Postgraduate Course: Calvinist Theology and Piety in Britain and America, c. 1600-1660 (PG) (DIVI11087)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course considers the character of Calvinist theology and piety in England, New England, and Scotland, at a critical stage in the evolution of international Calvinism. It considers the relation between intellectual, social, political, and religious forces and the ways in which these combined to shape national and confessional identities, to promote cohesion, and to sow the seeds of future conflict and division. It also looks at the impact of these changes, both positive and negative, on the lives and beliefs of ordinary men and women, examining them as both passive recipients and active shapers of Calvinist theology and piety. This course offers students an integrated perspective on the dramatic transformations taking place in Church and society in seventeenth-century Britain and America. |
| Course description |
Academic Description:
The course enables students to examine the character of Reformed theology and piety in England, New England and Scotland, at a critical stage in the evolution of international Calvinism, and come to an informed conclusion about its character, importance and influence. It considers the relation between intellectual, social, political, and religious forces and the ways in which these combined to shape national and confessional identities, to promote cohesion, and to sow the seeds of future conflict and division. Taking a comparative approach, the course explores the mind-set of English-speaking Calvinists, mediated to each other through print, personal contact, and similar styles of piety. It does so through the reading and analysing of a wide variety key texts, both primary and secondary, from a range of different national and confessional perspectives. The texts have been chosen to provide a graduated introduction to key theological terms and issues, as well as to illustrate a diversity of perspectives. At the same time students will be encouraged to integrate these perspective into a wider narrative of Calvinism in Britain and America. The aim will be to identify tensions within their confessional traditions, and to understand the diverse contexts in which Calvinist theology and piety took root.
Syllabus/Outline Content:
See below for a prospective outline (precise topics may be subject to change). The course will begin with a historical overview of the period and a discussion of the Transatlantic nature of Calvinism. From here it will explore the Calvinist goal of 'living to God.' It will then explore the influence of two pedagogical movements on Calvinist theology and piety: Medieval scholasticism and Renaissance humanism. The course explores key themes including predestination, covenants and covenant theology, eschatology, mysticism and antinomianism, the Trinitarian controversies, and politics (ecclesial and civil). The final session focuses on Puritan legacies, including divergent paths of theology and piety. Primary texts, including rare books from New College Library, are central to the course. Such texts will be chosen, where possible, to illustrate contrasting theological voices, and secondary texts will help to facilitate contextual understanding. These will address writings across the Calvinist spectrum, from a variety of genres, including works by female polymaths and from the Radical Reformation (including Socinianism and Anabaptism).
Week 1: Atlantic Calvinism
Week 2: Living to God
Week 3: Scholasticism Revived
Week 4: Godly Learning and Schooling
Week 5: The Predestinarian Controversy
Week 6: Covenants and Covenant Theology
Week 7: The New Eden
Week 8: Mysticism and Antinomianism
Week 9: Divine Faith: Logic and the Trinity
Week 10: Politics: Ecclesiastical and Civil
Week 11: Puritan Legacies
Student Learning Experience Information:
This course follows a programme of one combined lecture and seminar per week. Students' preparatory reading of primary and secondary sources will enable contextual, comparative discussion in seminars of different aspects of Calvinist theology and piety. Seminars will involve student presentations of primary texts and major themes, and each week the presenting students will co-lead and facilitate discussion.
Students will also have the opportunity to apply their knowledge through a blog post and a short project examining a non-standard text (such as an image, poem, devotional text, diary entry, or piece of architecture). Students must give at least one presentation, followed by a reflective blog the following week. All students are expected to contribute to the blog and seminar discussion. This involves reading seventeenth century texts, most of which are in New College Library but are also available via Early English Books Online. The readings have been designed to allow for graduated progression through the topics.
Through participation in the schedule of readings, class discussion, presentation, blog post, short project and a final essay, students will demonstrate their achievement of the intended learning outcomes. Students will be offered formative feedback on their presentations, blog posts and at other appropriate points.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 11,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
90 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
10-minute class presentation: 10%«br /»
4,000-word essay: 90%«br /»
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| Feedback |
Students will receive formative feedback as part of their class participation. They will also have the opportunity to submit and receive feedback on an essay plan, by week 6 of the course. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recognise and discuss central theological issues in Calvinist theology and piety.
- Construct a critical argument based on analyses of seventeenth century primary sources (including images, poems, devotional texts, diary entries, etc.).
- Engage with pertinent debates in recent scholarship and critique recent historiography.
- Analyse and evaluate the forms Calvinist theology and piety took in different contexts (common themes and divergences), showing how different social, intellectual, political, and religious factors shaped the culture of theology and piety.
- Demonstrate research skills in use of Early English Books Online and rare books in New College Library, and other library resources for weekly readings and coursework essay.
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Reading List
Asselt, Willem J. van. Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism. Translated by Albert Gootjes. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2011.
Benedict, Philip. Christ's Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Bremer, Francis J. The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards. Lebanon, N.H.: 2013.
Burton, Simon J. G. Ramism and the Reformation of Method: The Franciscan Legacy in Early Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
Burton, Simon J. G. and Matthew C. Baines. Reformation and Education: Confessional Dynamics and Intellectual Transformations. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022.
Coffey, John and Paul Lim, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Durston, Christopher and Jacqueline Eales, eds. The Culture of English Puritanism. New York: Macmillan Education, 1996.
Durston, Christopher and Judith Maltby, eds. Religion in Revolutionary England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.
Hall, David D. The Puritans: A Transatlantic History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.
Ha, Polly. English Presbyterianism, 1590-1640. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010.
Hardman Moore, Susan. Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the Call of Home. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Haykin, Michael A. G. and Mark Jones, eds. Drawne into Controversie: Reformed Theological diversity and Debates within 17th century Puritanism. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011.
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Later Reformation in England, 1547-1603. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.
MacDonald, Alan R. The Jacobean Kirk, 1567-1625: Sovereignty, Polity and Liturgy. London: Routledge, 1998.
Mullan, David George. Scottish Puritanism, 1590-1638. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Murdock, Graeme. Beyond Calvin: The Intellectual, Political and Cultural World of Europe's Reformed Churches, 1540-1620. London: Bloomsbury, 2004.
Muller, Richard A. After Calvin: Studies in the development of a Theological Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Muller, Richard A. Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003)
Ryrie, Alec. Being Protestant in Reformation Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Todd, Margo. The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Trueman, Carl R. and R. Scott Clark. Protestant Scholasticism: Essays in Reassessment. Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1999.
Watts, Michael R. The Dissenters: Volume 1: From the Reformation to the French Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Woolrych, Austin. Britain in Revolution, 1625-1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Creative problem solving and research
2. Critical thinking and reflection
3. Communication skills
4. Effective and influential contributions to group discussion |
| Keywords | Calvinism,Theology,Piety,Britain,America |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Rev Matthew Baines
Tel:
Email: mbaines@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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