Paul Helm on Medieval Scholasticism

Berkouwer and Pinnock embraced deterministic Calvinism when they were young theologians. However, later on they started to revolt against the ‘Calvinism’ of their youth and Dort. Paul Helm never joined or affirmed this uprising. It is not that I revolt against Dort, but I defend that Reformed schola...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of reformed theology
Main Author: Vos, Antonie 1944- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2014
In: Journal of reformed theology
IxTheo Classification:FA Theology
KAC Church history 500-1500; Middle Ages
KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance
KDD Protestant Church
Further subjects:B Historical Theology Reformed medieval scholasticism
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Berkouwer and Pinnock embraced deterministic Calvinism when they were young theologians. However, later on they started to revolt against the ‘Calvinism’ of their youth and Dort. Paul Helm never joined or affirmed this uprising. It is not that I revolt against Dort, but I defend that Reformed scholasticism, including Dort, was never a kind of theological necessitarianism—this in contrast with John Calvin’s theology. Instead, classic Reformed scholasticism offers us a theology of contingency and individuality, of goodness and will, and of freedom and grace. Rediscovering this comforting historical reality is a gift and a joy. Helm argues that he cannot embrace this viewpoint. However, this present contribution demonstrates that he misinterprets the core structure and the medieval foundation of classic Reformed theology and philosophy. It is the latter that form the basis of Reformed systematic theology and the necessity-contingency, the synchrony-diachrony, as the necessity of the consequence-consequent and the secundum compositionem/divisionem distinctions show.
ISSN:1569-7312
Contains:In: Journal of reformed theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15697312-00803003