was because English Calvinism was never comfortable with elevating polity to a matter of confession. During the Interregnum (1649–1660) former Westminster divines (led by the now ascendant Congregationalists) sought to define orthodoxy for Oliver Cromwell’s state church. They tried repeatedly to strike a balance between enforcing confessional subscription for parish ministers, while still allowing a limited accommodation for those who could not or who would not submit—provided they did not preach or publish against those statements of faith. In the face of growing sectarianism, each confessional attempt saw an increasingly robust (and thus restrictive) Calvinism culminating in the last confession of the Puritan era, the Savoy Declaration.","PeriodicalId":296358,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism","volume":"62 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125090488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-14DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.30
Shannon Craigo-Snell
This chapter explores the rationalist slant of Calvinism, identifying its roots in the Reformation and its enmeshment with modern epistemology. Overly rational Calvinism participates in a disintegrated theological anthropology in which the mind is set as guard over the unruly emotions, will, and body. In conversation with performance theory, the author argues that the Reformed emphasis on texts has not served its intended function as a safeguard from superstition and idolatry, but rather contributed to myriad forms of oppression. A more integrated vision of the self, embodied in whole-personed religious disciplines, would be more consistent with Calvin’s theology, with the goals of the Reformation, and with the biblical tradition of prophets as those who resist religious abuse and idolatry. In particular, practices of prayer and intentional formation to instil Christian affections could continue the ongoing reformation of Calvinist traditions.
{"title":"Reforming Calvinism","authors":"Shannon Craigo-Snell","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.30","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the rationalist slant of Calvinism, identifying its roots in the Reformation and its enmeshment with modern epistemology. Overly rational Calvinism participates in a disintegrated theological anthropology in which the mind is set as guard over the unruly emotions, will, and body. In conversation with performance theory, the author argues that the Reformed emphasis on texts has not served its intended function as a safeguard from superstition and idolatry, but rather contributed to myriad forms of oppression. A more integrated vision of the self, embodied in whole-personed religious disciplines, would be more consistent with Calvin’s theology, with the goals of the Reformation, and with the biblical tradition of prophets as those who resist religious abuse and idolatry. In particular, practices of prayer and intentional formation to instil Christian affections could continue the ongoing reformation of Calvinist traditions.","PeriodicalId":296358,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132712706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-14DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.28
D. Hart
Reformed Protestants inherited older biblical and medieval understandings about the difference between civil rule and ecclesiastical authority which fostered a variety of responses to secularization. After the Reformation, Calvinists worked from received categories even as they adapted to a diverse set of political circumstances, sometimes being a persecuted minority, sometimes having unrestrained access to municipal governments, and sometimes disappointed with monarchs who promised more than they gave. Once the political revolutions of the eighteenth century upended the prevailing Constantinian pattern of ecclesiastical establishment (whether Roman Catholic or Protestant), Calvinists made even further adjustments to the sacred–secular distinction. Those adaptations contribute to ongoing debates about society, the church, and a Christian’s civic responsibilities. No matter how varied Calvinists have been in their responses to secularization, they are no stranger than other Christian communions that also struggle to make sense of Jesus Christ’s assertion that his ‘kingdom is not of this world’.
{"title":"No Other Gods","authors":"D. Hart","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.28","url":null,"abstract":"Reformed Protestants inherited older biblical and medieval understandings about the difference between civil rule and ecclesiastical authority which fostered a variety of responses to secularization. After the Reformation, Calvinists worked from received categories even as they adapted to a diverse set of political circumstances, sometimes being a persecuted minority, sometimes having unrestrained access to municipal governments, and sometimes disappointed with monarchs who promised more than they gave. Once the political revolutions of the eighteenth century upended the prevailing Constantinian pattern of ecclesiastical establishment (whether Roman Catholic or Protestant), Calvinists made even further adjustments to the sacred–secular distinction. Those adaptations contribute to ongoing debates about society, the church, and a Christian’s civic responsibilities. No matter how varied Calvinists have been in their responses to secularization, they are no stranger than other Christian communions that also struggle to make sense of Jesus Christ’s assertion that his ‘kingdom is not of this world’.","PeriodicalId":296358,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism","volume":"78 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125556856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-14DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728818.013.39
Adam Mohr
The goal of this chapter is to explain how healing and deliverance practices were instituted in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG). The first half of this chapter examines the PCG’s initial transformation, which was driven by three factors: the decision by the leadership to introduce healing practices into the church, the creation of the Bible Study and Prayer Group to manage the afflicted within congregations, and the influence of two parachurch organizations. The second half of this chapter focuses on Catechist Ebenezer Abboah-Offei, who since 1996 has been leading Grace Presbyterian Church in Akropong, the primary site of healing and deliverance practices within the PCG. With regards to Abboah-Offei, this chapter describes how he came to teach and practise deliverance and the process by which Grace Presbyterian was established. Finally, this chapter describes the various healing and deliverance activities that occur at Grace Presbyterian Church.
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Pub Date : 2021-07-14DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198728818.013.35
Steven M. Harris
This chapter attempts to enter into the ongoing debate over Calvinism’s place in the politics of the American Revolution by considering, in the persons of Phillis Wheatley and Lemuel Haynes, the black Calvinist tradition as generative of a distinctive theo-political imagination. Taking as its focus the thematics of providence and liberty, this chapter argues that black Calvinists in the Revolutionary period possessed a more sober, self-critical outlook on divine providence and a more comprehensive, consistent spirit of liberty than many of their Anglo counterparts. Wheatley and Haynes evidenced a critical patriotism and commended an aspirational vision of nation building that had as its hope the full humanity and equality of all people. Their cautionary theo-politics anticipated future national tensions, the implications of which continue to be felt today.
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