After Calvin: Studies in the Development of a Theological Tradition

Oxford Studies in Historical Theology

by Richard A. Muller

This is a sequel to Richard Muller's The Unaccommodated Calvin (OUP 2000). In the previous book, Muller attempted to situate Calvin's theological work in their historical context and to strip away various twentieth-century theological grids that have clouded our perceptions of the work of the Reformer. In the present book, Muller carries this approach forward, with the goal of overcoming a series of nineteenth- and twentieth-century theological frameworks characteristic of much of the scholarship on Reformed orthodoxy, or what might be called "Calvinism after Calvin."

Genres: Theology, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Richard A. Muller (PhD, Duke University) is P. J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the author of numerous books, including The Unaccommodated Calvin and Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. He also edits the Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought series.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice compilation of essays from Richard Muller on the theme of “Calvin and the Calvinists.” Due to some sour turns in 20th century Reformation historiography, many have split a ditch between Calvin and his orthodox Reformed followers. Muller rejects this and shows why in a series of essays about methodology and practice amongst the orthodox Reformed.

My favorite essays were: “Ad fontes argumentorum: The Source of Reformed Theology in the Seventeenth Century,” and “Calling, Character, Piety, and Learning: Paradigms for Theological Education in the Era of Protestant Orthodoxy."

Recommended for students of Reformation studies.

[Benjamin Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t just a historical survey- it’s a historiographical manifesto that salts the earth that the “Calvin vs the Calvinists” thesis stood on by showing how the Post-Reformation authors were in conscious continuity (though not slavish imitating) with the Reformation, Renaissance, and the whole of the Christian tradition.

[Alex]

Only read Chapter 9, "The Debate over the Vowel Points and the Crisis in Orthodox Hermeneutics"