On February 15, we welcomed Dr. Whitney Gamble for a special convocation lecture as part of our Women in Theology Lecture series. Dr. Gamble lectured on the Westminster Assembly and the Challenges of Antinomianism. You can listen to the entire lecture by clicking here. Below is a description of her lecture:
In 1643, England’s Parliament called the Westminster Assembly to revise the Church of England’s foundational documents in the face of the rise of Arminianism. As the Assembly divines worked for reformation, they discovered that in addition to Arminianism, another dangerous theological threat loomed over London: antinomianism. Antinomianism was more complicated than the denial of the Christian’s obligation to follow the moral law. Antinomians were not merely against law, as their name suggests. In fact, from the Assembly’s perspective, antinomianism represented a grave distortion of the gospel. Assembly members spent the next few years attempting to suppress antinomianism by hotly debating theological issues relating to the teaching, working with Parliament to restrict antinomian ministers, and finally, writing a Confession of Faith that they believed answered every point of antinomian error.
Dr. Whitney Gamble is assistant professor of biblical and theological studies at Providence Christian College. She holds a PhD in theology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, a Master of Theological Studies from Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
