Symphonia Catholica
The Merger of Patristic and Contemporary Sources in the Theological Method of Amandus Polanus (1561-1610)
by Byung Soo Han
Byung Soo Han intends to answer, by investigating the merger of patristic and contemporary sources in the theological method of Amandus Polanus, a significant question concerning the way in which the intellectual and methodological eclecticism of the Reformed was able to establish a coherent “system” of thought capable of defense as not only confessional but also orthodox in its theology and broadly catholic, drawing both on the thought of the Reformers and on the resources of the great tradition of Christian thought that extended back to the church fathers. From a methodological perspective, Polanus’s development from the Ramistically-organized doctrinal framework of the early Partitiones, through the increasingly detailed and specialized efforts of the commentaries, disputations, and Symphonia, indicates a fairly clear, concerted effort to build toward a detailed systematic presentation – and in fact, each of these earlier efforts provided as it were building-blocks that would be incorporated into the Syntagma. This constructive labor itself serves to set aside the claim that Polanus based his theology on a deductive principle. The specific focus of the book is on the place and function of backgrounds and sources, traditional and contemporary, with particular emphasis on the place of the church fathers in Reformed orthodoxy. Polanus’s patristic work, Symphonia, and its eventual impact on his full systematic work, the Syntagma, provides a singular case, within the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the reformulation of patristic thought in a fully systematized form, suitable for combination with the results of biblical exegesis and contemporary doctrinal argumentation in the formulation of Reformed orthodox theology. This study attempts to assess the claim of catholicity and orthodoxy by Reformed theology, demonstrating the formative function of patristic thought in Polanus’s theology. Further, the study illustrates the place of this traditionary exercise within the methodologically eclectic approach followed by Polanus and his contemporaries as they created a theology that drew not only on Scripture and contemporary philosophical assumptions but also on patristic, medieval, Reformation-era, traditionary Aristotelian, Platonic, and Ramist sources. This study, therefore, reappraises the development of Reformed orthodoxy. In Polanus’s case, an older scholarship that read his theology as based on central dogmas or as an exercise of rationalism will be set aside in favor of a more nuanced view of his sources and method. Within this larger framework, Polanus’s use of the fathers builds on and confirms the Reformers’s assumption of catholicity in the face of the detailed polemics of Robert Bellarmine as well as confirming the point that his approach to formulation was traditionary and somewhat eclectic. Finally, the book identifies the theological cohesion of the early orthodox Reformed model, as exemplified by Polanus’s thought, especially in its method of drawing together of traditionary materials from varied sources. In short, the book demonstrates the importance of the church fathers to the formulation of a Reformed orthodox and catholic theology in the context of showing, contrary to previous studies of Polanus’s thought and contrary to the older stereotypes of “Calvinist” orthodoxy, that Reformed orthodoxy was neither a rigid monolith nor a matter of philosophical speculation but the product of a carefully conceived exercise in the compilation and assessment of biblical and traditionary materials.
- By (author) Byung Soo Han
"Han's book on Polanus helps readers understand better the process of making a Reformed system in its classic expression. This is precisely what is needed in historical and continuing investigations in Reformed theology." --Ryan M. McGraw, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Westminster Theological Journal 78.2
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Johannes Cocceius and the Exegetical Roots of Federal Theology
Reformation Developments in the Interpretation of Hebrews 7-10
Volume 7
A Knot Worth Unloosing
The Interpretation of the New Heavens and Earth in Seventeenth-Century England
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The Jews in English Baptist Eschatology
Conversion, Restoration, and National Identity, 1649-1815
Volume 84
Union with God
An Assessment of Deification (Theosis) in the Theologies of Robert Jenson and John Calvin
Volume 69
Britain and the Bestandstwisten
The Causes, Course and Consequences of British Involvement in the Dutch Religious and Political Disputes of the Early Seventeenth Century
Volume 28
Die Pradestinationslehre der Heidelberger Theologen 1583-1622
Georg Sohn (1551-1589), Herman Rennecherus (1550-?), Jacob Kimedoncius (1554-1596), Daniel Tossanus (1541-1602)
Volume 10
The Anchor of a Believer’s Hope
John Flavel's (ca. 1627-1691) Theology of Death, Dying, and Eternal Destiny
Volume 83
Calvinus clarissimus theologus
Papers of the Tenth International Congress on Calvin Research
Volume 18
Reformation of the Commonwealth
Thomas Becon and the Politics of Evangelical Change in Tudor England
Volume 58
Debated Issues in Sovereign Predestination
Early Lutheran Predestination, Calvinian Reprobation, and Variations in Genevan Lapsarianism
Volume 42
Beyond Calvin
Union with Christ and Justification in Early Modern Reformed Theology (1517-1700)
Volume 20
Heinrich Alting (1583-1644)
Lebensbild und Bedeutung fur die reformierte Historiografie und Dogmengeschichtsschreibung des 17. Jahrhunderts
Volume 56
The Ground, Method, and Goal of Amandus Polanus’ (1561-1610) Doctrine of God
A Historical and Contextual Analysis
Volume 73
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