Jacob Arminius’ Conflicts and the Preface to the “Declaration of Sentiments”: A Biographical and Translator’s Introduction

Abstract

Already during his lifetime, a Dutch Protestant theologian Jacob Arminius, the founder of Arminianism, was embroiled in a fierce theological discussion which later turned into the famous Arminian-Calvinist controversy. However, the initial debate was more than a disagreement over a few purely theological matters. The article argues that the Arminius affair of 1592-1609 was a multidimensional issue: the theological element overlapped with interconfessional, political, ecclesial-political, and probably interpersonal layers. In brief, Arminius’ conflicts were both theological and social.These observations serve as a biographical introduction to the first portion (the so-called “Preface”) of the first academic Russian translation of Arminius’ Declaration of Sentiments. They help to clarify the background for the Preface and see the figure of Jacob Arminius historically.