Hallowing of logic : the Trinitarian method of Richard Baxter’s Methodus Theologiae
View/ Open
Burton2011.docx (617.4Kb)
Date
01/07/2011Author
Burton, Simon James Gowan
Metadata
Abstract
While Richard Baxter (1615-91) is well known and rightly held in high esteem
for his practical divinity and his evangelistic zeal, he has hitherto been
conspicuously neglected as a theologian. In particular there have been no major
studies of him with respect to the renewed paradigm of Protestant Scholasticism
and none at all of his Methodus Theologiae (1681), which represents the fruit of
a lifetime of theological reflection and study and which is arguably, in both
scope and vision, one of the last great Summas of English scholastic divinity.
This thesis focuses on the Methodus and on Baxter‟s theological method, which
he took, though imperfect, to be the closest to the true Scripture method of
theology that anyone had yet come.
Baxter believed that every level of (active) created reality reflected the impress
of God‟s Triune being in metaphysical composition, structure and activity. This
he described, following the Italian metaphysicist Tommaso Campanella, in terms
of the divine primalities or principles of Power, Wisdom and Love. In the
Methodus these insights are systematised into a kind of Trinitarian logic. Baxter
held that human reason should be sanctified in order to conform to the
Trinitarian structure of created reality, and therefore espoused a method of
trichotomising organised according to these same divine principles, derivative of
both Ramist and Lullist method. This thesis argues that the whole of Baxter‟s
mature thought is structured in a Trinitarian fashion according to his own
„hallowed logic‟ and that two themes, often interlinked, are the key to
interpreting his thought: the metaphysics of the divine principles and the
Christian‟s baptismal covenant with the Triune God. Furthermore it examines
Baxter‟s analogical ascent from the general vestigia Trinitatis present in the
whole created order through the special vestigium of man‟s soul fashioned in the
image of God and finally to the Trinity itself. This detailed exposition provides
the basis, in the concluding chapter, for an examination of the whole of the
Methodus and a demonstration that this represents a methodological unfolding of
the covenant between the believer and God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the
threefold Kingdom of Nature, Grace and Glory. In this way the Methodus may be seen as having taken its inspiration from the Theo-Politica (1659) of Baxter‟s
friend George Lawson.
Finally this thesis concludes that Baxter‟s thought has pronounced Scotist and
Nominalist accents. His Scotism in particular runs deep and has strong ties with
his Trinitarian thought, which is especially significant in light of the recent
increasingly vocal discussions of the Scotist character of Protestant
Scholasticism. Overall therefore it is suggested that Baxter is a neglected figure
who deserves to be rediscovered and whose mature theology represents a
fascinating reconstrual of biblical ideas according to a Trinitarian and scholastic
paradigm.