Hyung-myoung Park published the article "Kyo-whoi-sa-eui Jong-whong-ki: Calvin-pha-wa Arminian-pha-eui Shin-hak-sang Jang-ron (The Theological Debates between Calvinism and
Arminianism) in Wahl-cheon, volume 183, in 1938.
Calvinism and
Arminianism have shaped historic sets of theological debates among Protestant Christians.
(36) As a moderate Puritan and an opponent of Laudian
Arminianism, Wilkins may be signalling a deficiency that had worsened as a result of the Laudian statutes received at Oxford in 1636.
The problem with
Arminianism. however, is that it amounts to a subtle or not so subtle form of works righteousness.
Sarna points out that the Awakenings'
Arminianism was more comfortable for Jews than Calvinist predestination (75).
Furthermore, many of those Christians who remained serious about otherwordly salvation had jettisoned the Calvinistic emphasis on predestination (the idea that God has already selected who would be saved or damned regardless of their moral behaviour) in favour of the doctrine (
Arminianism) that they could be saved by good works and upright conduct: they believed they had a hand in their own election or reprobation and therefore rejected the conventional Calvinistic doctrine of humanity as hopelessly immoral.
In Cotton's later telling, Baron "had leavened many of the chief men of the Town with
Arminianism...." Indeed, "in all the great Feasts of the Town, the chiefest Discourse at Table did ordinarily fall upon Arminian Points...." (44) It may thus have been the local context, as much as the national, which Robert Sanderson addressed when he preached at Boston in 1619 that "Of late our English Arminians have got the tricke to fetch in within the compasse of Title of Puritanes, all orthodox Divines that oppose against their Semi-Pelagian subtilties...." (45) The conflating of all English Calvinism with its more urgent sponsors, under the rubric of an imagined "doctrinal puritanism," thus seems to have been under way by the middle of James' reign.
Universalistic
Arminianism reflecting an Asian mission situation
Though orthodox, Vernet assimilated aspects of
Arminianism, Cartesian philosophy, and Anglican moderatism, and arrived at a middle way similar to that of Warburton, with an accent on Christian ethics and practice rather than doctrine.
successfully contends that Wesley's words are best understood at face value; that Wesley was a faithful "Church of England man," especially by virtue of his commitment to the Trinity and the sacraments; and that his covenantal
Arminianism is the key to interpreting him as committed to constitutional monarchy as well as to the doctrine of universal atonement.
Arminius,
Arminianism, and Europe; Jacobus Arminius (1559/60-1609).
(75) Though he showed no inclination toward religious
Arminianism, the Prince adopted a strategy of political
Arminianism during the first eight years of his governance.
The tale of New England Protestantism is convoluted but it may help to remember the three "A"s - Arianism, Antinomianism and
Arminianism. Those were fighting words 250 years ago.
