Johannes Kuchlinus, the 'Faithful Teacher': His Role in the Arminian Controversy and His Impact as a Theological Interpreter and Educator

Abstract

AbstractJohannes Kuchlinus (1546-1606) was a Reformed pastor in Amsterdam and the founding regent of the theological college at Leiden University. Modern scholarship has overlooked the impact he had during his tenure at the university. Part of his impact has to do with his ability to keep relative peace in the midst of a boiling faculty controversy between Jacobus Arminius and Franciscus Gomarus. His greatest influence, though, is seen in his work as an interpreter and teacher of the Heidelberg Catechism. His first-hand knowledge of the Catechism and one of its authors, Zacharias Ursinus, combined with his prominent position of training pastors, uniquely qualified him as a proponent of the Catechism in the low countries. The disputations on the catechetical topics that he composed for student defenses, a list of which appears at the conclusion of this article, not only comprise a vast wealth of material for further study of this figure who influenced a generation, but also represent another source for the "Leiden theology" during this controversial period.