The Calvinist International
In his discussion in the Enchiridion Theologicum of “actual sin” (actuale peccatum), the fruit of “hereditary/original sin,” Niels Hemmingsen makes several divisiones, the first of which may be slightly confusing on an initial reading: the division between mortal and venial sin. While he keeps the traditional terminology, he differentiates the two kinds contingently rather than essentially. He […]
In his On the Law of Nature (from which I’ve quoted several times previously), Niels Hemmingsen identifies the end, or goal, of political life (not “politics” in the crass sense in which we use the term today, but in the sense of communal life together in a commonwealth). He finds that justice, harmony, and God […]
Today is an important day in the history of the Church. Ok, I suppose that’s not entirely accurate; but it’s important to me, so I’m going to post about it anyway. July 29 is the anniversary of the day on which the Lutheran Niels Hemmingsen, at the time Denmark’s most famous intellectual and academic and held […]
Hemmingsen continues on in his Enchiridion theologicum on the senses in which freedom is, and is not, left to man after the Fall. He has so far affirmed freedom in the first three degrees of action. Before he moves on to the fourth degree, he says this: “There are, moreover, two types of actions that pertain […]
The next installment from Niels Hemminsen on the “degrees of action” in his “Theological Handbook” (Enchiridion theologicum). In the previous post, we saw that Hemmingsen holds that free choice remains after the Fall in the first three degrees: actions held in common with beasts, actions of reasons, and “ecclesiastical works.” In today’s excerpt he gives […]
I recently posted an excerpt from Niels Hemminsen’s “Theological Handbook” (Enchiridion theologicum) in which he analyzes the four “degrees” of action that are possible for man. He does this in the context of a discussion on free choice (liberum arbitrium) (n.b., not “free will”) in order to further analyze the freedom in those various types […]
In the section on free choice (liberum arbitrium) of his “Theological Handbook” (Enchiridion theologicum), Niels Hemmingsen divides actions into four types, or “degrees” (gradus). It is a helpful analysis of the different types of action that are possible for human beings. The first “degree” are actions we share with beasts: Let the first degree of […]
In the “Demonstration of the First Table [of the Decalogue]” in his De lege naturae (“On the Law of Nature”), Niels Hemmingsen gives the following explanation of the ordering of the first four of the Ten Commandments (the first three according to the Lutheran numbering). First, the commandments: “You shall have no other gods before1 me. 4 d“You […]
In the dedicatory epistle to his De lege naturae, Niels Hemmingsen remarks that some might say that, because of the existence of contradictory laws among various commonwealths, justice is a matter of opinion, not nature. In most instances, then, it would be the opinion of the strong that would determine justice, because the strong would be […]
In the Enchiridion Theologicum (“Theological Handbook”), Niels Hemmingsen, in discussing man in the fallen state and the consequent necessity he has of faith in Christ for regeneration (which he identifies with the restoration of the image of God), quotes Augustine (De libero arbitrio 2.20.54) to strengthen his point: we must lay hold in faith of Jesus […]