Predestination, Policy and Polemic

This important work refutes a currently fashionable consensus that maintains that the English Civil War can be seen as primarily the result of a Laudian and Arminian assault on a previously predominant Calvinism. According to this picture, the isolation of the court from Calvinist opinions, and the aggressive Arminian policies pursued during the reign of Charles I, ultimately drove previously law-abiding Calvinists into counter-resistance to the king and the church hierarchy. Arguing against sharp polarities, Peter White denies the existence of any sharply-defined "Calvinist consensus" into which "Arminianism" made deep and fateful inroads. The doctrinal evolution of the English Church is thus seen as a story to which theologians of contrasting churchmanship both contributed.