Loganbaxter15
Puritan Board Freshman
First post, please deal graciously with me!
For a brief context, I have recently finished reading Volume I - Prolegomena - of Richard A Muller's PRRD.
One of the key arguments in the book is the presentation of protestant scholasticism not as an ideological position but rather as a methodology; distinct from, but in continuity with the lines of trajectory established by medieval catholic scholasticism.
Muller makes a strong case that the protestant scholastic method was employed not only by the codifiers of the reformation but also by the magisterial reformers themselves.
Reformed theologians of the Reformation and Post-Reformation epochs have at times been labeled as "scholastic" if the earmarks of the scholastic method are employed in their writings (Turretin Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Melancthon Loci Communes, Johannes Maccovius Distinctiones et regulae theologicae ac philosophicae, etc.).
Long story short...
I am wondering if there is a category/ label for theologians during this period who did not utilize the scholastic method in their writings.
In his edifying piece On the Character of a True Theologian, Herman Witsius (1636-1708) quotes William Twisse (1578-1646) who contrasts the two methods by observing that of Johannes Piscator (1546-1625) with the apparent protestant scholasticism of his day :
" 'As if the Father of mercies had wished to exhibit in this very age, so inquisitive in its character, and too desirous of confounding secular with sacred learning, a specimen of the proficiency we might reach in an exact and scientific knowledge of the things conducive to salvation, merely through the reading of the Holy Scriptures, assiduous meditation, and careful study, and in exclusion of the whole tribe of Summists, Sententiaries, and Schoolmen.'
Such were the feelings, such the judgment, of that mighty champion regarding the method of study we recommend" On the Character of a True Theologian pp.33.
So, is there a name for this approach as contrasted by scholasticism?
My primary interest is the name of this category for further research.
Thank you for your time!
For a brief context, I have recently finished reading Volume I - Prolegomena - of Richard A Muller's PRRD.
One of the key arguments in the book is the presentation of protestant scholasticism not as an ideological position but rather as a methodology; distinct from, but in continuity with the lines of trajectory established by medieval catholic scholasticism.
Muller makes a strong case that the protestant scholastic method was employed not only by the codifiers of the reformation but also by the magisterial reformers themselves.
Reformed theologians of the Reformation and Post-Reformation epochs have at times been labeled as "scholastic" if the earmarks of the scholastic method are employed in their writings (Turretin Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Melancthon Loci Communes, Johannes Maccovius Distinctiones et regulae theologicae ac philosophicae, etc.).
Long story short...
I am wondering if there is a category/ label for theologians during this period who did not utilize the scholastic method in their writings.
In his edifying piece On the Character of a True Theologian, Herman Witsius (1636-1708) quotes William Twisse (1578-1646) who contrasts the two methods by observing that of Johannes Piscator (1546-1625) with the apparent protestant scholasticism of his day :
" 'As if the Father of mercies had wished to exhibit in this very age, so inquisitive in its character, and too desirous of confounding secular with sacred learning, a specimen of the proficiency we might reach in an exact and scientific knowledge of the things conducive to salvation, merely through the reading of the Holy Scriptures, assiduous meditation, and careful study, and in exclusion of the whole tribe of Summists, Sententiaries, and Schoolmen.'
Such were the feelings, such the judgment, of that mighty champion regarding the method of study we recommend" On the Character of a True Theologian pp.33.
So, is there a name for this approach as contrasted by scholasticism?
My primary interest is the name of this category for further research.
Thank you for your time!