Predestination, Policy and Polemic: Conflict and Consensus in the English Church from the Reformation to the Civil War

Description

This is a major study of the theology of grace in the English Church between the Reformation and the Civil War. On the basis of a wide reading of both English and continental writings, the author challenges the prevailing view that there was essentially a 'Calvinist' consensus in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Church, and stresses instead an indigenous latitudinarianism of doctrine against which a concerted campaign was conducted in the last decade of the sixteenth century in the controversies which led to the Lambeth Articles. Mr White reviews the impact Arminian ideas had in England, firstly through a detailed exposition of the theology of Arminius, and subsequently by means of a review of the links between the English and Dutch churches as the quarrel between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants reached its climax in the Synod of Dort. Other chapters discuss the place of Hooker in English theology, the impact of Richard Montagu, the ideas of Thomas Jackson, the writings of Neile and Laud on predestination, and the regulation of doctrine in the period of Personal Rule. At all stages the theological debate is related to its political - and often polemical - context, not least in a carefully documented reassessment of the role of the court both in the last years of James' reign and in the early years of the rule of Charles I.

"...White takes the reader through an erudite, understandable, and thorough discussion of the various positions taken on the doctrine of predestination in all of its various nuances. Practically everything you ever wanted to know about predestination as it was discussed, particularly in England, between 1500 and 1640 is illuminated by the author...truly brilliant exposition of a complex theological subkect...His care and thoroughness are breathtaking. His writing is provocative fruitful dialogue. Old theses have been challenged and new discussions will begin. White has stirred the waters and must be reckoned with by anyone seeking to get into the territory of theological discourse during the Tudor and Stuart periods of English history...White's book is a "keeper," and it needs to be consumed and digested." Sixteenth Century Journal "White has given us a pioneering, scholarly, and admirable study of the academic polemics of predestinarianism." American Historical Review "...this is a useful and significant study, one which students of the English Reformed tradition must not take lightly." Sixteenth Century Journal "Peter White's first book, appearing shortly before his retirement, is an important contribution to the writing of English church history for the period it covers." Daniel W. Doerksen, Sixteenth Century News "...historiographically subtle...a fine book that will be a point of departure for future work in this field." Michael G. Finlayson, Journal of Modern History "White has done an impressive work in reading the Latin works of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theologians and in analyzing them." John LaRocca, Church History "This is a landmark study in industrial relations and will be required reading for anyone interested in the causes of strikes in modern industrial societies." Lowell J. Satre, The Historian