Reformed Orthodoxy in Scotland

Recent decades have witnessed much scholarly reassessment of late-sixteenth through eighteenth-century Reformed theology. It was common to view the theology of this period—typically labelled ‘orthodoxy’—as sterile, speculative, and rationalistic, and to represent it as significantly discontinuous with the more humanistic, practical, and biblical thought of the early reformers. Recent scholars have taken a more balanced approach, examining orthodoxy on its own terms and subsequently highlighting points of continuity between orthodoxy and both Reformation and pre-Reformation theologies, in terms of form as well as content. Until now Scottish theology and theologians have figured relatively minimally in works reassessing orthodoxy, and thus many of the older stereotypes concerning post-Reformation Reformed theology in a Scottish context persist. This collection of essays aims to redress that failure by purposely examining post-Reformation Scottish theology/theologians through a lens provided by the gains made in recent scholarly evaluations of Reformed orthodoxy, and by highlighting, in that process, the significant contribution which Scottish divines of the orthodox era made to Reformed theology as an international intellectual phenomenon.

An excellent collection ... This volume successfully illuminates various aspects of Scottish Reformed Orthodoxy ... [and] will undoubtedly serve as a key reference point for future discussions about theology in the early modern Scotland., This impressive book is a commendable achievement by all involved., Just as the older scholarship set Calvin against his European and English Reformed successors, so too an influential school of thought has sought to set the Scottish Reformation against Scottish Reformed orthodoxy. This fascinating volume, composed of an impressive collection of essays by both younger and senior scholars in the field, demonstrates once again that the older paradigm should be doubted., Clear, interesting, and persuasive ... A significant volume focused on an important but, until recently, neglected part of the history of Scottish theology. I found reading the book quite an education.

Aaron Clay Denlinger, PhD, is Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Reformation Bible College in Sanford, Florida.