Basil Hall and the Protestant humanists

Posted on | February 22, 2010 | No Comments

I’ve recently started reading Basil Hall’s classic Humanists and Protestants (T&T Clark, 1990). I stumbled on it by accident while doing other research, but I’ve been amazed by the depth of scholarship in Hall’s work. He comes out strongly in favor of the early humanistic impulse in Bucer and Calvin, in particular, which he views as necessarily distinct from the later scholasticism of Calvin’s heirs. While I’m not convinced that the humanism and scholasticism of the Protestant tradition can be so easily disintegrated (historically or practically), Hall does present some fascinating case-studies to bolster his point. Particularly fascinating (so far) are his chapters on “The Reformation City” and Bucer’s theology of diakonia. A future chapter promises to delve into the troubles inherent in defining “Puritanism,” which should be a fun ride.

I’d be interested if anyone else has read Basil Hall, or has any thoughts about how his work fares in respect to the historical arguments of Muller, Grabill, etc.

Side note: for a more recent take on the humanist vs. scholastic debate (perhaps more commonly tagged as Calvin vs. the Calvinists), there’s a fascinating section in Charles Partee’s recent The Theology of John Calvin — “Three Introductory Conclusions.” Partee dissents from Muller, R. Scott Clark, and other modern scholastics who view Calvin more as a “starter” than a “closer,” requiring the more systematic formulations of his followers.

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Theopolitical is the weblog of Davey Henreckson, a graduate student in theology at the University of Notre Dame. Topics of conversation are political and historical theology, with semi-frequent forays into literature, economics, localism, and the divine American sport -- baseball.

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