Protestant Politics Beyond Calvin

Reformed Theologians on War in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Ian Campbell author Floris Verhaart author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:25th Sep '23

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Protestant Politics Beyond Calvin cover

The Reformed (or Calvinist) universities of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Europe hosted rich, Latin-language conversations on the nature of politics, the powers of kings and magistrates, resistance, revolution, and religious warfare. Nevertheless, it is too often assumed that Reformed political thought did not develop beyond John Calvin’s Institutes of 1559. This book remedies this problem, presenting extracts from major Reformed theologians and intellectuals (including Peter Martyr Vermigli, Guillaume de Buc, David Pareus, Lambert Daneau, and Bartholomäus Keckermann) which demonstrate both continuity and change in Reformed political argument. These men taught in France, the Holy Roman Empire, the Low Countries, and England, between the 1540s and 1660s, but they were read in universities throughout the North Atlantic world into the eighteenth century. Should all political action be subject to God’s direct command? Were humans capable of using their own God-given reason to tell right from wrong? Was it ever just to resist tyrants? Was religious difference enough by itself to justify war? Their political doctrines often aroused the greatest controversy in their own time; this is generally the first time that these extracts from their works have been translated into English. These texts and translations are accompanied by an introduction placing these authors in the context of the great European religious wars, advice on further reading, and a full bibliography.

This collection will serve to clarify the nature of Reformed political thought by successfully demonstrating that, despite some differences, its approach is in line with the just war tradition. In sum, this work will be a valuable resource for the post-Reformation era historian and the student of war and its ethical implications. -- Thomas Haviland-Pabst

ISBN: 9780367525118

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

308 pages