A reformed Catholike : William Perkins' use of the church fathers / David M. Barbee.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Barbee, David M.

Contributor:

Matter, E. Ann, advisor.

Todd, Margo, committee member.

Safley, Thomas Max, committee member.

University of Pennsylvania. Religious Studies.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Religious studies.

Religious studies--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Religious studies.

Religious studies--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xii, 375 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

2013.

Summary:

William Perkins (1558-1602) has been subject to various divergent interpretations as a Puritan, Reformed scholastic, or Pietist, all of which look exclusively at either medieval or early modern sources for his thought or trace his influence forward into the eighteenth century. He rejected the first description and would not have recognized the other two. None of these consider his claim to be carrying on the faith of the early church fathers. While there are a fair number of studies that have examined the church fathers and the earlier generations of Protestants, little has been done to explore the use of patristic sources by later generations of Protestants. This study addresses that lacuna while also challenging previous interpretations of Perkins' thought by exploring his sources. Perkins was influenced by the church fathers in his approach to theology as a discipline, in the construction of doctrine against Roman Catholics, and in his concept of the formation of Christian character. I intend to show how the fathers shaped Perkins' work at critical junctures and where he may have borrowed concepts from them, even though he did not cite his sources. By offering a close reading of a few of Perkins' works where he explicitly cited the church fathers, we can see how they were used and abused. Perkins served in four primary complementary capacities during his lifetime---scriptural exegete, theologian, polemicist, and pastor. The chapters of this dissertation unfold along these lines as representative texts for each of these functions from the Perkinsian corpus is explored and the patristic foundations surveyed. A fresh interpretation of Perkins' thought is offered here that not only takes into consideration more recent reassessments of Puritanism and Reformed scholasticism, but also pushes beyond revisionist accounts to illustrate the lines of continuity between patristic authors and Perkins.

Notes:

Adviser: E. Ann Matter.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Religious Studies) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

865238452