- University of the Free State, The Jonathan Edwards Centre Africa, Department Memberadd
- Reformation Studies, Reformation Theology, Reformed Orthodoxy, Scottish Reformation, Historical and Systematic Theology, Scottish Theology, and 12 moreJohn Calvin, Early Modern Catholicism, Covenant Theology, Eucharistic Theology, Sacramentology, Confessionalization, Reformed theology, Puritanism, Scottish History, Calvinism, Martin Luther, and Reformation Historyedit
- Aaron Clay Denlinger is Dean of the School of Rhetoric and Chaplain at Arma Dei Academy in Highlands Ranch, CO, as we... moreAaron Clay Denlinger is Dean of the School of Rhetoric and Chaplain at Arma Dei Academy in Highlands Ranch, CO, as well as an Adjunct Professor and Online Instructor in historical and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA). From 2013 to 2016 he served as Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Reformation Bible College in Sanford, Florida. From 2009 to 2013 he served as Teaching Fellow in Church History at the University of Aberdeen. From 2010 to 2012 he performed the further role of Research Fellow at Aberdeen in fulfillment of a postdoctoral research fellowship awarded by the Hope Trust. He and his wife, Louise, live in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with their children Kaitrin, Geneva, and Austin.edit
A new translation (with Burk Parsons) of John Calvin's classic teaching on the Christian life.
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Robert Rollock is best remembered today for the role he played in the development of Reformed covenant theology, a role defined especially by the uniquely mature treatment of a pre-fall covenant of works discovered in his thought.... more
Robert Rollock is best remembered today for the role he played in the development of Reformed covenant theology, a role defined especially by the uniquely mature treatment of a pre-fall covenant of works discovered in his thought. However, scholarship on Rollock’s covenant thought has until now been based almost entirely on an early modern English translation of Rollock’s Tractatus de vocatione efficaci (1597), and has overlooked discussion of the covenant of works found both in Rollock’s 1596 Quaestiones et responsiones aliquot de Foedere Dei, deque Sacramento quod foederis Dei sigillum est and his 1593 Romans commentary. This volume offers the first English translation of Rollock’s entire 1596 catechism as well as English translations of relevant sections from his Romans commentary that deal with the subject of God’s covenants with man. Thus, this volume stands to offer students of Reformed covenant theology a better understanding of Rollock’s thought and the contribution he made to the evolution of Reformed theology, particularly on the matter of God’s covenant with humankind before the fall.
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Recent decades have witnessed much scholarly reassessment of late-16th through 18th-century Reformed theology. In older scholarship it was common to view the theology of this period — typically labeled "orthodoxy" — as sterile,... more
Recent decades have witnessed much scholarly reassessment of late-16th through 18th-century Reformed theology. In older scholarship it was common to view the theology of this period — typically labeled "orthodoxy" — as sterile, speculative, and/or rationalistic, and to represent it as significantly discontinuous with the more humanistic, practical, and biblical thought of the magisterial reformers. Recent scholars have taken a more balanced approach, examining orthodoxy on its own terms and subsequently highlighting points of continuity between orthodoxy and both Reformation and pre-Reformation theologies, in form as well as content.
Until now Scottish theology and theologians have figured relatively minimally in works reassessing orthodoxy, and thus many of the older stereotypes concerning post-Reformation Reformed theology in a specifically Scottish context persist. This collection of essays aims to redress that failure by purposely examining post-Reformation Scottish theology/theologians through a lens provided by the gains made in recent scholarly evaluations of Reformed orthodoxy, and by highlighting, in that process, the significant contribution that Scottish divines of the orthodox era made to Reformed theology as an international intellectual phenomenon.
Until now Scottish theology and theologians have figured relatively minimally in works reassessing orthodoxy, and thus many of the older stereotypes concerning post-Reformation Reformed theology in a specifically Scottish context persist. This collection of essays aims to redress that failure by purposely examining post-Reformation Scottish theology/theologians through a lens provided by the gains made in recent scholarly evaluations of Reformed orthodoxy, and by highlighting, in that process, the significant contribution that Scottish divines of the orthodox era made to Reformed theology as an international intellectual phenomenon.
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For centuries prior to the Reformation, Christian theologians identified Adam’s natural relationship to humankind as the basis for humankind's participation in Adam's own guilt and corruption. Beginning in 1532, the Dominican theologian... more
For centuries prior to the Reformation, Christian theologians identified Adam’s natural relationship to humankind as the basis for humankind's participation in Adam's own guilt and corruption. Beginning in 1532, the Dominican theologian Ambrogio Catarino challenged the validity of this traditional dogma, arguing that humankind’s solidarity with Adam stemmed immediately from divine volition and ordination. According to Catarino, Adam’s appointment to bear the moral cause of every human person was concretely embodied in a covenant that God established with Adam in the garden. Catarino’s teaching sparked several decades of moderate controversy among Roman Catholic thinkers regarding the reality of a pre-fall covenant and the proper basis of humankind’s solidarity with Adam. In the long run, his teaching found few Catholic supporters. However, from the late sixteenth-century onwards, Protestant Reformed theologians began to advance a notion of humankind’s solidarity with Adam remarkably like Catarino’s doctrine. For Reformed theologians, it was the so-called ‘covenant of works’ that provided a rationale for universal Adamic guilt. That covenant performed other conceptual tasks in the mature theological systems of post-Reformation Reformed thinkers, but grounding humankind’s solidarity with its common forefather was not least among the operations ascribed to it. This book exposits Catarino’s own doctrine of covenantal solidarity, explores the medieval sources of his teaching, and traces the influence of his doctrine on Reformed thinkers. It provides insight into the doctrine of a significant Catholic Reformation theologian, and illumines the complicated and somewhat surprising background to Reformed theology’s own eventual teaching on Adam’s federal (covenantal) headship.
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The Aberdeen Doctors promoted concord between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe and between evangelical parties in Scotland. Their efforts to establish concord internationally implied tolerance between Protestant parties with... more
The Aberdeen Doctors promoted concord between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe and between evangelical parties in Scotland. Their efforts to establish concord internationally implied tolerance between Protestant parties with differing theological convictions and practices. Their efforts to establish concord in Scotland explicitly advocated tolerance between dissident parties, but equally insisted upon compliance with liturgical and political reforms pursued through proper legal process. This essay explores the Doctors advocacy of concord and of tolerance both internationally and nationally, drawing careful attention to the precise degree of tolerance the Doctors deemed possible and/or desirable in the particular context of early seventeenth-century Scotland.
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A translation, with introduction, of Robert Rollock's Tractatus de justificatione, which was published posthumously in 1605 as an appendix to Rollock's commentary on Hebrews.
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The 1640 general assembly of the Kirk, dominated by Covenanters, was keen to discover something amiss in the doctrine of the Episcopalian John Forbes of Corse. Ultimately they were forced to admit his orthodoxy, even while deposing him... more
The 1640 general assembly of the Kirk, dominated by Covenanters, was keen to discover something amiss in the doctrine of the Episcopalian John Forbes of Corse. Ultimately they were forced to admit his orthodoxy, even while deposing him for his refusal to subscribe the National Covenant. Modern scholars have succeeded where Forbes’s contemporary antagonists failed, representing Forbes as the champion of a party that was, to one degree or another, out of step with the Calvinist orthodoxy of the day. This article examines Forbes’s theology at points where his disagreement with contemporary reformed thought has been claimed, and draws implications from its findings for our knowledge and understanding of seventeenth-century Scottish theology more broadly.
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The Scottish theologian Robert Rollock (d. 1599) significantly informed the evolution of Reformed thought on the divine covenants by virtue of his relatively unprecedented, mature doctrine of a pre-fall ‘covenant of works’ between God and... more
The Scottish theologian Robert Rollock (d. 1599) significantly informed the evolution of Reformed thought on the divine covenants by virtue of his relatively unprecedented, mature doctrine of a pre-fall ‘covenant of works’ between God and humankind. Historians of Reformed theology have long recognized Rollock’s importance in this regard, but their familiarity with his doctrine has stemmed almost entirely from his comments concerning the covenants in his 1597 Tractatus de vocatione efficaci. Rollock advanced his covenant doctrine in other, earlier texts, including a brief catechism on the covenants (1596) and a series of short theological tracts published with his Romans commentary (1593). The tracts are particularly noteworthy since, given the immense popularity of Rollock’s biblical commentaries in his day, these texts were likely read more widely than his later catechism or Tractatus, and so likely served as the principal vehicle through which his covenantal ideas were disseminated at home and abroad. Two of those tracts, De Foedere Dei and De Sacramento, are offered here in English translation, thus affording students of Reformed thought access to Rollock’s earliest covenantal ideas in the form of texts which almost certainly played an influential role in the development of early modern Reformed doctrine.
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In 1637 the Aberdeen Doctors, in response to a request by the irenicist John Dury, penned a treatise proposing fraternal peace between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe. Despite common recognition of the Doctors as early-modern... more
In 1637 the Aberdeen Doctors, in response to a request by the irenicist John Dury, penned a treatise proposing fraternal peace between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe. Despite common recognition of the Doctors as early-modern irenicists if not forerunners of modern ecumenism, their treatise on Protestant unity has attracted little scholarly interest. The only modern scholar to comment upon that work perceived heteredox impulses at work in the Doctors' proposal. Through careful analysis of the Doctors' treatise and comparison of it to early modern Reformed works of the same genre, this article aims to shed greater light on the nature—the grounds, scope, and limits—of the Doctors' irenicism. Against the judgment that their proposal for peace marked some level of departure from the confessional orthodoxy of their day, their work is shown to be thoroughly consistent with, and very likely indebted to, programs for Protestant peace advanced by orthodox peers and predecessors in the international Reformed tradition.
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A paper delivered at the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) annual conference in June, 2017, exploring Luther's thoughts on education and their affinity to the philosophy, curriculum, and pedagogical principles of the... more
A paper delivered at the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) annual conference in June, 2017, exploring Luther's thoughts on education and their affinity to the philosophy, curriculum, and pedagogical principles of the classical Christian schooling movement.
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The past three decades have seen a significant shift in historical scholarship regarding the assessment of Reformed Orthodoxy. While older accounts posit a sharp discontinuity between the outlook of the magisterial Reformers and their... more
The past three decades have seen a significant shift in historical scholarship regarding the assessment of Reformed Orthodoxy. While older accounts posit a sharp discontinuity between the outlook of the magisterial Reformers and their theological heirs, recent research suggests a more complex relationship involving both fundamental commonalities in terms of content and differences when it comes to theological method. Following this ‘revisionist’ approach, the present volume focuses on theological developments in post-Reformation Scotland. According to the overarching claim of this collection of essays “Scotland played a significant role in the development of Reformed Orthodoxy” as it harbored a theological life that was “vibrant and intimately connected to the wider European scene.” (2) Each of the fourteen essays included in this volume is meant to substantiate this claim in some way or another. As a cursory look at the table of contents suggests, the emphasis clearly lies on Early (c. 1560–c. 1640; six essays) and High Orthodoxy (c. 1640–c. 1690; five essays). Only three contributions deal with Late Orthodoxy (c. 1690 onwards). In what follows, I will briefly discuss each essay before I conclude this review with an overall assessment of this volume.
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ABSTRACT The Aberdeen Doctors promoted concord between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe and between evangelical parties in Scotland. Their efforts to establish concord internationally implied tolerance between Protestant parties... more
ABSTRACT The Aberdeen Doctors promoted concord between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe and between evangelical parties in Scotland. Their efforts to establish concord internationally implied tolerance between Protestant parties with differing theological convictions and practices. Their efforts to establish concord in Scotland explicitly advocated tolerance between dissident parties, but equally insisted upon compliance with liturgical and political reforms pursued through proper legal process. This essay explores the Doctors advocacy of concord and of tolerance both internationally and nationally, drawing careful attention to the precise degree of tolerance the Doctors deemed possible and/or desirable in the particular context of early seventeenth-century Scotland.
Research Interests:
For centuries prior to the Reformation, Christian theologians identified Adam’s natural relationship to humankind as the basis for humankind's participation in Adam's own guilt and corruption. Beginning in 1532, the Dominican... more
For centuries prior to the Reformation, Christian theologians identified Adam’s natural relationship to humankind as the basis for humankind's participation in Adam's own guilt and corruption. Beginning in 1532, the Dominican theologian Ambrogio Catarino challenged the validity of this traditional dogma, arguing that humankind’s solidarity with Adam stemmed immediately from divine volition and ordination. According to Catarino, Adam’s appointment to bear the moral cause of every human person was concretely embodied in a covenant that God established with Adam in the garden. Catarino’s teaching sparked several decades of moderate controversy among Roman Catholic thinkers regarding the reality of a pre-fall covenant and the proper basis of humankind’s solidarity with Adam. In the long run, his teaching found few Catholic supporters. However, from the late sixteenth-century onwards, Protestant Reformed theologians began to advance a notion of humankind’s solidarity with Adam remarkably like Catarino’s doctrine. For Reformed theologians, it was the so-called ‘covenant of works’ that provided a rationale for universal Adamic guilt. That covenant performed other conceptual tasks in the mature theological systems of post-Reformation Reformed thinkers, but grounding humankind’s solidarity with its common forefather was not least among the operations ascribed to it. This book exposits Catarino’s own doctrine of covenantal solidarity, explores the medieval sources of his teaching, and traces the influence of his doctrine on Reformed thinkers. It provides insight into the doctrine of a significant Catholic Reformation theologian, and illumines the complicated and somewhat surprising background to Reformed theology’s own eventual teaching on Adam’s federal (covenantal) headship.
Research Interests:
Abstract This contribution presents two, less-well-known texts from the Latin corpus of the Scottish theologian, Robert Rollock (d.1599). Rollock significantly informed the evolution of thinking on the divine covenants by virtue of his... more
Abstract This contribution presents two, less-well-known texts from the Latin corpus of the Scottish theologian, Robert Rollock (d.1599). Rollock significantly informed the evolution of thinking on the divine covenants by virtue of his relatively unprecedented, mature doctrine of a pre-Fall ‘covenant of works’ between God and humankind. Historians of Reformed theology have long recognized Rollock’s importance in this regard, but their familiarity with his doctrine has stemmed almost entirely from Tractatus de vocatione efficaci(1597). The Scot advanced his covenant doctrine in other, earlier texts, including a brief catechism on the covenants (1596) and a series of short tracts published with his Romans commentary (1593). The tracts are particularly noteworthy since, given the popularity of Rollock’s biblical commentaries in his day, these texts were very likely read more widely than his later catechism or Tractatus; they likely served as the principal vehicle through which his covenantal ideas were disseminated. Two tracts, De foedere Dei and De sacramento, are offered here in English translation, thus affording readers access to Rollock’s earliest covenantal ideas, influential in Reformed thought.
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In 1637 the Aberdeen Doctors, in response to a request by the irenicist John Dury, penned a treatise proposing fraternal peace between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe. Despite common recognition of the Doctors as early-modern... more
In 1637 the Aberdeen Doctors, in response to a request by the irenicist John Dury, penned a treatise proposing fraternal peace between Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe. Despite common recognition of the Doctors as early-modern irenicists if not forerunners of modern ecumenism, their treatise on Protestant unity has attracted little scholarly interest. The only modern scholar to comment upon that work perceived heteredox impulses at work in the Doctors' proposal. Through careful analysis of the Doctors' treatise and comparison of it to early modern Reformed works of the same genre, this article aims to shed greater light on the nature—the grounds, scope, and limits—of the Doctors' irenicism. Against the judgment that their proposal for peace marked some level of departure from the confessional orthodoxy of their day, their work is shown to be thoroughly consistent with, and very likely indebted to, programs for Protestant peace advanced by orthodox peers and prede...
Research Interests:
The 1640 General Assembly of the Kirk, dominated by Covenanters, was keen to discover something amiss in the doctrine of the Episcopalian John Forbes of Corse. Ultimately they were forced to admit his orthodoxy, even while deposing him... more
The 1640 General Assembly of the Kirk, dominated by Covenanters, was keen to discover something amiss in the doctrine of the Episcopalian John Forbes of Corse. Ultimately they were forced to admit his orthodoxy, even while deposing him for his refusal to subscribe the National Covenant. Modern scholars have succeeded where Forbes's contemporary antagonists failed, representing Forbes as the champion of a party that was, to one degree or another, out of step with the Calvinist orthodoxy of the day. This article examines Forbes's theology at points where his disagreement with contemporary reformed thought has been claimed, and draws implications from its findings for our knowledge and understanding of seventeenth-century Scottish theology more broadly.
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The Aberdeen Doctors and Henry Scougal remain the most recognized theologians of the first and second Episcopalian periods respectively in Aberdeen. This chapter examines the theologies of both the Doctors and Scougal. The Doctors’... more
The Aberdeen Doctors and Henry Scougal remain the most recognized theologians of the first and second Episcopalian periods respectively in Aberdeen. This chapter examines the theologies of both the Doctors and Scougal. The Doctors’ theology is considered under the headings of their irenicism, their soteriology and sacramentology, and their approach to Scripture and tradition. Various aspects of Scougal’s theology emerging from his published works, The Life of God in the Soul of Man and an assortment of sermons, are highlighted. The doctrine of the Aberdeen Doctors is shown to lie within the boundaries of Reformed orthodoxy of their day, while Scougal’s theology is judged to be broadly Reformed but to comprise an incipient religious mysticism that would blossom in Aberdeen at the turn of the century.
The past three decades have seen a significant shift in historical scholarship regarding the assessment of Reformed Orthodoxy. While older accounts posit a sharp discontinuity between the outlook of the magisterial Reformers and their... more
The past three decades have seen a significant shift in historical scholarship regarding the assessment of Reformed Orthodoxy. While older accounts posit a sharp discontinuity between the outlook of the magisterial Reformers and their theological heirs, recent research suggests a more complex relationship involving both fundamental commonalities in terms of content and differences when it comes to theological method. Following this ‘revisionist’ approach, the present volume focuses on theological developments in post-Reformation Scotland. According to the overarching claim of this collection of essays “Scotland played a significant role in the development of Reformed Orthodoxy” as it harbored a theological life that was “vibrant and intimately connected to the wider European scene.” (2) Each of the fourteen essays included in this volume is meant to substantiate this claim in some way or another. As a cursory look at the table of contents suggests, the emphasis clearly lies on Early...