Predestined To Reign

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Follow Crystal McDaniel's vividly retold story as she candidly relates both the good and the bad experiences of her life. She is more than willing to tell the reader of her poor choices, hoping to inspire others to avoid the falls, break their addictions, and leave their destructive cycles behind. She focuses on the narrative of Esther, the everyday girl that God destined for greatness, to elaborate on how God used similar miracles to show her the true way"--

Guido Stucco holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Sait Louis University. He is currently working on a book documenting the developments in the doctrine of predestination, from the Council of Trent to the Jansenist controversy.

Byung Soo Han intends to answer, by investigating the merger of patristic and contemporary sources in the theological method of Amandus Polanus, a significant question concerning the way in which the intellectual and methodological eclecticism of the Reformed was able to establish a coherent "system" of thought capable of defense as not only confessional but also orthodox in its theology and broadly catholic, drawing both on the thought of the Reformers and on the resources of the great tradition of Christian thought that extended back to the church fathers. From a methodological perspective, Polanus's development from the Ramistically-organized doctrinal framework of the early Partitiones, through the increasingly detailed and specialized efforts of the commentaries, disputations, and Symphonia, indicates a fairly clear, concerted effort to build toward a detailed systematic presentation – and in fact, each of these earlier efforts provided as it were building-blocks that would be incorporated into the Syntagma. This constructive labor itself serves to set aside the claim that Polanus based his theology on a deductive principle. The specific focus of the book is on the place and function of backgrounds and sources, traditional and contemporary, with particular emphasis on the place of the church fathers in Reformed orthodoxy. Polanus's patristic work, Symphonia, and its eventual impact on his full systematic work, the Syntagma, provides a singular case, within the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the reformulation of patristic thought in a fully systematized form, suitable for combination with the results of biblical exegesis and contemporary doctrinal argumentation in the formulation of Reformed orthodox theology. This study attempts to assess the claim of catholicity and orthodoxy by Reformed theology, demonstrating the formative function of patristic thought in Polanus's theology. Further, the study illustrates the place of this traditionary exercise within the methodologically eclectic approach followed by Polanus and his contemporaries as they created a theology that drew not only on Scripture and contemporary philosophical assumptions but also on patristic, medieval, Reformation-era, traditionary Aristotelian, Platonic, and Ramist sources. This study, therefore, reappraises the development of Reformed orthodoxy. In Polanus's case, an older scholarship that read his theology as based on central dogmas or as an exercise of rationalism will be set aside in favor of a more nuanced view of his sources and method. Within this larger framework, Polanus's use of the fathers builds on and confirms the Reformers's assumption of catholicity in the face of the detailed polemics of Robert Bellarmine as well as confirming the point that his approach to formulation was traditionary and somewhat eclectic. Finally, the book identifies the theological cohesion of the early orthodox Reformed model, as exemplified by Polanus's thought, especially in its method of drawing together of traditionary materials from varied sources. In short, the book demonstrates the importance of the church fathers to the formulation of a Reformed orthodox and catholic theology in the context of showing, contrary to previous studies of Polanus's thought and contrary to the older stereotypes of "Calvinist" orthodoxy, that Reformed orthodoxy was neither a rigid monolith nor a matter of philosophical speculation but the product of a carefully conceived exercise in the compilation and assessment of biblical and traditionary materials.

A major contribution to Puritan scholarship, 'Puritans and Predestination' presents the first consistent and thorough historical analysis of a key Puritan theological concept - predestination. For almost two centuries prior to 1695, English religious and cultural life endured a period of great upheaval. Dewey Wallace illuminates this complex era by tracing patterns of religious thought that took root in early English Protestantism and by explaining their social, cultural, and ecclesiastical implications. 'Puritans and Predestination' concludes that the differences between Puritan and Anglican theology were often subtle and sometimes nonexistent. Central to Protestant theology was the doctrine of grace - the notion that salvation was a divine gift, a free gift to those who believed. Among the many elements that constituted the doctrine of grace, predestination was the foremost. Wallace believes that shifting attitudes toward and emphases on predestination serve as both a measure of the extent of theological unity and an index of theological change. Among the significant conclusions documented in the course of this study are the importance of the Bucerian order of salvation in the early English Reformation, the anachronistic character of reading sharp differences in outlook between Puritan and Anglican, and the centrality of the piety and theology of grace in Puritanism. Wallace also explores the radically innovative character of the Laudian and Arminian theology, the inroads of rationalistic moralism into theology by the middle of the seventeenth century, and the emergence among later Stuart Dissenters of an evangelical pietism prefiguring the religion of the awakenings. This book will be indispensable to those interested in Puritanism and the theology of the Church of England.

A major contribution to Puritan scholarship, 'Puritans and Predestination' presents the first consistent and thorough historical analysis of a key Puritan theological concept - predestination. For almost two centuries prior to 1695, English religious and cultural life endured a period of great upheaval. Dewey Wallace illuminates this complex era by tracing patterns of religious thought that took root in early English Protestantism and by explaining their social, cultural, and ecclesiastical implications. 'Puritans and Predestination' concludes that the differences between Puritan and Anglican theology were often subtle and sometimes nonexistent. Central to Protestant theology was the doctrine of grace - the notion that salvation was a divine gift, a free gift to those who believed. Among the many elements that constituted the doctrine of grace, predestination was the foremost. Wallace believes that shifting attitudes toward and emphases on predestination serve as both a measure of the extent of theological unity and an index of theological change. Among the significant conclusions documented in the course of this study are the importance of the Bucerian order of salvation in the early English Reformation, the anachronistic character of reading sharp differences in outlook between Puritan and Anglican, and the centrality of the piety and theology of grace in Puritanism. Wallace also explores the radically innovative character of the Laudian and Arminian theology, the inroads of rationalistic moralism into theology by the middle of the seventeenth century, and the emergence among later Stuart Dissenters of an evangelical pietism prefiguring the religion of the awakenings. This book will be indispensable to those interested in Puritanism and the theology of the Church of England.

This work is a serious study on the doctrine of predestination as it refers to man’s salvation or reprobation by God’s eternal decree. Perkins teaches from the Bible that the doctrine of predestination and God’s grace is to be founded on the written Word of God, and not on the judgments of men. He also emphatically shows, by a multitude of examples, that this doctrine also agrees with the grounds of common logic and reason as it should. His purpose is to help, almost exhaustively, those who are “stuck on the difficulties of the doctrine of predestination.” This is a classic puritan work, glorifying the sovereign Creator of heaven and earth, and worthy of deep consideration by every professing Christian. This is not a scan or a facsimile, but a newly typeset work updated and made easily readable, with an active table of contents.