Dr. Fred Sanders • The Davenant Institute • www.davenantinstitute.org

"Trinitarianism Thick And Thin: A Robust Doctrine Capable Of Simplification" - Dr. Fred Sanders

A lecture with Q&A given by Dr. Michael Lynch entitled "The Jesuits Cannot Be Good Subjects: A Look at John Davenant’s Political Theology" with respondent Dr. Glenn Moots.

John Davenant is a long neglected Reformation figure, whose work on hypothetical universalism has had a renaissance. But what about his political theology?

In this lecture, Davenant Hall Teaching Fellow Michael Lynch explores John Davenant’s political theology in his early modern English context. Using lectures Davenant gave at Cambridge during his professorship and Davenant’s untranslated Latin treatise on the Judge of Controversies, Lynch explains how Davenant conceived of magisterial jurisdiction relative to ecclesiastical jurisdiction and in opposition to Roman Catholic political theology.

The Jesuits Cannot Be Good Subjects: A Look at John Davenant’s Political Theology

If all the trees in all the woods were men; 
And each and every blade of grass a pen; 
If every leaf on every shrub and tree 
Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea 
Were changed to ink, and all earth's living tribes 
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes, 
And for ten thousand ages, day and night, 
The human race should write, and write, and write, 
Till all the pens and paper were used up, 
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup, 
Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink 
Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.

Cacoethes Scribendi

The Davenant Institute advances and renews Christian wisdom for the contemporary church. We seek to sponsor historical scholarship at the intersection of the church and academy, build networks of friendship and collaboration within the Reformed and evangelical world, and equip the saints with time-tested resources for faithful public witness.

The Jesuits Cannot Be Good Subjects: A Look at John Davenant’s Political Theology

The Davenant Institute

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