Reformed Scholasticism: Recovering the Tools of Reformed Theology

by Ryan M. McGraw

Ryan McGraw presents an introduction of historic Reformed orthodoxy (1560–1790) and its research methodology. This book establishes the tools needed to study Reformed scholasticism and its potential benefits to the church today by describing the nature of Reformed scholasticism and outlining the research methodology, the nature and the character of this branch of theology, and providing a retrospective view on the contemporary appropriations.

McGraw discusses the proper use of primary and secondary sources and offers instructions on how to write historical theology. Each chapter draws extensive examples from primary source evidence, published books and articles in this field; as well as engaging with a wide range of ancient and medieval sources. This volume is an excellent guide for students as it teaches them how to identify primary and secondary sources, suggests good links and tips for learning Latin; and provides an overview of the most important figures in the period.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 24, 2019

About the author

Ryan M. McGraw is the pastor of First Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Sunnyvale, CA (http://firstopc.org/). He ministered previously to Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Conway, SC. Pastor McGraw is a graduate Cal State Fullerton (B.A.) and of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (MDiv and ThM). He obtained his PhD in historical theology from the University of the Free State (Jonathan Edwards Centre Africa). Ryan is Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and he is a Research Associate for the Jonathan Edwards Centre Africa. He regularly contributes articles and book reviews to numerous publications. He is married to Krista, and they have three sons. You can listen to his sermons at http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_det...

Reviews

[Andreas Jongeneel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit relatief dunne boek is een complete introductie in de Gereformeerde Scholastiek. Als je dit boek vergelijkt met Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism (die ik in het Nederlands las, uiteraard...) is dit boek praktischer, overzichtelijker en inhoudelijk breder.

McGraw begint met de methode van historisch onderzoek. Hij legt uit welke bronnen je kan gebruiken en op welke manier, welke vaardigheden je nodig hebt en besteed aandacht aan de historiografische kant van het vakgebied.

Hierna geeft McGraw een overzicht van de methode en termen van de Gereformeerde Scholastiek. Een aantal termen en definities worden uitgelegd. Een aantal kenmerken van de Gereformeerde Scholastiek worden uiteengezet, zoals de universiteiten, continuïteit/discontinuïteit en verhouding ten opzichte van de katholieke traditie.

Daarna komt het karakter van de Gereformeerde Scholastiek aan bod, waarin enkele regionale verschillen en nadrukken worden behandeld. Er is ruime plaats voor de Nederlandse tak. Niet alleen vanwege de theologie aan de universiteiten, maar ook de Nadere Reformatie geven een eigen smaak aan de scholastiek. Interessant was dat de nadruk op de zichtbare kerk een reactie was op Jean de Labadie en deze nadruk meer een kenmerk is van de Nadere Reformatie dan vroomheid. Alle gereformeerde theologie richtte zich op de vroomheid. Het is dan mijn vraag hoe deze nadruk beland is in de vrijgemaakte traditie, wat is dan de invloed op de Nadere Reformatie op de Doorgaande Reformatie?

Verfrissend is dat het boek wordt afgesloten met een bezinning op de waarde van onderzoek naar de Gereformeerde Scholastiek. De leerwinst is niet alleen academisch, McGraw wijst ook het nut aan voor persoonlijke groei en nut voor de kerken.

Het boek is compleet, duidelijk en allesomvattend. Het motiveert en is realistisch over wat dit onderzoek vraagt van iemand. Desondanks is het ironisch dat McGraw de tijd neemt om de prijs van sommige academische bronnen te verdedigen, de boeken zijn duur zodat het degelijke en verantwoorde producten zijn (blz 63), terwijl dit boek zelf nogal wat in het oog springende taalfouten bevat, veelal in de titels van sommige bronnen. Dat is waarschijnlijk meer de schuld van de uitgever, maar jammer is het wel. dit boek is voor een paperback ook niet goedkoop,om nog maar van de hardcover te zwijgen. Maar desondanks is dit boek een complete en motiverende inleiding tot de Gereformeerde Scholastiek.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

McGraw, Ryan. Reformed Scholasticism: Recovering the Tools of Reformed Theology.

Aim: to introduce the research methodology and characteristics of Reformed scholastic theology (McGraw 3). While there are several fine books on Reformed Scholasticism, McGraw’s takes farther the goal of teaching the student how to research the Reformed scholastics. Not only does McGraw devote more space to explaining the “hows” of scholastic methodology, he approaches as a teacher explaining to his students.

Scholasticism, as McGraw makes clear, “promotes clarity and precision in thinking” (4). By itself it suggests no added content to the faith, either good or bad.

Whereas Willem Van Asselt wrote a fine introduction to Reformed Scholasticism, Ryan McGraw shows the reader how to do research in Reformed Scholasticism.

Choosing a Topic of Study

Pick a topic that interests you. Separate what interests you from what is feasible.
Answer historical questions rather than contemporary ones. For example, avoid asking whether Owen’s Trinitarianism is Eastern or Western. Owen would not have cared.
Read widely in primary source literature.
Read secondary sources related to your topic. Even if secondary literature cannot replace primary sources, it can add focus to the topic.
Develop the argument from primary sources “first and foremost.”
Set your subject in the international context of Reformed theology.
Writing Historical Theology: Opening considerations

A theological foundation for history is not the same as a theological interpretation of history.
Ask historical questions of a topic/person rather than contemporary ones.
Delay value judgments.
Neutrality is impossible; objectivity is not.
Avoid anachronisms, usually the reading of current terminology into a historical figure.
To better analyze the data, minimize block-citations.
Show development, continuity, discontinuity, and trajectory.
Beginning to Write

Narrowing the thesis. Consider using terms of relationship between a figure and x.
Provide a preliminary bibliography.
It is better to start writing quickly than to drown in information.
Do not raise questions you do not intend to answer.

[Jordan Coy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ryan McGraw has written a history writing guide focused on the subject of reformed scholasticism. Though this book does have some brief history lessons, it is mainly a guide on how to write history, evaluate sources, and a survey of the current historiography on reformed orthodoxy. It is not primarily a history book or an introduction. It is a writing guide for a practitioner and will be most useful for grad students and professional historians. If you are interested in this subject and need help to focus your reading and research, this book is a good guide.

Evaluating Sources

“Good history must be rooted in primary sources. One of the primary reasons why Richard Muller’s studies of Reformed scholastic theology have revolutionized this field lies in his careful reading of historical sources on their own terms and in their own contexts” (page 17)

“Reading secondary literature to help select a topic and narrow its scope into a thesis should not replace primary source reading, but it can help students gain a better sense of the state of current research as they attempt to state their own research questions more clearly and accurately” (21)

Secondary literature can teach students what questions to ask, where to look in relation to primary sources, and they help students learn where their own research can potentially contribute something to ongoing scholarly discussions about a subject. Identifying relevant secondary literature relates to learning how to both recognize scholarly sources and find literature analogous to one’s subject (52)

Tips to learn latin:

After one year of study, he (Ryan McGraw "this author") gained enough skill in the language to read almost any Reformed scholastic text that he needed to for research purposes. A necessary caveat to add is that scholastic texts, in this author’s opinion, are easier to read than classic and early church texts, due to their use of standardized theological terms and to the familiar paths of theological debate (36)

"In this author’s view, the easiest to use beginner’s text is Suitbertus Siedl’s Cursus Linguae Latinae Vivae.51 This text begins with Latin and English text and shifts quickly to Latin only. The textbook is brief, yet it will furnish students with at least a 1000-word Latin vocabulary by the end of the course." (36)

"SPQR is a Latin App available for mobile devices. It includes a range of older Latin grammars, the ability to use and make vocabulary cards, and a host of classic and ecclesiastical Latin texts, including the Vulgate Bible, Augustine’s Confessions, and Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. In addition to its inclusion of interesting texts, the primary benefit of this tool is that readers can highlight unknown words in Latin books and find their definitions without constantly opening a separate Latin dictionary." (38)

"This author began practicing Latin by working through this text by digesting ten pages per day. The key is to set small goals and to be consistent. Once a student completes a Latin book, then they should start reading another. Small doses of Latin reading are less overwhelming than overly ambitious goals and the material gained accumulates more quickly than you may realize." (40)




"Cambridge historian Quentin Skinner is known for the using the phrase, seeing things their way, to describe his historical method. While Skinner recognized that a contemporary historian can never fully understand the thoughts of historical figures in historical contexts, the goal of his historiographical method is to come as close as possible to doing so by learning to ask historical questions rather than contemporary ones" (71)


What is Scholasticism

"According to Leinsle, two obvious features stand out with regard to scholasticism. The first is that scholasticism refers to the method employed for teaching theology in the schools...while scholasticism is not less than a theology of the schools, it must be a bit more as well for the term to retain any meaning. The second feature of scholasticism, according to Leinsle, is its attempt to teach theology using tools drawn from the scientific methods current at the time. With respect to high medieval and post-Reformation theology, this primarily meant using Aristotelian categories and distinctions. Scholasticism was thus a method of teaching theology in the schools in light of current scientific methods" (115)

"Declamations represented a more positive approach to presenting theological topics than disputations. Students were expected under this method to present their positions from the ground up rather than merely by responding to opposing viewpoints. This did not exclude refuting errors, but the starting point and the focus of the declamation differed from that of the disputation" (116)

"If Francis Turretin exemplified the disputation model clearly, then Johannes Heidegger illustrates a fuller expression of the Reformed system, including declamatory style. Johannes Markcius’s (1665–1731) full theological system generally followed the declamation pattern as well, while including elements of the disputation style in its elenctic sections." (116)

"distinctions were a preeminent mark of scholastic theology in any century. Johannes Maccovius (1588–1664) illustrates this point well in that he wrote an entire book introducing his students to the terms and distinctions that they would need to know to study theology in the university. Richard Muller observes that Reformed scholastics employed four kinds of logical distinctions: distinctio realis, distinctio formalis, distinctio rationis ratiocinatae, and distinctio rationis ratiocinans." (117)


4/5 A useful technical guide to writing history on the subject of Reformed Scholasticism

[Joseph Ficklen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about how and why to study Reformed Scholasticism. McGraw identifies many continuities between medieval scholasticism and the post-Reformation era, in which the Confessions were produced. This book corrects the notions of many such as Francis Schaefer, who ascribed to Thomas Aquinas the downfall of Christian theology, by demonstrating that scholasticism, as a *method* (and not a school of thought) deeply enriched Christian doctrine and practice in the 17th and 18th Centuries. My biggest takeaway from this book is to see the Enlightenment as a more radical breaking point in the history of the church than the Reformation. I recommend this book to students of historical theology, and readers of the English Puritans, to help gain greater context to their writings.

[Inwoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely helpful, yet we have the freedom to not agree with every conclusion.

This work whets my appetite for Latin to study it every day.

Also, it’s important to also read the footnotes. I was surprised and irritated to hear about Thomas Watson, thank the Lord that he retracted that statement.

[Michael Kenan Baldwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and helpful.