Reformed orthodoxy
"[2] Protestant Reformation Counter-Reformation Aristotelianism Scholasticism Patristics Second scholasticism of the School of Salamanca Lutheran scholasticism during Lutheran orthodoxy Ramism among the Reformed orthodoxy Metaphysical poets in the Church of England The Jesuits against Jansenism Labadists against the Jesuits Pietism against orthodox Lutherans Nadere Reformatie within Dutch Calvinism Richard Hooker against the Ramists Neologists against Lutherans Spinozists against Dutch Calvinists Deists against Anglicanism John Locke against Bishop Stillingfleet In the past, scholars described the theology of Protestant scholastics following John Calvin as more rationalistic and philosophical than the more exegetical biblical theology of John Calvin and other early Reformers.
[9] Counter-Reformation attacks from Roman Catholic writers such as Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine were written in the tradition of scholasticism and needed to be answered in kind.
[10] The early 17th-century Arminian controversy, in which a group known as the Remonstrants argued that predestination to salvation is based on God foreseeing a person's faith, brought about the Synod of Dort, which defined the Reformed doctrine on this matter in greater detail.
[13] Through the influence of refugees from continental Europe such as Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr Vermigli, late 16th century English theology was predominately Reformed in nature, though Arminianism gained dominance after 1700.
The Remonstrants, having been repudiated in the synod of Dort, became an independent movement with their own seminary and dogmatic textbooks, and the Reformed wrote against them with even greater intensity.
[16] Reformed polemics were also directed against the increasingly influential Socinians, who denied the Trinity and other traditional Christian doctrines.
They also, contrary to the Voetians, approved of some degree of governmental involvement in church affairs, were more lax with respect to Sabbath observance, and were in general more moderate polemicists.
[21] The school of Johannes Cocceius differed from the Voetians and the rest of Reformed scholastic theology in teaching on the relationship of the Old and New Testament.
Though Cocceius himself rejected Cartesianism, some of his followers were influenced by it and this led to even more suspicion of the Coccieans on behalf of the rest of the Reformed.
[23] Most Reformed scholastics rejected Amyraut's views, arguing that it was a return to Arminianism because the first decree of election was conditional on faith.
[24] The Swiss Formula consensus Helvetica was written primarily by Johann Heinrich Heidegger with help from Francis Turretin to repudiate Amyraldism.
[27] The Age of Enlightenment brought about greater reliance on reason and less dependence on the authority of authoritative texts such as the Bible,[28] leading to the rise of biblical criticism and natural theology.
[30] Enlightenment thought was even more influential in Germany and England, leading to the rise of deism, biblical criticism, and rationalism at the expense of scholastic modes of thinking.
