For the history of the doctrine in the later 16th century, Richard Muller’s *Christ and the Decrees *is very good, and of course the authors he discusses are then worth reading. William Perkins, with whom Muller ends, is one of the classic Puritan theologians often seen as a framer of dogmatic, scholastic Calvinism. John Owen in the 17th century was a particularly hardline spokesperson for Calvinism–Richard Baxter was a much more moderate figure. Back to the Reformation, Luther’s *Bondage of the Will *is a favorite of Calvinists (read it together with Erasmus’s *Diatribe on the Freedom of the Will *to which Luther was responding). Melanchthon’s *Loci Communes *in their later versions mark a movement away from Luther’s strong doctrine of predestination. The *Formula of Concord *available on the Internet shows you where sixteenth-century Lutherans ended up on the issue (I presume you’ve looked at some of the classic Reformed confessions: the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dordt, and/or Westminster? The Second Helvetic Confession, written by Heinrich Bullinger, is also a good text).
And then there are some of the later figures–Jonathan Edwards’s *Freedom of the Will, *for instance. Barth and Torrance and other modern theologians have put new twists on the issues.
I’m not saying that you have some duty to read all these works–I haven’t read anywhere near all of them myself, frankly. But if you are going to claim that you’ve read enough books to entitle you to come to a clear conclusion or give up, then all of these should be merely the starting point. I think you vastly underestimate the complexity and difficulty of this issue. It is one of the most difficult–maybe the most difficult if you tie it in with the problem of evil, which I find inevitable–in all of Christian theology. You cannot just read half a dozen modern treatments and think you have gotten to the bottom of it. It would take a lifetime even to stratch the surface.
That is why in my opinion it is blithering idiocy to demand that ordinary Christians take a dogmatic position on this issue. If there is one thing that shows the wrong-headedness of historic Protestantism (except for the Lutherans, who basically decided in the Formula that the issue couldn’t be solved in a logical manner), it’s this.
Who do you suggest reading?
Augustine, obviously–you can find the anti-Pelagian writings in volume 5 of Series 1 of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, available online at
www.ccel.org (click on “Church Fathers”). The City of God (vol. 2 of the same series) and the Enchiridion (vol. 3, under “Doctrinal Treatises” right after
On the Trinity) are also highly relevant. Jaroslav Pelikan sums up the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian debate in chap. 6 of vol. 1 of his multivolume history
The Christian Tradition. The early chapters of vol. 3 talk about how the debate played out in the early Middle Ages.
Aquinas is of course vitally important–his
Summa Theologiae is available on the web. Question 23 of the Prima Pars deals directly with predestination, but the surrounding discussion of divine providence is necessary for context, and the discussion of grace in Prima Secundae 109-114 is extremely relevant as well. Heiko Oberman’s secondary work *The Harvest of Medieval Theology *discusses how the theology Luther was taught dealt with the “doctrines of grace,” which is important for understanding the Reformation of course.
It’s also a good idea to get a handle on the Eastern Fathers, who take a very different approach and often sound very “semi-Pelagian.” Athanasius’s *On the Incarnation *is the classic work, and I also recommend anything by Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, or John of Damascus.
I have to go teach Greek–I’ll try to deal with your other points as I have time. Sorry if all this just sounds like “go burrow in the library for fifty years and then talk.” In a sense I really am trying to say that you’re unlikely ever to get a handle on this and so shouldn’t make it a basis for decisions about church affiliation. There’s some basic stuff we can be sure of, best summarized by good old Charles Spurgeon: if we are saved, we are saved because God has graciously chosen to save us, and if we are damned, it is because we have wilfully chosen to turn away from God. To quote Rabbi Hillel speaking of something quite different: “all the rest is commentary; go and learn it.”
In Christ,
Edwin
