Providing a detailed account of the emergence and development of the public disputations between D.V. Coornhert (1522-1590) and Reformed ministers, this book explores the religious and political dimensions of a controversy that reflects issues and arguments at the core of the Dutch Revolt.

This volume offers a wide-ranging overview of the 16th-18th century disputation culture in various European regions. Its focus is on printed disputations as a polyvalent media form which brings together many of the elements that contributed to the cultural and scientific changes during the early modern period.

Offering not only state-of-the-art introductions from Biblical, historical, and constructive theologians, this volume also fosters an inter-disciplinary and cross-confessional conversation, reclaiming the idea of election as a central notion for any retelling of the biblical narrative. Several essays explore the variety of ways in which election is spoken about in the Scripture, drawing on research from the last twenty years that offers a more sophisticated framework than the traditionally theological categories of “elect” and “reject”. The historical part of the volume covers new analyses of Medieval and post-Reformation Catholic and Protestant debates on predestination, while the book's constructive part contributes to contemporary conversations on the relationship between Trinity, Christology, and election, the development of a post-supersessionist understanding of Israel's chosenness, as well as voices from contextual struggles in South America, Palestine, and South Africa.

In the newest Reformed Historical-Theological Study, Dr. Richard A. Muller delves into one of the most controversial doctrines of Reformed Theology: predestination. Muller carefully investigates key incidents that illustrate the doctrine’s complexity and development by surveying Reformed thought on predestination in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Along the way, Muller challenges distorted ideas about the placement of predestination in theological systems, naïve readings of Calvin based solely on his Institutes, simplistic representations of supra- and infralapsarian debates, and uncharitable views of Reformed theologians as hyper-dogmatists obsessed with their own tradition.

The young Reformed scholar Arminius returned from finishing his studies to Amsterdam in 1588 to begin pastoral ministry. His personal interests had been philosophical rather than theological, and in the Bible, the Old Testament rather than the New. To his dismay, he found the Dutch Reformed Church divided on theological issues, especially predestination. He was reluctant to get involved, though in his Bible exposition in 1593 he got into trouble for expressing unacceptable views on Romans 9. He was hoping that Franciscus Junius, the new Theological Professor at Leiden University, would intervene in the controversy and restore harmony. The two met in December 1596 and began a correspondence. Arminius was disappointed with Junius' views. Nevertheless, he learned from Junius the centrality of Christ and his work for all that belongs to human salvation, including predestination. Arminius began to construct his own theology, setting Christ's work at the heart of it. This study retells the story with new emphases, concentrating on Arminius' theological development up to his magnum opus, the 'Declaration of Sentiments', in 1608, and summarizing his conclusions: in particular, that Christ himself is the foundation of election, and that we are saved by a new relationship with God through Christ. Both these insights led him at last to reject the Calvinist concept of salvation and damnation through a hidden decree made in a Christ-less secret counsel of the divine wisdom. Arminius was unsuccessful in the short term, but this study contends that his views have much to teach us.