Spring

Course Description

A study of the theology and methods of Reformed orthodoxy from 1561–1725. Special attention will be given to soteriology.

Course Goals

— Academic Goal:

To understand the rise, nature, and development of Reformed Orthodoxy through the study of primary sources (in English translation) from early orthodoxy through the late orthodox period and to understand that nature of the modern academic discussion concerning Reformed scholasticism.

— Pastoral Goal: To gain a sympathetically critical appreication of an important period in the Reformed tradition.

Requirements

1. Attend all classes, complete all readings, prepare seminar discussion papers, lead and participate in class discussion (50%). After the initial orientation, each class session will be led by a student who shall have prepared a brief (limit 1,000 word) seminar paper analyzing an assigned reading or introducing an assigned author/reading. The seminar leader will be responsible for leading discussion and seminar participants will be expected to interact with the seminar paper intelligently. Participation is essential in a seminar. If you cannot be present for a seminar, you must give the instructor reasonable notice and explanation.
   
   
2. Essay (50%). Limit 3,500 words (approximately 10 pages). Each student shall present and defend his completed paper to the seminar. Each paper must be distributed to each member of the seminar at least 48 hours in advance of presentatio to the seminar.
   
   
3. Penalties: Students who do not meet the class time deadline shall be marked down 1/2 a grade. An essay shall be marked down a full grade for every day it is late for either the seminar or the final deadline.
   
   
4. After reading the paper to the seminar, the student shall revise and resubmit it to the instructor for a final mark. The final draft is due at 10:00 on the last day of class. Send the essay as a Word or Pages (for Mac users) or Open Office document to rsclark at wscal dot edu.

Required Reading (in the order assigned):

The readings are either published or provided online.

Theodore Beza, The Christian Faith, trans. J. Clark (East Sussex: Focus Christian Ministries Trust, 1992) (packet)

A Complete Summary of Christianity

Zacharias Ursinus, A Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism(Phillipsburg: P&R, 1985), 82–116

William Ames, Sketch of the Christian's Catechism, Classic Reformed Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), all.

Johannes Wollebius, Compendium of Christian Theology in J. W. Beardslee, ed. and trans., Reformed Dogmatics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 29–190.

Gisbertus Voetius, Select Theological Disputations in J. W. Beardslee, ed. and trans., Reformed Dogmatics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 262–334

John Owen, Two Short Catechisms

Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, trans. G. M. Giger, ed. J T Dennison, 3 vols (Phillipsburg: P&R, 1992–1997, vol. 2, topics 16–17, pages 633–723.

P. Van Mastricht, A Treatise on Regeneration (Soli Deo Gloria, repr. 2002), all.

Schedule

Date/Hour	Author/Topic	Leader	Topic
Feb 12/1	Orient/Historiography	rsc
Feb 12/2	Historiography	rsc
Feb 19/3	Historiography	rsc
Feb 19/4	Beza Bio/Intro	Purvis	Why Beza the Bad Boy?
Feb 26/5	Beza, Christian Faith	Purvis	de media gratiae
Feb 26/6	Beza, Summa	Hecker	Why predestination should be preached
Mar 5/7	Ursinus, Intro/Bio	____	How/Why did he become Reformed?
Mar 5/8	Ursinus, Commentary/Summa	____	TBD
Mar 12/9	Late Orthodoxy/em>	Dr Klauber	Uses of the law
Mar 12/10	Late Orthodoxy	Dr Klauber	Uses of the law
Mar 19/11	Ames, Bio/Intro	Joshua Moffit	Why Congregationalism?
Mar 19/12	Ames Sketch	Zack Purvis	Sabbath
Mar 26/13	Wollebius, Bio/Intro	Brian Hecker	Bib Studies & Dogmatics
Mar 26/14	Wollebius, Compendium	Brian Hecker	Covenant theology
Apr 9/15	Voetius, Bio/Intro	Kurt Jackson	Precisionism
Apr 9/16	Voetius, Select...	Kurt Jackson	"Practical" Theology
Apr 16/ 17	Owen, Bio/Intro	Joshua Moffit	Civil War
Apr 16/18	Owen, Catechisms	Joshua Moffit	"Piety"
Apr 23/19	Turretin, Bio/Intro	Nick	State and fate of orthodoxy
Apr 23/20	Turretin, Institutes	Nick	TBD
Apr 30/21	Van Mastricht, Bio/Intro	____	Influence and Method
Apr 30/22	Van Mastricht, Treatise	Nick	Regeneration
May 7, 14/23–26	Papers	____

Recommended Reading:

Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics: Illustrated and Set Out From the Sources, ed. E. Bizer, trans. G. T. Thomson (Grand Rapids: Baker, repr. 1978).

Carl R. Trueman and R. S. Clark, eds, Protestant Scholasticism: Essays in Reassessment (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1999).

Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 2nd edition, 4 vol. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002).

—Christ and the Decree: Christology and Predestination in Reformed Theology from Calvin to Perkins (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986).

—After Calvin: Studies in the Development of a Theological Tradition, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

William van Asselt and Eef Dekker, eds, Reformation and Scholasticism: An Ecumenical Enterprise (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001).

Carl Trueman, The Claims of Truth: John Owen’s Trinitarian Theology (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 1998).

—John Owen, Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man.

Sebastian Rehnman, Divine Discourse: The Theological Methodology of John Owen (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002).

Robert D. Preus, The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism, 2 vols (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1970-72 )

W. R. Godfrey, "Tensions within International Calvinism: The Debate on the Atonement at the Synod of Dort, 1618–1619," (Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University, 1974)

Mark E. Dever, Richard Sibbes. Puritanism and Calvinism in Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2000).

R. Scott Clark, A Brief History of Covenant Theology.”

—[with Dr. Joel Beeke], "Ursinus, Oxford and the Westminster Divines," The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century: Essays in Remembrance of the 350th Anniversary of the Publication of the Westminster Confession of Faith, 3 vols, ed. Ligon Duncan (Ross-Shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2003-), 2.1-32.

—ed. and trans., “Classic Covenant Theology”

—"Janus, the Well-Meant Offer of the Gospel and Westminster Theology," in David VanDrunen, ed., The Pattern of Sound Words: A Festschrift for Robert B. Strimple (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2004).

J. E. Platt, Reformed Thought and Protestant Scholasticism (Leiden: Brill, 1982). 

Jeffrey Mallinson, Faith, Reason, and Revelation in Theodore Beza 1519-1605 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Willem J. van Asselt, "The Fundamental Meaning of Theology: Archetypal and Ectypal Theology in Seventeenth-Century Reformed Thought," Westminster Theological Journal 64 (2002): 319–35.

— The Federal Theology of Johannes Cocceius 1603–1669 (Leiden: Brill, 2001).

— "The Theologian's Tool Kit: Johannes Maccovius (1588–1644) and the Development of Reformed Theological Distinctions," Westminster Theological Journal 68 (2006): 23–40.

J. Mark Beach, "The Doctrine of the Pactum Salutis in the Covenant Theology of Herman Witsius," Mid-America Journal of Theology 13 (2002): 101–142.

Contact Information
Email Dr Clark: clark at wscal dot edu
760.480.8474
Office Hours: Wed 10:40 AM-12:40 PM

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