Authorised
Puritan Board Freshman
I recently found a book called [u:23054bcde1]Lucifer: the Devil in the Middle Ages[/u:23054bcde1] which is written by Jeffrey Burton Russell, seemingly a non-reformed Christian, though one might be hard pressed to discern whether a Christian or not, considering he is very objective. Anyway, he oftentimes enters rabbit trails in metaphysics and other theological situations while he discusses the "evolution" of how people came to view Satan during the medieval time period; so while I was reading in his fifth chapter titled "Early Medieval Diabology" he begins to discuss a theologian named Gottschalk (804-868/869). Gottschalk's theology was described thusly:
"Where Gottschalk's opponents emphasized free will, Gottschalk insisted upon the absolute need for grace. As a result of original sin we are incapaple of using our free will for anything but sin: we have only a [i:23054bcde1]libertas peccandi.[/i:23054bcde1] Only when Christ works in us through his grace do we have the freedom to do good and to be saved; without grace we are still free only to sin and be damned. Whoever recieves grace has Christ working in him, and Christ cannot be resisted."
He later goes on to criticize Gottschalk's view of election, stating "But he inclined toward a more severe double presdestination. It was not only that God predestined the Devil to hell in the sense of predestining the punishment for sins that the devil freely commits. God could not foreknow something without willing it, for then he would be changeable...the difficulties of Gottschalk's position is that it effectively eliminates freedom of the will...it implies that Christ died only for the elect and that baptism has little effect...That God did not die for the unbaptized or for sinners among the baptized seemed clear to Gottschalk."
Anyone else find this interesting? This is the earliest definite formulation of Calvinism that I have found before the time of Calvin himself. Predictably enough, Gottschalk was condemned as a heretic in 849 at the council of Quierzy, whipped, forced to burn his own books, and confined to a monastary for the rest of his life.
Has anyone else here heard of him?
"Where Gottschalk's opponents emphasized free will, Gottschalk insisted upon the absolute need for grace. As a result of original sin we are incapaple of using our free will for anything but sin: we have only a [i:23054bcde1]libertas peccandi.[/i:23054bcde1] Only when Christ works in us through his grace do we have the freedom to do good and to be saved; without grace we are still free only to sin and be damned. Whoever recieves grace has Christ working in him, and Christ cannot be resisted."
He later goes on to criticize Gottschalk's view of election, stating "But he inclined toward a more severe double presdestination. It was not only that God predestined the Devil to hell in the sense of predestining the punishment for sins that the devil freely commits. God could not foreknow something without willing it, for then he would be changeable...the difficulties of Gottschalk's position is that it effectively eliminates freedom of the will...it implies that Christ died only for the elect and that baptism has little effect...That God did not die for the unbaptized or for sinners among the baptized seemed clear to Gottschalk."
Anyone else find this interesting? This is the earliest definite formulation of Calvinism that I have found before the time of Calvin himself. Predictably enough, Gottschalk was condemned as a heretic in 849 at the council of Quierzy, whipped, forced to burn his own books, and confined to a monastary for the rest of his life.
Has anyone else here heard of him?
