Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine

by Peter J. Thuesen

Winner of the Christianity Today 2010 Book Award for History/Biography, and praised in Christian Century as "witty...erudite...masterful," this groundbreaking history, the first of its kind, shows that far from being only about the age-old riddle of divine sovereignty versus human free will, the debate over predestination is inseparable from other central Christian beliefs and practices--the efficacy of the sacraments, the existence of purgatory and hell, the extent of God's providential involvement in human affairs--and has fueled theological conflicts across denominations for centuries. Peter Thuesen reexamines not only familiar predestinarians such as the New England Puritans and many later Baptists and Presbyterians, but also non-Calvinists such as Catholics and Lutherans, and shows how even contemporary megachurches preach a "purpose-driven" outlook that owes much to the doctrine of predestination. For anyone wanting a fuller understanding of religion in America,
Predestination offers both historical context on a doctrine that reaches back 1,600 years and a fresh perspective on today's denominational landscape.

Genres: Theology, History, Church History

309 pages, Hardcover

First published June 3, 2009

Reviews

[Khari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that wasn't at all what I was expecting when I picked it up.

This is one of those books that is hard for me to rate. Did I learn a lot? Yes. Was it easy to read? No. Was it well written for the genre that it is? Yes. Was it interesting? It depends on your definition of interesting.

I started reading this thinking it would be a book of theology, but it isn't really. It's more like a historical treatise of how a particular doctrine has been viewed throughout history. If you like dry historical fact, this is the book for you. If you want to understand predestination...there might be better books out there. On the other hand, this book acts as a great primer. To someone like me, who enjoys dry historical fact, and who has never really thought about the predestination argument very much, it gave a great overview of who the major thinkers on the topic have been, and it has a great bibliography in the back, so you can easily mine it to find a more in-depth treatment of different theological positions there.

The things I came away with were generally subtopics of the book, or rather some side anecdotes that struck me.

The first is that I must come from a solidly Puritan background because to me the wasting of time is absolutely the cardinal sin. I thought this came from my German catholic forebears, but apparently not. Apparently during their 100 year or so stint in New England they got solidly influenced by the Puritans because I feel a crushing sense of guilt when I'm not using my time wisely. I haven't even read all of Jonathan Edwards, how has this thought permeated into my very being?

The second is that apparently I am a shallow theologian a la Rick Warren who takes a wishy washy watered down position between Arminiasm and Calvinism. In the epilogue of the book, the author goes on a side trip talking about mega churches and how they present themselves as open theologically and doctrinally but actually it's just that they hide their sectarianism under their public face and refuse to take a stand on important doctrinal issues. Well...I don't necessarily disagree with him there, but I don't necessarily agree with him either.

Us American protestants are far too sectarian in our beliefs. That doesn't mean I support the ecumenical movement, there are some definite aspects of doctrine that are more important than others. The inerrancy of the Bible, for instance. If you want to take out whole parts of the Bible and call them invalid, then you can't really call yourself a Christian. But, for things like how often you celebrate Communion, I don't think it matters. I think there probably isn't a perfect one way, and that God accepts a lot of variation. When we get into heaven we are all going to have to get along with each other, even if we believed slightly different things on earth, and we all do. We all have slightly different understandings of who and what the Bible says about God. Anyone who has visited a church of a different culture can see that clearly. Worship methods are different. Preaching styles are different. That doesn't make them wrong.

I see the tension between free will and election similarly. The truth of the matter is that I am a finite being, and God is infinite. He made the universe and can bend the rules of the universe if he so pleases. I don't understand how someone can be both elected by God and also be able to freely choose God, but that's what the Bible says. I have decided to believe the Bible, so I have to believe that both of those things are true at the same time, even if I can't understand it. To me this is not a faith breaking proposition because to me it seems like a situation analogous to my position as a teacher.

I have a set number of requirements for my class, I get a new batch of students every year, and within one week I can tell you who is going to pass and who is going to fail my class, and I'm usually right. Did I predestine the failures to fail? No. Just because I knew that they would fail doesn't mean that I designed the course so that they would fail. They failed because of their own choices, they knew what the requirements were and decided not to live up to them. They had the same chance as everyone else did, they just decided not to take advantage of that chance.

Not a perfect analogy, it avoids the whole problem of God being the creator and designer of each person, which would imply that he made some people to fail. But that's just a different way of expressing the issue of how can there be freedom of choice and a sovereign God. I don't know how that's possible. I choose to believe it anyway. If that makes me a wishy washy theologian, that's okay.

The other thing that I came away with was shock and amusement at some anecdotes, like how Martin Luther was married, I had no idea, and how the Puritans used to carve breasts on their gravestones to symbolize the nurturing nature of God. I admit, I had difficulty wrapping my brain around that one. 'Puritan' is used very nearly synonymously with 'prude', but I have a very hard time imagining a prude carving buxom bosoms onto gravestones, so apparently I need to rework my expectations of what the Puritans were and how they lived. It might help if I read their work instead of reading about them.

The last thing I came away with from this book was a sense of how little humanity has changed. Not only are we rehashing the same theological points that we've been warring over for the last thousand years, but we haven't changed in how we react towards disasters and towards people who think differently than us. These days our governments censor us for hate speech because of the violence and harm it supposedly causes, during the reign of King James, talk of predestination or election was banned for the same reasons. In 2020 people were attacked and vilified for getting the vaccine, for not getting the vaccine, for masking, and for not masking, in 1721 someone lobbed a Molotov cocktail into Cotton Mather's house because he wanted to inoculate people against smallpox. Apparently that was not being submitted to God's will. We haven't changed at all, we are willing to kill other people because we disagree with them.

You'd think we would have grown out of that by now.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read several books for a class on determinism and this was the best. Lots of fascinating denominational history, and it's written by an IU professor. :-]

[Blair Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an intellectual history of the remarkably contentious doctrine. The author, a professor of religious studies, has carefully laid out the origins and permutations of predestination. The crux of the matter concerns how God's plans and power interact with human will. He traces discussion of doctrines from the early Christian Church through Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and Rick Warren, along with a bunch of religious thinkers and movements in between.

As the book's subtitle suggests, his focus is largely on predestination in America, but the early chapters spend time with the early Christian fathers, as well as Spanish, French, Dutch and English doctrinal and cultural standpoints. These early chapters set the stage for analysis including New England puritans, evangelicals, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists and more.

I was particularly impressed by his careful treatment of my own faith tradition (Mormonism) due to his familiarity with up-to-date scholarship and balanced approach. For lack of space he doesn't explore many of the internal developments of Mormon views about predestination, but overall this seems to be one of the best academic overviews of an LDS topic by a non-LDS scholar I've read (chapter 4).

I was also glad to read many surprising things about Calvinism, a theological outlook which I've been particularly loathe to think about in the past. Thuesen is able to contextualize development of Calvinist thought, showing how varied its application has been, and describing social conditions which helped me understand devotional benefits of Calvinism I hadn't encountered. Thuesen isn't preaching for or against Calvinism, either; he is letting a variety of voices relate their positions. His footnotes direct readers to more technical discussions, he avoids taking sides often by referring to the still-contested nature of various historical, philosophical, and theological positions.

Certainly the book isn't flawless. It's occasionally bogged down in ultra-technical discussions of fine theological distinctions and jargon. Thuesen tried to off-set this by including a useful glossary of terms, which also serves as a nice refresher course after you're done reading the book. But jargon isn't always the culprit. The chapter of arguments amongst Lutheran synods became particularly dizzying because of the rapid but long description of multiplying factions. To Thuesen's credit here, this particular chapter (5) was hard to slog through partly because I couldn't wait to get on to the next chapter, rather than because I was hoping for a merciful conclusion to the book.

One suggestion: an appendix citing the most relevant or most employed biblical proof-texts would have been a great addition to the book. A super-cool index could have included the texts in the original languages and a variety of translations. Such a tool may be too much to expect for a printed volume like this. However, a companion website could lay out such things. If such extra effort seems a bit too much to ask, I would have settled for a scripture citation index.

Overall Thuesen's narrative dances. His careful consideration of cultural context, internecine squabbles, and exegetical assumptions place his book beyond a simple restatement of various positions. This is the true strength of Thuesen's book: he is not just relating a bunch of disagreement. He is carefully placing views in context while exploring the ramifications of belief for practicing Christians.

[Nelson Banuchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent an enlightening narrative of the "contentious doctrine" of predestination in America from the puritans until now, and he briefly covers it's history from the time of the apostle Paul to Augustine, Medievalism to the Reformation, Arminianism to the English Reformation, and finally, to American Puritanism. In subsequent chapters, he deals with the contention in America covering it's impact or influence even in Catholicism, Mormonism, unitarianism and other religious bodies or groups. He even mentions to my surprise, how the some parts of the African American community had adherents to Calvinism, even hyper-Calvinism. Personally, I never realized how contentious predestination was, especially, to the point of having records of people having mental illnesses/breakdowns from it's belief in its Calvinistic form. For some reason, my only disappointment was that the author did not state, at the end of the book, his position; I am interested to know.

[James Korsmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating and well-written study of the doctrine of predestination in the American context. The doctrine has been a divisive force in American Christianity, so a focus on it illuminates many aspects of America's religious history (and its religious present). It proves an effective lens through which to take a sweeping tour of the history of Christianity in America, and I learned plenty about how the variety of denominations came to be in America, how they relate to one another, and how that has implications even down to today. Highly enjoyable and informative.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and elucidating. And many reminders throughout that Christian religious experience and interpretation in the United States, even the most contemporary experiences/interpretations, always happen in the the context of religious history in the United States. In other words, there aren't many truly new conversations.

Predestinarianism vs. sacramentalism, in addition to predestinarianism vs. free will, anyone?

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough examination of the churchly and doctrinal disputes over the doctrine of predestination. Not really a cultural or narrative history; it more resembles a history of doctrine lecture one might find in a seminary.

[Stephanie Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent work on the trajectory and path of the theology of predestination within Christianity, and more specifically American Christianity.