Anti-Calvinists: The Rise of English Arminianism c.1590-1640
Nicholas Tyacke
Abstract
This is a study of the rise of English Arminianism and the growing religious division in the Church of England during the decades before the Civil War of the 1640s. The widely accepted view has been that the rise of Puritanism was a major cause of the war; this book argues that it was Arminianism — suspect not only because it sought the overthrow of Calvinism but also because it was embraced by, and imposed by, an increasingly absolutist Charles I — which heightened the religious and political tensions of the period. Almost all English Protestants were members of the established Church. Conseq ... More
This is a study of the rise of English Arminianism and the growing religious division in the Church of England during the decades before the Civil War of the 1640s. The widely accepted view has been that the rise of Puritanism was a major cause of the war; this book argues that it was Arminianism — suspect not only because it sought the overthrow of Calvinism but also because it was embraced by, and imposed by, an increasingly absolutist Charles I — which heightened the religious and political tensions of the period. Almost all English Protestants were members of the established Church. Consequently, what was a theological dispute about rival views of the Christian faith assumed wider significance as a struggle for control of that Church. When Arminianism triumphed, Puritan opposition to the established Church was rekindled. Politically, Charles and his advisers also feared the consequences of Calvinist predestinarian teaching as being incompatible with ‘civil government in the commonwealth’.
Keywords:
English Arminianism,
Church of England,
English Civil War,
Puritanism,
Calvinism,
Charles I,
English Protestants,
Christian faith,
predestinarian teaching
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 1990 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198201847 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201847.001.0001 |