Perspectief 2019-43

2019-43 111 Bookreview Dordt in context: Gereformeerde accenten in katholieke theologie by Gijsbert van de Brink. Artios-reeks. Uitgeverij Groen – Heerenveen, 2018. 193pp. ISBN 978-90-8897-184-6 Prof. dr. Eduardo Echeverria Gijsbert van den Brink, holder of the University Research Chair in Theology & Science in the Theology Faculty, Vrije Universiteit, Am- sterdam, has written an informative study in historical theology on the Synod of Dordt and its final product, the Canons of Dordt (1618- 1619). The Canons affirm the Reformed doctrine of divine election, or unconditional predestination, election and reprobation, in rejec- tion of the Five Articles of the Remonstrants (1610). The Articles affirmed, for ex- ample, conditional election, resistible grace, unlimited atonement, rejecting total depravity, and the “once saved, always saved” presupposi- tion of the teaching regarding the perseverance of the saints (13-23, 45-67). Van den Brink gives a diachronic and synchronic account of the Canons’ assertions about divine election. Regarding the former, he gives a “bird’s eye view” of the history of what the Canons teach by tracing this teaching back to Augustine, to his doctrinal struggle with Pelagius, onward to the medievals, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas, Blessed John Duns Scotus, leading us to the Protestant Reformers, such as Luther, Calvin, Bullinger, and Beza (24-44), and, last but not least, to Jansenism (105-121). He also