This volume looks at theological debates among the English Puritans in the seventeenth century.

By their very nature, traditions are diverse. This is particularly the case with theological traditions, even including those cases where they have been named for a single individual (e.g. Augustinianism, Thomism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism). In the eras of the Reformation and of Reformed orthodoxy there was intense theological debate, leading to confessional identity and confessional boundaries; hence the Remonstrant controversy in the early seventeenth century. What the essays of this volume look at, however, are the debates that took place within the Reformed theological tradition, particularly within Puritan England. Some of the debates considered here threatened to rise to a confessional level whereas others were not so serious insofar as they did not press on confessional boundaries. The Puritan tradition surveyed in these essays looks at both major and minor intra-Reformed debates. Most of these debates analyzed have been passed over in the older scholarship in its quest to find the few true Calvinians to oppose to the so-called Calvinists. By contrast, none of the studies included in the present volume brands one side of a seventeenth-century debate as un-Calvinian or identifies an alteration of doctrinal perspective as a declension from Reformation-era purity. Calvin no longer appears as a norm, although he does appear, with other Reformers, as an antecedent of certain lines of argument. Lastly, the essays document the ongoing concern among Reformed theologians to further the Reformation cause. In this pursuit, Reformed theologians, as they did during the time of the Reformation theologians, often found themselves disagreeing on a number of theological doctrines.

Autorentext

John V. Fesko ist Dekan und Associate Professor für Systematische und Historische Theologie am Westminster Seminary California in Escondido/Kalifornien. Dr. Carl R. Trueman ist Professor for Biblical and Religious Studies at the Grove City College. Alan D. Strange is Professor of Church History at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. Robert J. McKelvey ist Lehrbeauftragter für Historische und Praktische Theologie am John Wycliffe Theological College in Randburg / in Zusammenarbeit mit der North West University in Südafrika. Mark Herzer is Pastor of the Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church in Warminster, PA, USA. Dr. Joel R. Beeke, PhD is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids. Richard A. Muller is P. J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology Emeritus and is Senior Fellow of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. theol. Michael Haykin is Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mark Jones, PhD, ist Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Theologischen Fakultät der University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Südafrika.

Leseprobe
Reformed theologians have often found themselves disagreeing on a number of theological doctrines. In the eras of the Reformation and of Reformed orthodoxy there was intense theological debate, leading to confessional identity and confessional boundaries; hence the Remonstrant controversy in the early seventeenth century. This volume looks at the debates that took place within the Reformed theological tradition, particularly within Puritan England.