""Arminianism" was the subject of important theological controversies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it remains an important position within Protestant thought. What became known as "Arminian" theology was held by people across a swath of geographical and ecclesial positions; it developed in European, British, and American contexts, and it engaged with a wide range of intellectual challenges. While standing together in their common rejection of several key planks of Reformed theology, proponents of Arminianism took various positions on other matters. Some were broadly committed to catholic and creedal theology; others were more open to theological revision. Some were concerned primarily with practical concerns; others were engaged in system-building as they sought to articulate and defend an over-arching vision of God and the world. The story of this development is both complex and important for a proper understanding of the history of Protestant theology. However, this historical development of Arminian theology is not well known. In this book, Thomas H. McCall and Keith D. Stanglin offer a historical introduction to Arminian theology as it developed in modern thought, providing an account that is based upon important primary sources and recent secondary research that will be helpful to scholars of ecclesial history and modern thought as well as comprehensible and relevant for students"--

A definitive biography of the intriguing and controversial Dutch thinker of the late sixteenth - early seventeenth centuries. Not merely a biography in the traditional sense, the book involves much intellectual history as well as a short history of Amsterdam.

Although scholarship has treated, on the one hand, some aspects of Jacobus Arminius’s theology, and on the other hand, the doctrine of assurance in the Reformed theologians of early Protestant orthodoxy, nevertheless proper attention has not yet been given to the intersection of these topics: Arminius’s doctrine of assurance. With special attention to previously neglected primary sources, this book offers stimulating insights into the academic context of Arminius, and, along with a comparative analysis of his colleagues at Leiden University, explores new horizons in his doctrines of salvation and assurance. Arminius’s search for true assurance of salvation emerges as a decisive factor in his famous dissent from Reformed theology.

Jacobus Arminius (1559-1609) composed 61 public disputations during his brief tenure as professor of theology at Leiden University, 36 of which have never before been collected and published, and have been neglected by scholars for four centuries. This critical edition supplements the works of Arminius by presenting these texts in the original Latin, complete with notes and summaries in English. The texts are preceded by a helpful introduction to the genre of theological disputations. In addition, the question of disputation authorship is treated exhaustively for the first time, demonstrating Arminius's primary authorship of these documents.

Richard A. Muller, P. J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary --

Arminius the Liberator deals with the complex modern reception of Arminius the Cheruscan, commonly called Hermann. Arminius inflicted one of their most devastating defeats on the Romans in the year 9 A.D. by annihilating three legions under the command of Quintilius Varus in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, as it is generally if inaccurately called. This book traces the origin of the Arminius myth in antiquity and its political, artistic, and popular developments since the nineteenth century. The book's central themes are the nationalist use and abuse of history and historical myth in Germany, especially during the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, the reactions to a discredited ideology involving Arminius in post-war Europe, and revivals of his myth in the United States. Special emphasis is on the representation of Arminius in visual media since the 1960s: from painting and theater to cinema, television, and computer animation.

19 October 2009 marked the 400th anniversary of the death of Jacobus Arminius in Leiden. He was esteemed for the way in which he sought a via media between strict Calvinism and a more humanistic variant of Christian belief. However, because of his deviation from mainstream Calvinism, he has also been violently attacked. Was he a pioneer, who enriched the Reformed tradition by opening it towards new horizons, or a heretic, who founded a new tradition, as an alternative to Reformed theology? The day of the death of this remarkable theologian was commemorated with a conference at Leiden University on Arminius, Aminianism, and Europe (9 and 10 October 2009). The main contributions to that conference are collected in this book. The first part contains some essays on the thinking of Arminius himself: the structure of his theology, his relation to Augustine, and to Rome. The second part deals with Arminianism. Was it influenced by Socinianism, as its opponents often claimed? How was it received in Europe: in Germany, Switzerland (Geneva), England, and Ireland? How far did Arminianism prepare the way for the ideals of the Enlightenment, which made its entry later on in the seventeenth century? An extensive iconography of Jacobus Arminius and an annotated bibliography of all his known writings complete, in the third part, this volume.

On October 30, 1608, Jacobus Arminius presented his Declaration of Sentiments to the Assembly of the States of Holland and West Friesland in the Binnenhof at The Hague. First, Arminius sought to defend himself and his theological views from the spirited attacks of opponents such as Gomarus, Lubbertus, and Plancius. Second, Arminius hoped to bring to light the wrongdoings of the European church and its extremist understanding of certain Christian doctrines. Having trained in Geneva under Jean Calvin's successor, Theodore Beza (1519-1605), and having further expanded and honed his theology at the University of Leyden from both lectern and the pulpit, Arminius thoroughly presented his theological views in both oral and written form. He spoke in his native Dutch language to an assembly of his peers and religious authorities with the hopes of avoiding a theological rift in Holland--while at the same time hoping to remove a long-standing conflict with the Supralapsarian faction warring against him. Thus, Arminius' Declaration of Sentiments is a sophisticated, passionate appeal to reason, scripture, and community. With each section, Arminius seeks not only to demonstrate the error of the attacks on him, but also to point out how and why reconciliation can take place through a careful examination of various precepts of Christian thought.