Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 82:2 (Fall 2020)
Article: A Display Of Learning? Citations And Shortcuts In John Owen’s "Display Of Arminianisme" (1643)
Author: Richard Snoddy

WTJ 82:2 (Fall 2020) p. 319

A Display Of Learning? Citations And Shortcuts
In John Owen’s Display Of Arminianisme (1643)

Richard Snoddy

Richard Snoddy is an Associate Research Fellow at London School of Theology and a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast.

A Display of Arminianisme (1643) was John Owen’s first published work. It gained him recognition and preferment. He had set himself forth as a man with an impressive command of continental Remonstrant sources, but close examination of the work reveals a high degree of dependence on two Contra-Remonstrant compendia for access to many of these sources. Owen’s circumstances are taken into consideration in suggesting reasons for his reliance on intermediate sources before evaluating the implications of these findings for the status of this work and for Owen’s reputation.

In 1643 John Owen published what would be the first of many theological works, going on to produce a body of writing that would establish him as one of the leading theologians of his era and a prominent figure in the Reformed tradition. In Θεομαχία Αὐτεξουσιαστικὴ: or, A Display of Arminianisme,1 he set out his stall as a theological polemicist and succeeded in gaining the attention, and hence preferment, that he desired. Although the work evidences a competent understanding of the theological and philosophical issues involved in the Arminian controversy, Owen’s mastery of Arminian literature may not be all that it appears at first glance. This article will show that tracing the citations in Owen’s marginal apparatus reveals that many of these came to him via intermediate sources, in particular from two compendia. The display of learning in this early work comes, in part, through shortcuts rather than the laborious return journey ad fontes.

WTJ 82:2 (Fall 2020) p. 320

The book’s publication brings to a close a period of Owen’s life about which we know comparatively little.2 He had left Oxford in 1637, unable to observe or swear to uphold the ceremonies introduced in the Laudian revision of the university’s statutes the previous year. This must have been a crushing blow, the death knell for his ambitions for a career in church or academy. He would later suffer a further blow when his support for the Parliamentarian cause led to his being disinherited by the rich Welsh uncle who had funded his education. The departure from Oxford triggered a spell of deep depression, including a period of three months during which he barely spoke.3 He was troubled ...