The Vocatio in the Leiden Disputations (1597–1631): The Influence of the Arminian Controversy on the Concept of the Divine Call to Salvation

Abstract

This article analyses the development of the concept of the divine call to salvation in Reformed theology as it was taught at Leiden University in the first decades of the seventeenth century. During this crucial period, with the Synod of Dort as a pivotal turn, twelve disputations were defended on the subject.The changes in the order of the disputations and some switches in the terminology are related to the Arminian controversy and the confessional codification of Reformed doctrine at the Synod of Dort.There are differences between the disputations after the synod and the one defended under Arminius, but there are also some more general developments. Apparently, the Arminian controversy shaped the Reformed understanding of the vocatio.