“These days I'm often called a Deviant Calvinist, but I don't really think my views do deviate from the Reformed tradition, though in some respects they may represent views that are not as popular now as they once were, or that may represent a minority report in the tradition.” ThinkingMayViewsTraditionThese DaysReportsMinoritiesDeviateDeviantsMinority Report Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“[ Jonathan] Edwards is the person who really made theological determinism a serious option for Reformed thinkers, and the influence his views had in nineteenth century Reformed thought, in the USA and the UK in particular, is enormous.” PersonsMadeViewsInfluenceCenturyParticularSeriousEnormousUsaThinkerTheologicalNineteenth CenturyDeterminism Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“Here is the interesting twist:[McLeod] Campbell came to his views through reading Jonathan Edwards who suggested at one point in his ruminations on the atonement that Christ could have offered up a perfect act of penitence instead of punishment, and that this would have been an acceptable offering suitable to remit our sinfulness.” Has BeensReadingChristPerfectInterestingViewsPunishmentAcceptableOfferingTwistsSuitableAtonementSinfulnessPenitenceRumination Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“There is the view I call penal non-substitution, or the penal example view. (It is also called the Governmental View in textbooks of theology.) This is often associated with Arminian theology stemming from the great Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius. However, the view was taken up by [Jonathan] Edwards's disciples in New England, who developed a Calvinistic strand of the doctrine.” ViewsTakenExampleEnglandTheologyDoctrineDiscipleTextbooksDutchStrandsNew EnglandSubstitutionJurists Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“The expansion I have in mind isn't the same as distortion. Of course, there are those who say their views represent Reformed thought, but what they end up with is a caricature of what Reformed thinking is really about. I hope I am not one of those people, but readers [of the Saving Calvinism] will have to make up their own minds on that score!” PeopleThinkingMindEndsCoursesViewsReaderSavingScoreExpansionDistortionCaricaturesCalvinism Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“[John] Calvin is revered as a thinker of immense importance in Reformed thought, Jonathan Edwards could say in his preface to his treatise on Freedom of the Will that he had derived none of his views from the work of Calvin, though he was willing to be called a "Calvinist" for the sake of convention.” ViewsWillingImportanceSakeThinkerConventionsImmense Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“The alternative of hypothetical universalism, according to which Christ's work is sufficient for all but efficient only for the elect, was alive and well in early Reformed thought. Moreover - and importantly for our purposes - this view was not regarded as an aberration but as a legitimate position that could be taken within the confessional bounds of Reformed thought. But that means that the Five Points aren't the non-negotiable conceptual core of Calvinism after all.” WellsMeanPurposeChristViewsTakenFiveAlivePositionBoundsCoreAlternativesSufficientEfficientAberrationHypotheticalCalvinismUniversalism Author:Oliver D. Crisp
