Irenic Writers

The writers who appear in this category could appear in others too, and sometimes we will duplicate the entries for the sake of completeness. They did not necessarily constitute a tightly unified school of opinion, but they were all animated by a spirit of charity and love of unity where unity was possible, and their willingness to stand above faction and the odium theologicum distinguishes them. They were often charged by their contemporaries with “indifferentism” or “syncretism”. We will not excuse their occasional weakness of conception; but to call men who cared for Christ above all things “indifferent” seems the grossest of mistakes. We will include those who not only sought composition of differences in doctrine, but also those who sought for unity in the family of Christian commonwealths, such as Leibniz.