In this landmark volume, Samuel Rutherford appears as Scotland’s foremost professor of elenctic theology. Presented in English for the first time, Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response offers a comprehensive examination of the theological roots of one of the most consequential errors in the Christian church.
Rutherford does not confine himself to a handful of theses about salvation. Beginning with Scripture and the knowledge of God, he advances through the divine decrees, the fall, original sin, the accomplishment and application of redemption, covenant theology, justification, perseverance, the church, the sacraments, the magistrate, and the resurrection. The result is a vast theological architecture. Arminianism is exposed not as an isolated doctrinal misstep but as a rival account of God, grace, and the moral order.
Throughout, Rutherford writes as a convinced Augustinian. For him, the debate is nothing less than the perennial contest between divine grace and Pelagian self-reliance. His arguments are exegetical, scholastic, and rigorously ordered, yet never detached from pastoral consequence. Assurance, perseverance, the honor of Christ’s merit, and the immutability of God stand at the center of the controversy.
This volume inaugurates the first complete edition of Rutherford’s works. Based on seventeenth-century manuscripts and early printed editions, and supported by substantial introductions and full scholarly apparatus, it restores to scholars and pastors a major voice of Reformed orthodoxy whose theology has long remained inaccessible.
For historians of the post-Reformation period, theologians of grace, and pastors seeking to understand the doctrinal foundations of the Reformed tradition, this release is a significant event.
Contents
General Preface
Editorial Conventions
List of Abbreviations
Translator's Preface
Introduction: The Cause of God Against the Arminians
Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response
Dedicatory Epistle
Epistle to Matthias Nethen
Preface to the Reader
Endorsement
The Sacred Scriptures and Their Content
God
Election
Reprobation
The State of the First Man
Original Sin
The State of Fallen Man
The State of Grace
Universal Redemption
The Covenant of Grace
The Process of Conversion
The Sinner’s Justification
The Perseverance of the Saints
Certainty of Salvation
The Church and Her Marks
Ministers of the Word
Synods
Sacraments and Church Discipline
The Magistrate
The Soul and the Resurrection of the Body
Acknowledgements
Appendix 1: Original Index of Chapters and Questions
Appendix 2: Manuscript Comparison
Appendix 3: Manuscript Supplement
Biographical Register of Persons and Names
Works Cited
Scripture Index
Subject Index
