Does God truly love all persons? Most Christians think the obvious answer to this question is, "Yes, of course he does!" Indeed, many Christians would agree that the very heart of the gospel is that God so loved the whole world that he gave his Son to make salvation available for every single person. This book shows that one of the most popular and resurgent theological movements in the contemporary evangelical church--namely, Calvinism--cannot coherently and consistently affirm this vital claim about the love of God. While some Calvinists forthrightly deny that God loves everyone, more commonly Calvinists attempt to affirm the love of God for all persons in terms that are compatible with their doctrines that Christ died only for the elect--those persons God has unconditionally chosen to save. This book shows that the Calvinist attempts to affirm God's love for all persons are fraught with severe philosophical and theological difficulties. Calvinism, then, should be rejected in favor of a theology that can forthrightly and consistently affirm the love of God for all persons. Nothing less is at stake than the very heart of the gospel.

Edition of documents - many never previously published - shedding new light on the role played by the British delegates at the Synod of Dort. The Synod of Dort [1618-19] was one of the most remarkable and important gatherings of Protestant divines ever assembled. Summoned to resolve doctrinal disputes in the Netherlands, it involved theologians from a number of other countries, including Britain. The precise role played by delegates of the Church of England at the synod has been the subject of intense disagreement ever since. Drawing on new sources discovered in English and Dutch archives, this volume provides a wide-ranging collection of edited documents [many previously unpublished] which make it possible for the first time to construct a thorough and fully contextualized account of the role played by the British delegates. Different sections of the book tackle the political and theological background to the synod, the submissions of the British delegation on issues ranging from predestination and episcopacy to catechizing and bible translation, and also the aftermath of the synod and the later defences of it by the British delegates. The primary source material is set in context by a substantial introduction, which argues for a major reassessment of the role ofthe British divines at the synod, and emphasizes the importance of the event in allowing historians to study the detailed interaction of British and continental thinkers at a vital period in the emergence of an 'Anglican' identity. Dr Anthony Milton is Reader in History at the University of Sheffield.

This is a major study of the theology of grace in the English Church between the Reformation and the Civil War. On the basis of a wide reading of both English and continental writings, the author challenges the prevailing view that there was essentially a 'Calvinist' consensus in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Church, and stresses instead an indigenous latitudinarianism of doctrine against which a concerted campaign was conducted in the last decade of the sixteenth century in the controversies which led to the Lambeth Articles. Mr White reviews the impact Arminian ideas had in England, firstly through a detailed exposition of the theology of Arminius, and subsequently by means of a review of the links between the English and Dutch churches as the quarrel between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants reached its climax in the Synod of Dort. Other chapters discuss the place of Hooker in English theology, the impact of Richard Montagu, the ideas of Thomas Jackson, the writings of Neile and Laud on predestination, and the regulation of doctrine in the period of Personal Rule. At all stages the theological debate is related to its political - and often polemical - context, not least in a carefully documented reassessment of the role of the court both in the last years of James' reign and in the early years of the rule of Charles I.

Christians strongly disagree about the extent of the atonement. Some believe that the atonement only extends to the elect, those whom God chose to save before the foundation of the world. Others believe the atonement is unlimited, that Jesus died for all people whether they ever believe in him or not. Despite the differences in these two traditional understandings they share one thing in common: both believe that Jesus died for a single, intended purpose. But what if God's intentions in the atonement are multiple, not single? The Bible teaches exactly this, that Jesus died both to pay for the sins of all people and to secure the salvation of those God chose to believe in him before time began. This book explains and defends a multi-intentioned view of the extent of the atonement, asserting that this view does the best job of understanding all of what the Bible says about the extent of the atonement, is more theologically comprehensive than the traditional views, and has the best potential for consensus on who exactly Jesus Christ died for when he was crucified for our sins.

Religion no longer plays a dominant role in the everyday consciousness of modern Western society. Few people recognize the underlying role of religious beliefs and practices in their life choices. Stephen Strehle shows the significance and ongoing influence of religion in contemporary life by revealing the sacred roots of modern political ideas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He discusses the role of the church in government, probing into the sources of democratic, federal, and egalitarian ideas on the continent of Europe during the Reformation. The separation of church and state in America and the diminished power of the Church of England were the culmination of secular forces evolving since the Enlightenment. This secular view of life represents the basic mentality of the culture and the government in general; yet there is much to contradict it. The last half of the twentieth century witnessed a surge of grassroots movements from all sides of the political/religious spectrum. These included the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Moral Majority of the 1980s, both of which provided an effective challenge to a simple separation of the two realms. Strehle explores some of the most cherished political ideals of modern society, including equality and democracy, liberty and natural rights, progress and capitalism, federalism and mixed government. He does not dismiss the vital contribution of other possible sources of inspiration from the world of religion or undermine the well-established place of “secular” sources. But he does show that certain ideas associated with the religious community have left an indelible mark upon significant aspects of the emerging American landscape.