Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The doctrine of predestination is commonly regarded as the normative dogma of Reformed or Calvinistic theology —but the contemporary demand for Christocentric theology is held to prove that this norm is not fully Christian. The impressive critical analysis of Karl Barth, for example, shows the Reformed doctrine of predestination, especially as it is worked out in the centuries following the Reformation, to be reduced to ‘double predestination’. This unscriptural teaching, Barth argues, derives from the misplacement of the doctrine in Reformed theology, since its proper position (Stellung) in dogmatics is in the context of Christology, and ‘not directly following the doctrine of God’.
page 255 note 1 Die Kirchliche Dogmatik, II/2.7—cf. p. 16Google Scholar: Praedestination heisst in Luthers De servo arbitrio, in Zwinglis De providentia, in den Schriften Calvins unzweideutig doppelts Praedestination: doppelt, in dem Sinn, dass Erwählung und Verwerfung jetzt als beiden Species des durch ‘Praedestination’ bezeichneten Genus verstanden werden.
page 255 note 2 ibid., p. 83.
page 255 note 3 op. cit., p. 90.
page 256 note 1 Commentaria in Epist. S. Pauli ad Romanos, 2 tom.,—Basil. 1558; (fol. Tiguri, 1559; E.T. ‘by H.B.’, London, 1568).
page 256 note 2 The debate involved the Lutheran doctrine of the ubiquity of the body of Christ as necessary to a proper doctrine of the sacraments, and the Reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as necessary to a proper doctrine of predestination. There is a deep truth contained in each, although perhaps we should ask ourselves whether Martin Bucer was not correct in thinking he could hold both Lutheran and Reformed together in his own faith and doctrine.
page 257 note 1 Cf. Burnet's, History of the Reformation of the Church of England, London, 1681, Vol. II, App. II.8Google Scholar, for text of Cranmer's statement.
page 257 note 2 Letter to Cranmer—Epistolae et Responsae Calvini, 127.
page 257 note 3 True Partakind, etc.— Tracts, II, p. 535, Calvin Trans. Soc.
page 257 note 4 De Votis Monasticis, Basil., 1559, 1424D.
page 257 note 5 From Strassburg, 9th May (1553?)—Loci Comm., Epist.
page 257 note 6 Original Letters, 1537–1558 (2), Parker Society, 1847, p. 506.
page 259 note 1 He elsewhere qualifies this by rejecting the doctrine of irresistible grace— Comm. in Iudicum 9.25 (Tig., 1561).
page 259 note 2 Two treatises in his Comm. in Samuelis Proph. lib. duos (Tig., 1564) deal with this question at length: I, 2.26 and II, 16.22: An Deus Sit Author Peccati.
page 260 note 1 In Iud. 9.25; of. in II Sam. 16.22.
page 261 note 1 Cf. particularly his Disputatio et Tractatio of Oxford, 1549, and his Defensio doc. vet. et Apost. de ss. Euch. (against Gardiner)—Tig., 1559.
page 261 note 2 The Treatise is also contained in the Loci, where it is divided into short sections, whose numeration we shall use (III.1.1–58).
page 262 note 1 loc. cit., pp. 16, 47.
page 262 note 2 e.g. Aquinas' Summa Theol., 1.22–23. Huiusmodi autem esl providentia quidem respectu omnium; praedestinatio vero, et reprobatio, el quae ad haec consequuntur, respectu hominum; specialter in ordine ad aeternam salutem. (Quaest. 22—ed. Lond., 1874).
page 265 note 1 Schmidt, C., Peter Martyr Vermigli, Leben und aus. Schriften, Elberfeld, 1858, p. 215Google Scholar—Schmidt's is the only detailed summary of Martyr's life and theology available.
page 266 note 1 Schmidt, op. cit., p. 216.
page 266 note 2 ibid., p. 218.
page 266 note 3 Included in the 1583 edition of the Loci, after Part IV.
page 267 note 1 The material in this paragraph is from Schmidt, op. cit., p. 276.
page 268 note 1 op. cit., p. 278.
page 268 note 2 I have found this document only in Schmidt (pp. 278–81), whose translation may not carry the original sense of Martyr's words, which would be in Latin.
page 270 note 1 This teaching is found especially in his OT Commentaries, and particularly in a Treatise, De Visionibus, in the Comm. in Iud. following 6.22.
page 270 note 2 Comm. in Rom., 8.2.
page 270 note 3 Comm. in I Sam., 16.22.
page 271 note 1 Comm. in I Cor., 1.2.
page 271 note 2 Cf. Commentaries on Romans and I Corinthians.
page 271 note 3 e.g. in a letter to Martyr of 1555, Calvin replied to Martyr's discussion about union with Christ with basic agreement, concluding ‘;we feel the very same on all points’—Epist. et Resp., Ep. 208.