Arminius on the Assurance of Salvation: The Context, Roots, and Shape of the Leiden Debate, 1603–1609 (review)

This well-focused study provides a comparative analysis of the soteriology of the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (ca. 1559–1609). It examines in particular the doctrine of assurance, dealing with the individual believer's certainty of salvation. One of the less metaphysical aspects of soteriology, assurance was in fact, as Stanglin argues in this book, a "principal point of departure" for Arminius's theology (243–44). As such, this investigation addresses the roots of the Arminian controversy.

The perspective of this study is interesting, for while the nature of Arminianism has been the subject of many studies, focusing in particular on the tensions between strict Calvinists and more liberal forces in the Netherlands and England, the thought of Arminius himself has received considerably less detailed attention. Stanglin's case study will therefore occupy a useful place between Carl Bangs's seminal biography (rpt. 1998) and recent studies of Arminius in the context of Reformed scholasticism by Richard Muller and Eef Dekker.

In the introduction Stanglin criticizes previous research for its "myopic," "a-historical," and frequently biased use of sources. By contrast, Stanglin's ambition is to help historians and theologians understand "what the Arminian controversy was and is all about" (11) by studying Arminius's works in their full academic context. Chapter 2 is devoted to the historical basics of this academic setting. Here the reader is introduced to Arminius's colleagues within the Leiden faculty of theology and to the scholastic discourse of the academic disputation.

Moving from the academic context to doctrinal positions, chapters 3 and 4 examine various aspects of Arminius's soteriology. An analysis of the disputations produced between 1603 and 1609 leads Stanglin to conclude that the main differences between Arminius and the other Leiden theologians are his emphasis on faith as a condition for election, and his belief in the resistibility of grace. On many other topics, however, such as the causes of justification or the significance of grace, they essentially agree. Similarly, in regard to sanctification (the transformation of the regenerate to a state of holiness), Arminius's thought corresponds in many respects to that of his opponents. All agree that the unregenerate could never fully obey God's law. All emphasize the necessity of good works, not, of course, as a condition for justification, but as its consequence. In contrast to his colleagues, however, Arminius has a more dynamic view of the elect's potential in this process. This leads to a more optimistic interpretation of the efficacy of sanctifying grace, but also to a belief in the possibility of apostasy.

On the basis of this systematic analysis of the ontology of salvation, Stanglin proceeds to investigate its epistemology, in which the doctrine of assurance takes a central place. This final part of the book starts with an extensive historical introduction, followed by analyses of Arminius's undermining of existing notions of assurance (chapter 5) and its new grounding (chapter 6). Emphasizing the practical, pastoral importance of the topic, Stanglin points out that Arminius, in his attempt to avoid the extremes of "desperatio" (lack of hope) and "securitas" (lack of care), deemed the latter a bigger risk than the former. Prevalent conceptions of unconditional predestination provided a false sense of security. Instead, Arminius argued that hope should be grounded in God's love.

Overall, Stanglin brings admirable clarity to a highly technical aspect of religious history. At times, however, this reviewer would have preferred more attention to the historical contexts that shaped Arminius's thought. For despite Stanglin's repeated claims to offer a contextualized intellectual history, this book almost exclusively engages in doctrinal analysis of the Leiden theologians. Attention for the wider social context, e.g., connections between Arminius's pastoral experience and his doctrinal ideas, or for transconfessional influences, such as the Molinist...