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168 pages

English

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In Christ and the Decree, one of the foremost scholars of Calvinism today expounds the doctrines of Christ and predestination as they were developed by Calvin, Bullinger, Musculus, Vermigli, Beza, Ursinus, Zanchi, Polanus, and Perkins. Muller analyzes the relationship of these two doctrines to each other and to the soteriological structure of the system.Back by demand, this seminal work on the relationship between Calvin and the Calvinists is once again available with a new contextualizing preface by the author. It offers a succinct introduction to the early development of Calvinism/Reformation thought.

Sujets

Calvinist

Philosophie et théologie

Christian theology

Calvinism

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 septembre 2008
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441239075
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0840€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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© 1986, 2008 by Richard A. Muller
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2012
Ebook corrections 07.23.2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3907-5
For Gloria
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface to the 2008 Printing
Preface to the 1988 Printing
Preface to the 1986 Printing
Abbreviations
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Protestant Orthodoxy: Survey of Opinion
2. Theological and Methodological Considerations
PART I REFORMED THEOLOGY IN ITS FIRST CODIFICATION: The Systems of Calvin, Bullinger, Musculus and Vermigli
II. PREDESTINATION AND CHRISTOLOGY IN THE THOUGHT OF CALVIN
1. Fundamental Distinctions in Calvin’s Theology
2. Calvin’s Doctrine of Predestination
3. Patterns in Calvin’s Christology
4. Christ and Election—The Interrelationship of Two Focal Points in Calvin’s Theology
III. THE SYSTEMS OF CALVIN’S CONTEMPORARIES
1. Predestination and Christology in the Thought of Heinrich Bullinger
2. Musculus’ Loci Communes
3. Vermigli’s Loci Communes
EPILOGUE: Christ and the Decree in the First Codification of Reformed Theology
PART II THE FORMULATION OF ORTHODOX SYSTEM: Reformed Theology in Its Second Codification
Division 1. The Movement Toward Orthodoxy
IV. PREDESTINATION AND CHRISTOLOGY IN THE THOUGHT OF THEODORE BEZA
1. The Tabula Praedestinationis (1555)
2. Beza’s Contribution to the Systematic Structure of Reformed Theology
V. REFORMED THEOLOGY IN HEIDELBERG: ZACHARIAS URSINUS AND JEROME ZANCHI
1. Ursinus on Christ and the Decree
2. Christology and Predestination in the Theology of Zanchi
EPILOGUE: The Movement Toward Orthodoxy
Division 2. The Early Orthodoxy Codification
VI. CALVINISM AT THE CLOSE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: POLANUS AND PERKINS
1. Predestination in the Doctrinal Structure of Early Orthodoxy
2. The Development of Christological Structures in Early Reformed Orthodoxy
3. Predestination and Its Christological Referent in the Theology of Polanus and Perkins
EPILOGUE: The Early Orthodox Codification
VII. CHRIST AND THE DECREE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY ORTHODOXY: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index of Authors
Back Cover
PREFACE TO THE 2008 PRINTING
Our understanding of the relationship of the theology of the Reformers to the thought of later generations of Protestant theologians has altered considerably in the three and a half decades since I began research on the project that led to the publication Christ and the Decree . At that time, it would have been quite impossible to produce a collection of essays by diverse scholars in the field of Reformation studies in which the transition from the Reformation to Protestant orthodoxy would not have been laced with strongly stated dogmatic negatives describing the rise of a rigid biblicism and confessionalism, the problematic nature of scholasticism and Aristotelianism, and the development of predestinarian metaphysics as the central pivot of later Reformed thought. The situation has, however, changed. We have seen the publication of several scholarly symposia and a large number of dissertations, monographs, and articles that have not only taken issue with older models of interpretation but also, arguably, have so convincingly set aside the negative caricatures of Protestant orthodoxy that they persist only among the most historically blinded of dogmaticians.
I am also well aware that my own method and approach to the history of Reformed thought in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has changed—hopefully for the better. If I were to write Christ and the Decree today, it would be a very different book. For one thing, it would have a clearer sense of the pervasive dogmatism of the older scholarship and, instead of couching its arguments in a rather theologized mode, would respond to the dogmatisms in a manner more closely suited to the thought of the sixteenth century: the conclusions of the study would be much the same, but the manner of reaching them would be different.
First, what remains the same: I continue to be convinced that the problem of “Calvin against the Calvinists” not only represents a significant dogmatic distortion of Calvin’s theology and that of later Reformed thinkers, pressing Calvin in a “christocentric” direction and the later thinkers in a “speculative,” “metaphysical” direction, resulting in the creation of a false contrast, but also draws on mistaken assumptions concerning the nature of scholasticism, the continued recourse to basically Aristotelian categories of thought throughout the era, and an exaggerated estimation of Calvin’s impact on the Reformed tradition. Scholasticism rightly understood is primarily a method, indeed, a method susceptible to being followed to dramatically differing results. Of course, as I have consistently indicated, method cannot be entirely separated from content; but the point is that the impact of scholastic method on the content of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theology (as on the content of medieval theology) was not (and methodologically could not have been) the impact that the older scholarship claimed. A similar point needs to be made concerning the Aristotelian fourfold causality. Neither scholastic method nor Aristotelian causality produces some sort of determinism: one could be a scholastic Aristotelian predestinarian, but one could also be, just as easily, a scholastic Aristotelian semi-Pelagian.
I also continue to be convinced that a suitable evaluation of the Reformed theological tradition must set Calvin in the context of his Reformed contemporaries. Notable as formulators are Bullinger, Musculus, and Vermigli, but such writers as Viret, Hyperius, and Laski ought not to be neglected. I recognize that this approach has been regarded by some as a demotion of Calvin; but Calvin ought not to be regarded as the sole founder of the tradition that came to be called, through no connivance of his own, Calvinism. Certain aspects of that Reformed tradition certainly can be credited to Calvin, but the tradition as a whole, as it developed from the early sixteenth century onward, was always broader than Calvin and consistently drew more strongly on other formulators for other major elements of its theology. Bullinger and Musculus were more important than Calvin to the development of covenantal thinking (albeit not so different from Calvin as to be properly identified as the founders of an alternative Reformed tradition). Vermigli was certainly more important to the nuancing of such topics as predestination and free choice. It is also true that reading Calvin’s theology in the context of the thought of his contemporaries—whose work has been less persistently plowed than his and, therefore, less distorted to our view by the dogmatizing tendencies of so much twentieth-century historiography—clarifies the context and framework of meaning within which Calvin’s theology needs to be interpreted.
Second, to note a few specific shifts in my approach: I would not develop my arguments in the form of a comparative dogmatic model. Rather than attempting to match the christocentrism of the second-generation Reformers to the christocentrism of the early orthodoxy, I would identify the issue of christocentrism for what it is—an anachronistic overlay of neo-orthodox dogmatic categories—and set it aside as useless to the discussion. Neither Calvin and his contemporaries nor the later Reformed orthodox understood Christ as the epistemological principium of theology. They agreed that this principium was Scripture. All held that the center and focus of the work of salvation was Christ. The problem of so much of the older scholarship was that it read Calvin’s theology in a neo-orthodox manner and refused to extend this dubious honor to the writers of the seventeenth century. And, of course, since no one understood Christ as the epistemological foundation of theology, no one ever thought to replace Christ with predestination—as if an eternal divine decree often identified with the secret or hidden will of God could have been an epistemological foundation!
I would also take a rather different approach to the issue of the varied orders of argumentation and varied juxtapositions of doctrinal topics found in the theological compendia of the Reformers and their orthodox-era successors. I am more convinced than ever that, barring rather different definitions of doctrine, such differences in order and arrangement have more to do with the literary genres of works examined than with any implied theological messages. Much of the modern discussion of the theological implications of the “structure” of older theological works serves as an excuse to ignore the genres of the works in question, their actual theological content, and the historical context in which the works arose. Just as Calvin’s placement of predestination in book three of the Institutes does not render his theology less predestinarian and more christological, so does the placement of predestination in close relation to the doctrine of God in Amandus Polanus’ Syntagma theologiae not render his theology more predestinarian and less christological.
The approach found in my Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics volumes consciously incorporates materials from the exegetical and homiletical trajectories of Reformed thought, examines more of the philosophical background, and worries through contextual issues of the confessionalization or instutitional