Glossary
Glossary
AMYRALDIANISM
The theology associated with the 17th century French Reformed theologian Moise Amyraut (Latin "Amyraldus"). Amyraut strongly emphasised the universal dimensions of the atonement: Christ died to atone for the sins of all humanity, but the atonement's effect was conditional on faith. Hence, in terms of God's decrees, Amyraut placed the decree to provide atonement for all sinners prior to the decree of election which gave faith to some.
APOPHATIC
The method of Eastern Orthodox theology. We cannot know God's essence at all—it is absolutely incomprehensible. We can only know God's
"energies" (His attributes in action) which flow from His essence but are not identical with it. Our knowledge of God's energies is more experiential than intellectual. Apophatic is from the Greek word for "denial".
ARMINIANISM
A movement within the Dutch Reformed Church to align Reformed theology more closely with Erasmian humanism. Named after the 17th century Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius. Arminius believed that the grace of Christ had supernaturally and universally restored a measure of freedom to the sin-bound human will, thus enabling each person to choose whether to respond to the Gospel. God's election was conditioned on this response, as divinely foreseen from eternity.
CAMBRIDGE PLATONISM
The outlook of a number of Anglican theologians who all trained at Cambridge University. They reacted against the perceived intolerance of Calvinism, and looked for inspiration to the early Greek fathers of the early church and to Platonist and Neoplatonist philosophy.
CONGREGATIONALISM
A form of church government where each congregation has final authority over its own affairs.
COVENANTERS
A movement for affirming and maintaining the Reformed theology and Presbyterian church government of the Scottish national church, and its independence from state control. Named from the National Covenant of 1637.
EPISCOPACY, EPISCOPALIANISM
Government of the church by diocesan bishops, with each bishop having authority over a regional group of congregations.
FEDERAL THEOLOGY
The typically Reformed way of giving a "shape" to the theology of the Bible, by organising its story and content under the concept of covenant
(Latin foedus), beginning with God's covenant with pre-fall humanity, and culminating in the New Covenant in Christ.
GALLICANISM
The theory that the French Catholic Church and monarchy have certain rights of independence from the papacy.
INDEPENDENTS
Another term for Congregationalists.
INFRALAPSARIAN
A Reformed view of God's decrees which places the decree to permit the fall before the decree of election. Hence those chosen for life are chosen as sinners.
JANSENISM
A movement for the renewal of Augustinian theology within the Roman Catholic Church. Named after the 17th century Dutch Catholic theologian
Cornelius Jansen.
LATITUDINARIANS
An influential group in the post-1660 Anglican Church who took a minimalist attitude to doctrine, instead emphasising moral life.
MOLINISM
A theological way of combining the freeness of God's grace with the reality of human free choice, involving the concept of scientia media ("middle knowledge"). Named after the 16th century Spanish Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina.
NONJURORS
Those Anglican clergy who refused to swear loyalty to the new English royal house of Orange after the 1689 Revolution, remaining loyal to the deposed house of Stuart.
OLD BELIEVERS
Those in Orthodox Russia who opposed the worship-reforms of patriarch Nikon in the 17th century, ultimately forming a separate body out of fellowship with the Moscow patriarchate.
PIETISM A movement for the spiritual renewal of Lutheranism. Pietists emphasised practical Christian life and sanctification above doctrine, and were more open than traditional Lutherans to people from other Christians traditions, e.g. Roman Catholics and Reformed.
PRESBYTERIANISM
A form of church government where authority is vested in the whole body of pastors and elders from all congregations, meeting as a church court— ultimately a national assembly.
PURITANISM
A term almost impossible to define. I take it to refer to those Anglicans who aspired to further reformation of their Church in a more strongly Protestant, perhaps Presbyterian, direction.
QUAKERS A nickname for the group associated with George Fox (1624-91). They located supreme spiritual authority in the "indwelling Christ" or "inner light" rather than the Bible, and had radically egalitarian social and religious attitudes.
QUIETISM
A type of Roman Catholic spirituality that emphasised the passivity of the human soul before God, and a "disinterested love" for God (loving God for His own sake, even though He might not save us).
RAMISM A theological method named after the French Reformed thinker Peter Ramus (1515-72). He developed a system of logical analysis that relied on "dichotomy"—breaking concepts down into pairs, and then dividing each pair into another pair, until one finally arrived at basic axioms that could not be further divided.
RESTORATION
The re-establishment of the Stuart monarchy and the Anglican Church in 1660 after the upheavals of the civil wars.
SCIENTIA MEDIA
"Middle knowledge". A form of God's knowledge held to be somewhere between His knowledge of everything possible and everything actual. This middle knowledge is His knowledge of what actual persons would do in hypothetical circumstances. See MOLINISM.
SEPARATISM
Separatists were English Protestants who broke away entirely from the English national church, in the pre-Civil War era. Some were
Congregationalists, some Baptists. Of the Baptists, some were Arminian, some Reformed.
SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT
The politico-religious treaty of 1643 between the English parliament and the Scottish Covenanters, which united them against King Charles I.
SUPRALAPSARIAN
A Reformed view of God's decrees which places the decree of election before the decree to permit the fall. Hence those chosen for life are not chosen as sinners, but simply as human beings whose creation has been decreed.
THOMISM
The theology of Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), greatest of the medieval scholastic theologians.
UNIATE CHURCHES
Churches originally from Eastern Orthodoxy that accepted the authority of the papacy. They are sometimes called "Greek Catholics". The papacy allowed them to keep most of their own traditions of worship and church life, e.g. a married priesthood.