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"[Baxter] devised an eclectic middle route between Reformed, Arminian, and Roman doctrines of grace: interpreting the kingdom of God in terms of contemporary political ideas, he explained Christ's death as an act of universal redemption (penal and vicarious, but not substitutionary), in virtue of which God has made a new law offering pardon and amnesty to the penitent. Repentance and faith, being obedience to this law, are the believer's personal saving righteousness. . . The fruit of the seeds which Baxter sowed was neonomian Moderatism in Scotland and moralistic Unitarianism in England."
While I have not studied Baxter closely at all, I thought that he just had highly unorthodox views on things like the Lord's Supper but was loyal to soteriology (didn't he write The Reformed Pastor?)
While I have not studied Baxter closely at all, I thought that he just had highly unorthodox views on things like the Lord's Supper but was loyal to soteriology (didn't he write The Reformed Pastor?)
The adjective "Reformed" has nothing much to do with the one in front of "theology" in "Reformed theology". Rather, it's speaking of the nature of the man who God would have be a pastor - one whose life has been reformed, and who walks and practices his calling accordingly.
Baxter's soteriology is problematic, as one has already noted - he's got issues both with the atonement and with the distinction between justification and sanctification.
That's not all that's problematic about Baxter. He commits the greatest error a theologian can make: He is too wordy! I think he taught James Joyce about 'stream of consciousness'...
While I have not studied Baxter closely at all, I thought that he just had highly unorthodox views on things like the Lord's Supper but was loyal to soteriology (didn't he write The Reformed Pastor?)
The adjective "Reformed" has nothing much to do with the one in front of "theology" in "Reformed theology". Rather, it's speaking of the nature of the man who God would have be a pastor - one whose life has been reformed, and who walks and practices his calling accordingly.
Exactly... In fact I think there is a note to this effect in the introduction of my copy of "The Reformed Pastor"
Baxter's soteriology is problematic, as one has already noted - he's got issues both with the atonement and with the distinction between justification and sanctification.
That's not all that's problematic about Baxter. He commits the greatest error a theologian can make: He is too wordy! I think he taught James Joyce about 'stream of consciousness'...
See Bruce R. Backensto, "John Brown of Wamphray, Richard Baxter and the Justification Controversy," The Confessional Presbyterian 3 (2007) 118-146.
J.I. Packer did his dissertation back in the day on the topic and has a book based on it now.
Also ran across this work:
Amazon.com: A Hot Pepper Corn: Richard Baxter's Doctrine of Justification in Its Seventeenth-Century Context of Controversy: Books: Hans Boersma
Can't comment on this one though.