Antoine de Chandieu: The Silver Horn of Geneva's Reformed Triumvirate

by Theodore Van Raalte

Offering the first study in any language dedicated to the influential publications of the French Reformed theologian Antoine de Chandieu (1534-1591), Theodore Van Raalte begins by recalling Chandieu's reputation as it stood at the death of Theodore Beza in 1605. Poets in Geneva mourned the end of an era of star theologians, reminiscing about Geneva's Reformed triumvirate of gold, silver, and gold represented Calvin; silver Chandieu; and bronze Beza. Van Raalte's work sets Chandieu within the context of Reformed theology in Geneva, the wider history of scholastic method in the Swiss cantons, and the gripping social and political milieux of this tumultuous time. Chandieu was far from a mere ivory tower as a member of French nobility in possession of many estates and castles in France, he and his family acutely experienced the misery and triumph of the French Huguenots during the Wars of Religion. Connected to royalty from the beginning of his career, Chandieu
later served the future Henry IV as personal military chaplain and cryptographer. His writings run the gamut from religious poetry (put to music by others in his lifetime) to carefully-crafted disputations which saw publication in his posthumous Opera Theologica in five editions between 1592 and 1620. Chandieu had developed a very elaborate form of the medieval quaestio disputata and made liberal use of hypothetical syllogisms. Van Raalte argues that Chandieu utilized scholastic method in theology for the sake of clarity of argument, rootedness in Scripture, and certainty of faith.

376 pages, Hardcover

Published September 4, 2018

Reviews

[C. A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book on the rise of Reformed Scholasticism as it can be observed in the person of Antoine de Chandieu. The author dives deep and uncovers Chandieu's method, which turns out to be an uncommon variety of "Old Aristotelianism" (Risse). Note that the author is a theologian and thus only succinctly situates Chandieu amid the socio-cultural historical context of late 16th c. France, Pays de Vaud and Geneva.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biography of a contemporary of Beza and his contribution to Reformed Scholasticism.

"The apostle [Paul] did not reject the actual science of rightly and truly disputing, which summons up the knowledge of the truth from reliable, particular, and necessary principles, but instead [he rejected] the vain art of deception and those sophistical and fraudulent snares which heretics are accustomed to knot together in order to deceive the pious and orthodox by them. This is evident not only by the sequence of the context itself, but the word a0pathv, seized upon by Paul, also openly declares it.53 Thus if analytical logic chiefly tests the deceptions and fallacies of the Sophists, refutes errors, banishes lies, and puts forward the light of truth to be admired by the eyes of our souls, is there anyone who would rightly judge this clear discipline to have been rejected by the Apostle?"
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