Reformation Final Flashcards
What were the 3 basic goals of the Reformed confessions?
- Provided a framework for Reformed Theology to flourish by standardizing a set of theological beliefs.
- Served as a platform to refute false teaching and respond to controversies.
- Provided a basis for summarizing major doctrinal developments.
- also, ensured that Biblical teaching was handed down from generation to the next.
What are the different views of tradition and Scripture?
Two source: scripture is equal with tradition.
Single source: tradition is subordinate to scripture.
No source: tradition is irrelevant to scripture.
Tradition infinity: scripture is relativized by tradition.
What are the three forms of unity?
The Belgic Confession
The Heidelberg Catechism
The Synod of Dort
What is the Belgic Confession?
It is a defense of the reformed faith amidst a season of persecution in the Netherlands.
King Phillip II of Spain was persecuting Protestants.
Guido De Bres sends a copy of the confession to King Phillip to show that the reformed were loyal subjects, but their allegiance is to Christ first.
De Bres admits they would die before denying the truths of the confession.
What is the Heidelberg Catechism?
It is a Q&A format divided into 52 sections.
- one section for each Lord’s day of the year.
It is intended to teach lay people the essence of the faith.
- it follows the basic outline of Romans and focuses on the three things:
1. Guilt of our sin
2. Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
3. Our gratitude
What was the Synod of Dort?
This was an international gathering of delegates to refute the teachings of Jacob Arminius and his followers.
Refuted the five Articles of Remonstrance.
Responded with the five Points of Calvinism.
What was the Primary point of the Five Articles of Remonstrance?
God’s prevenient Grace foreknew those who would believe and those who would not “believe and persevere.”
Jean-Alphonse Turretin and the enlightenment
- Was son of Francis. Both were theology professors at the Academy of Geneva founded by Jean Calvin.
- 1) led a movement to abolish the creedal formulation of the Helvetic Formula Consensus.
2) questioned much of the scholasticism of reformed orthodoxy.
- pointless to speculate on order of things like supra or infralapsatianism.
- also rejects Calvin’s argument on the internal witness of the HS.
3) wanted to wed Christian theology with the methods of the enlightenment.
- reason, not revelation is the foundation for all theology and epistemology.
The Radical Enlightenment
Written by Jonathan Israel
- Israel comes up with the phrase “crisis of the European mind.”
> in this work he states that from the mid 17th century there was a general process of secularization in which theologies hegemony over the world was overthrown.
> the shift from revelation to reason as basic foundation of knowledge was due to:
1) religious upheaval in the history of Christendom, pre and post reformation.
2) constant state of war in the west.
3) spirit of capitalism and democracy gaining force
How did Capitalism and Democracy help shift to secularization over religion?
According to Jonathan Israel:
Theology becomes just a category among others such as science.
From the 17th century on we see major developments in math and science.
4 individuals who are integral in this shift:
- Nicolaus Copernicus
- Johannes Kepler
- Galileo Galilei
- sir Isaac Newton
Nicolaus Copernicus
1473 - 1543
Outlined a theory that the sun, not the earth was the center of the universe.
Johannes Kepler
1571 - 1630
An astronomer
Concluded that the sun emitted a magnetic force that moved the planets in their courses.
Galileo Galilei
1564-1642
Carried forward the work of Copernicus and Kepler to develop a complete heliocentric cosmology.
Early pioneer of telescopic technology.
Sir Isaac Newton
1642-1727
Argued that the planets are kept in order by gravity.
Developed law of gravity in his mathematical principles of natural theology.
Sets in motion ideas that explain reality without reference to God and providence.
4 Basic characteristics of the modern world based on political and scientific changes:
- ) modern ideal holds that the universe is an impersonal phenomenon, governed by natural laws, and understandable in only physical and mathematical laws. ( as opposed to created and sustained by God)
- ) stresses the supremacy of material and concrete world over the spiritual and transcendent.
- ) science replaces religion as the source of authority. (Reason and empiricism replace doctrine and revelation)
- ) radical autonomy and independence of the self. (As opposed to dependence on God)
Definition of rationalism
Is the pursuit of knowledge through the pathway of reason.
Renee Descartes
1596-1650 (know this date)
Father of Modern Philosophy.
Crisis of knowledge: “can believe nothing too certainly of which I had only been convinced by example or custom.”
Set out on a quest for intellectual certainty based on his own reason through a process of intuition and deduction.
Discourse on Method (1637)
Discourse on Method
Written by Descartes and published in 1637.
Sets out 4 rules in the quest for knowledge:
1) principle of certainty - never accept anything to be true which I did not clearly know to be such.
2) Rule of division - divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible for adequate solution.
3) principle of ascension - order of thought that ascends from the simple to the complex.
4) principle of universality - to make details so complete and reviews so general to be assured nothing was omitted.
What is Descartes’ one certainty that makes knowledge possible?
Cogito Ergo Sum - I think therefore I am.
Descartes’ proof of God’s existence:
working out from the rational of his own existence he acknowledges that he lacks certainty.
To lack certainty is to discern the existence of something imperfect.
If something is imperfect then something external to you must be perfect. (Only a perfect being can cause the idea of perfection in an imperfect being)
(Similar to Anselm’s “being of which nothing greater can be thought.”
Baruch Spinoza
1632-1677
A rationalist
Rejected the idea of God as a personal being who exists over and above the world and of which the world depends on.
Deus Sive Natura -“God or nature.”
- God and nature are the same entity.
- nothing can exist apart from God. He is in all things. (Not the cause of all things but IS all things)
Wrote “The Theological Political Treatise”
The Theological Political Treatise
Written by Spinoza (1670)
Paved the way for the modern understanding of the world and also Biblical criticism.
Rejected Biblical authority for the universal laws of science and nature.
(Instead of order of salvation now we are talking about the laws of science and nature).
God would never act against his nature. Therefore miracles are impossible.
John Locke
Wrote “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
Tabula Rasa (blank slate) - what can be known is what can be empirically verified.
To Locke reason is what the mind arrives at by deduction, which it gains as a result of sense perception.
Definition of Empiricism
We have no source knowledge of anything other than through sense experience.
Experience becomes the foundation for knowledge.