Theological Polemics Research Articles

A Conflict of Associations: The National Camp-Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness Versus the Methodist Episcopal Church

Hiram Mattison was fighting mad. Some of the holiness people in the Methodist Episcopal church had pulled a fast one. Early in 1867 the New York Preachers' Meeting had hosted a series of speeches on the question, “What are the best methods for promoting the experience of perfect love?” The discussion had been, in the words of one participant, “lengthy and pungent.” Mattison, a seminary professor and long-time opponent of the holiness movement, had weighed in with his professional theological polemics against the movement's doctrine and methods of promotion. He had expected that all the speeches would be published in a single volume. But the proponents of perfect love surreptitiously had withdrawn their manuscripts from the Methodist book room and had them published and copyrighted on their own. The original plan to publish a two-sided debate had been thus defeated, and the advocates of perfect love had scooped their opposition. What a move for people who professed to have attained Christian perfection, said Mattison. It must have paid well, he added, for three editions had been issued in just a few weeks.

Petrus Alfonsi and His Medieval Readers.

Petrus Alfonsi was an important figure in the 12th-century renaissance, whose interests embraced polemical theology, astronomy and literature. In this text, Tolan presents an introduction to Alfonsi's thought and its importance to the Middle Ages.

The theology of John Fisher (review)

Reviews 235 Rex, Richard, 77^ theology of John Fisher, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xii, 293; R.R.P. AUS$99.00. Richard Rex remarks that the theology of Thomas More has attracted more attention than that of Johnfisher,even though, in any professional assessment, the latter's claims are much greater. Justiy or not the appeal of More's other writings has carried over to this department. With this erudite work on Fisher's theology, Rex aims to make up some of the leeway. He wants in particular to determine how Fisher related to the theological tradition, especially scholasticism, and to the theological expressions of humanism. He agrees that for the classical literature itself Fisher had no enthusiasm. The book begins with a background chapter on 'Humanism and scholasticism in late-fifteenth-century Cambridge', in which Rex shows that the supposed conflict between scholastics and humanists was not found at Cambridge, though his broader statement seems at once sweeping and indeterminate: 'The decisive break with scholasticism in EngUsh as in European universities came, if it came at all, not with the advent of humanism but with that of the Reformation' (p. 14). The dominant school was via antique (Thomas and Scotus), and that certainly distinguished Cambridge from the many European universities where the via moderna was in ascendant. In turning to Fisher himself, Rex gives pride of place to the 'preaching bishop' (ch. 2). It is true of Fisher as of other sixteenth-centuryfiguresthat, in posterity's eyes, the pastor has sometimes been lost in the polemicist, a fate for which their own penchant for polemical theology or thetenorof the times must share the responsibility. The prominence given to Fisher's relation to Christian humanism (ch. 3) is related to Rex's whole judgement of Fisher and his role; namely, that he belonged to a reformed circle. His friendship with Erasmus was important but so also was his contact with Reuchlin because Hebrew studies, to which Fisher came late, were driven by fascination with the Cabbala. There follow chapters on Fisher's controversy with Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples over Mary Magdalene and his far more serious encounters with Martin Luther, in which, as Rex shows, he was the centre of a controversial network prefiguring much in the Counter Reformation and its polemical effort. More than his contemporary Catholic controversialists on the continent, Fisher understood where Luther's foundations lay: solafidesand sola scriptura. Four chapters deal with the theological issues: authority, justification, the eucharist and scripture, as he understood them. Most interesting for a brief comment is the chapter on 'Faith, grace and justification', because it measures Fisher against a major opponent on a central issue. Rex rebuts the notion that Fisher was a Semipelagian and places him, like Luther, within the late-medieval Augustinian stream. He recognizes 236 Reviews common ground between Fisher and Luther, although he is plainly not sympathetic to the ecumenical dialogue which has been reconciling the Catholic and Lutheran doctrines of justification (see p. 114). His treatment of Luther is not wholly satisfying. However, this is testimony to the difficulties of this kind of work, when the writing on individual figures is so specialized, complex, and vast. I would have liked more nuances in some places, for example in the first sentence of chapter 8: 'John Fisher's theology of justification, unlike that of Luther and the reformers, left room for the sacraments to play an active part in the Christian life'. The last controversy dealt with here is one which in the end cost Fisher his life: that over Henry VIII's divorce. Rex's assessment over aU is against the stereotype of Fisher as a die-hard conservative. He embraced Biblical and patristic humanism. He was a genuine friend of Erasmus. He believed in the vernacular Bible. Bruce E. Mansfield Department of History University of Sydney Sacks, David H., The widening gate: Bristol and the Atlantic economy 14501700 , Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford, University of Catifornia Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xxvii, 464; 6 illustrations; 30 tables; R.R.P. US$45.00 Surviving records of the past can be organized in different ways to produce alternative but often interlocking perspectives of the...

Luther on Thomas Aquinas: The Angelic Doctor in the Thought of the Reformer by Denis R. Janz

BOOK REVIEWS 145 Luther on Thomas Aquinas: The Angelic Doctor in the Thought of the Reformer. By DENIS R. JANZ. Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fiir Europiiische Geschichte Mainz, Abt. Religionsgeschichte, Bd. 140. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1989. Pp. ii + 124. DM 38 {cloth). As Denis Janz, specialist in the late medieval context of Luther's thought (Luther and Late Medieval Thomism, 1983), points out in the "Prospectus," a study of Luther's understanding of Thomas has an inherent appeal, for, " rightly or wrongly, Thomas and Luther are inevitably regarded as the standard-bearers of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism" {p. 1). The recent completion of the necessary critical indices has made the task possible, and the result is a fine and necessary contribution to the work of all scholars interested in the thought of these two pivotal Christian thinkers. The method of Janz is straightforward: assemble the references to Thomas in Luther's works, organize them into appropriate categories, exegete their meanings, and discern important tendencies or perspectives common to these texts. Then "the accuracy of Luther's understanding and the cogency of his critique " can be evaluated from the perspective of twentieth cenrtury historical knowledge {p. 2). Janz recognizes that there are significant hermeneutical difficulties inherent in such a study and that any evaluation " may well imply a notion of history as progress, perhaps even a confidence in the intellectual superiority of modernity over the past " (p. 3) . The result bears out the soundness of his approach. Chapter I examines "Luther on the Person of Thomas." Luther, sharing in and contributing to his time's distinctive theological polemic, had no shortage of epithets for Thomas, from " Sophist " to " beggarly paunch " {p. 4) . The remarkable thing is the surprising number of complimentary things he has to say. At different times of his career Luther referred to Thomas as " this holy man " or " a man of ' great genius ' . . . woefully misunderstood " {p. 5) . A most interesting example is the different uses he makes of a story of Thomas's struggle with despair when near death, when Thomas faced his Anfechtung by holding the Bible and saying "I believe what is in this book" (p. 8). Sometimes Luther cites it as an example of the weakness of implicit faith; but other times he makes no critical comment on Thomas, and the story implies the victory of faith over despair. These different uses show the ambiguity of Luther's attitude toward Thomas as a person, and what in balance seems to be " grudging respect " for an " example of how great persons can at the same time be seriously mistaken " (p. 10). 146 BOOK REVIEWS Chapter U, which comprises the bulk of the hook, carefully examines the substantive issues on which Luther mentions and responds to Thomas: experience, the use of Aristotle, Scripture, penance and indulgences , the Lord's Supper, monasticism, justification, law, baptism, angels, papal authority, purgatory, and the veneration of images. On some of these issues Janz sees only a minor critique of Thomas by Luther and sometimes little real difference between their positions. Both Luther and Thomas give primacy to the literal sense of Scripture, and "both teach that the Church and theology stand under the authority of Scripture" (p. 30). On this question Luther's critique has more to do with the Thomists than Thomas. In regard to penance and indulgences Luther criticizes Thomas's view, though here again there is distortion of Thomas by the Thomists, which Luther correctly suspects (pp. 44-45) . Though Luther disagrees with Thomas's understanding of the Lord's Supper, he feels Thomas was entitled to his opinion; what he cannot bear is how Thomas has been raised " to the level of an infallible teacher," with his opinions transformed "into articles of faith" (p. 48). Justification, the heart of Luther's thought, is "a relatively insignificant issue " in his critique of Thomas, as Luther eventually comes to understand better the key place Thomas gave grace (pp. 60, 61) . Luther sees Christ as the " abrogation " of the law and criticizes Thomas for not seeing it this way; however, this is a linguistic misunderstanding of Thomas, probably based on Gabriel Bicl's teaching, so that Thomas and Luther are...

The Gospel According to Roberto: A Theological Polemic

The Gospel According to Roberto: A Theological Polemic

The Origins of Sir Edward Dering's Attack on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, c. 1625–1640

Kevin Sharpe has recently offered a new interpretation of English politics and government in the 1630s in which he seeks to assess the events of the decade as they might have seemed to contemporaries, rather than to use them as a vehicle to explain the events of the Long Parliament and the subsequent outbreak of civil war. Without questioning the validity of such an exercise, it may none the less be observed that the picture of the 1630s which results does raise the question of how the mood of the Long Parliament in its early stages is to be explained. Sharpe characterizes the 1630s as a period of ‘calm and peace’ in which, though tensions and grievances existed, in particular as a consequence of Charles's religious policies, they ‘neither stymied government nor threatened revolt’. If politics and government operated so smoothly during the 1630s, why were such extensive and radical demands for reform in church and state put forward when the Long Parliament met in November 1640? Was the critical attitude of so many members of the political nation in that November merely the product of short-term factors, such as Charles's use of force to impose a new prayer book in Scotland, or even of political opportunism, or was it a reflexion of grievances which had earlier lain beneath the political surface? This paper seeks to investigate the question of how far the attitude of 1640 was rooted in the experiences of the previous decade in one particular aspect: the career of Sir Edward Dering, with special reference to his position with regard to religion and the church. Dering's career is an appropriate object for a study of this kind because it is illuminated by an unusual variety of sources; this makes it possible to compare Dering's political actions with his ideological position as implied by documents which remained private. Apart from the well-known published Long Parliament speeches and a substantial collection of family papers (embracing both correspondence and documents arising from the offices which Dering held) and apart from the evidence of Dering's antiquarian and historical interests, there survive two published works of polemical theology (together with partial drafts for others), and a number of personal memorandum books.

King James I and the protestant cause in the crisis of 1618–22

In the early seventeenth century, when Europe was divided along religious lines and works of polemical theology circulated widely, most Englishmen seem to have been convinced that their nation was part of a protestant community of nations with certain common interests. This attitude had its roots in the recent past, when the government of queen Elizabeth had aided—albeit adroitly—the Dutch and French Calvinists and had maintained close relations with several protestant states, particularly in the Rhineland. When the ‘Invincible Armada’ from Spain had been thwarted in its intended object, the English were thankful to Providence for the events which had preserved protestantism on the island. The common cause among protestant states thus came to be thought of, by statesmen and ordinary citizens alike, as an effort to safeguard the political autonomy of the protestant states, particularly against the great Hapsburg monarchy in Spain and Austria, and to preserve the protestant faith against the revived Roman Catholicism of the counter-reformation. Religion and national identity were so closely linked that English ‘papists’ had constantly to struggle against a suspicion that they were unpatriotic or disloyal.

Perfection in the Virtuous Life. A Study in the Relationship between Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa's De Vita Moysis. By Ronald E. Heine. Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Patristic Foundation Ltd., 1975. Pp. 247.

Perfection in the Virtuous Life. A Study in the Relationship between Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa's De Vita Moysis. By Ronald E. Heine. Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Patristic Foundation Ltd., 1975. Pp. 247. - Volume 33 Issue 5

Michael Sage. Cyprian. Pp. vi + 439. Ronald E. Heine. Perfection in the Virtuous Life (a study in the Relationship between Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa's De Vita Moysis). Pp. iv + 247. Robert C. Gregg. Consolation Philosophy (Greek and Christian Paideia in Basil and the Two Gregories). Pp. v + 285. (Vols. 1–3 of Patristic Monograph

Michael Sage. Cyprian. Pp. vi + 439. Ronald E. Heine. <i>Perfection in the Virtuous Life</i> (a study in the Relationship between Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa's <i>De Vita Moysis</i>). Pp. iv + 247. Robert C. Gregg. <i>Consolation Philosophy</i> (Greek and Christian <i>Paideia</i> in Basil and the Two Gregories). Pp. v + 285. (Vols. 1–3 of Patristic Monograph

Michael M. Sage, Cyprian; Ronald E. Hine, Perfection in the virtuous Life. A Study in the Relationship betvveen Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa's De vita Moysis; Robert C. Gregg, Consolation Philosophy. Greek and Christian Paideia in Basil and the Two Gregories

Michael M. Sage, Cyprian; Ronald E. Hine, Perfection in the virtuous Life. A Study in the Relationship betvveen Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa's De vita Moysis; Robert C. Gregg, Consolation Philosophy. Greek and Christian Paideia in Basil and the Two Gregories

Anabaptism and the Reformation: Another Look

It has by and large been characteristic of the current resurgence of Anabaptist studies to understand the Anabaptist movement as an integral part of the Reformation. Thus the two terms presently used to designate the framework of the radical dissent of the 16th century— Roland H. Bainton's now classic “Left Wing” and, more recently, George H. Williams' “Radical Reformation”—suggest a positive relationship with the mainstream Reformation. There is widespread consensus among scholars, particularly in America, that Anabaptism concurred with the Reformation on the major points of Protestant doctrine and dissented merely on secondary issues, such as baptism, the church, or political authority, around which centered indeed most of the theological polemics between the Anabaptists and the Reformers.

Jonathan Edwards on the Sense of the Heart

The reputation of Jonathan Edwards, impressive though it is, rests upon only a fragmentary representation of the range or profundity of his thinking. Harassed by events and controversies, he was forced repeatedly to put aside his real work and to expend his energies in turning out sermons, defenses of the Great Awakening, or theological polemics. Only two of his published books (and those the shortest), The Nature of True Virtue and The End for which God Created the World, were not ad hoc productions. Even The Freedom of the Will is primarily a dispute, aimed at silencing the enemy rather than expounding a philosophy. He died with his Summa still a mass of notes in a bundle of home-made folios, the handwriting barely legible. The conventional estimate that Edwards was America's greatest metaphysical genius is a tribute to his youthful Notes on the Mind — which were a crude forecast of the system at which he labored for the rest of his days — and to a few incidental flashes that illumine his forensic argumentations. The American mind is immeasurably the poorer that he was not permitted to bring into order his accumulated meditations.

Summary of Objections to Premillenarianism

The Protestant churches of the United States are facing a crisis in religion. On the one side is the continuation of the historical development of our faith, as organized by the centuries of Christian thought and experience. On the other side is the reappearance, with the aid of a heavily financed propaganda, of doctrines which are neither true to the facts of human life, to the great confessions of the churches, nor to the spirit of revelation. We do not question the sincerity or the moral earnestness of those who favor this revival of chiliasm. Many of its advocates are successful evangelists, possessed of real piety. This is, however, not a matter of merely theological difference between the so-called orthodox and liberal. It is radical distinction between two conceptions of the nature and central beliefs of the Christian religion. We continue the discussion, not for the purpose of theological polemic, but in order to assure an intelligent understanding of the points at issue and the dangers with which this propaganda threatens the church. The one view of Christianity extends the principles of our religion into the great processes of human thought and social transformation. The other would make, to quote one of its formulas, "all human schemes of reconstruction . . . . subsidiary to the second coming of our Lord, because all nations will then be subject to his rule."