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Discusses how criteria for historical certainty & apologetics merged in response to the issues raised by rational Cartesian epistemology & Pascalian irrationalism. The relations between Pascal's La Logique ou l'art de penser (Logic or the Art of Thought), commentaries by Arnaud & Nicole in La Perpetuite de la foy de l'eglise catholique touchant l'eucharistie deffendue contre le livre du sieur Claude ([The Perpetuity of the Faith of the Catholic Church about the Eucharist, Defended against the Book of Monsieur Claude] 1669), & the work of Claude are developed. Other topics discussed include the doctrine of testimonialism & veridical, fact-based theological arguments. Pierre Bayle asserts that a relative confidence in the verifiability of historical truth should replace the historical Pyrrhonism, but with the understanding that verifiability can only be expressed as a rejection of the testimonials to the truth of faith. J. Sadler

Discusses how criteria for historical certainty & apologetics merged in response to the issues raised by rational Cartesian epistemology & Pascalian irrationalism. The relations between Pascal's La Logique ou l'art de penser (Logic or the Art of Thought), commentaries by Arnaud & Nicole in La Perpetuite de la foy de l'eglise catholique touchant l'eucharistie deffendue contre le livre du sieur Claude ([The Perpetuity of the Faith of the Catholic Church about the Eucharist, Defended against the Book of Monsieur Claude] 1669), & the work of Claude are developed. Other topics discussed include the doctrine of testimonialism & veridical, fact-based theological arguments. Pierre Bayle asserts that a relative confidence in the verifiability of historical truth should replace the historical Pyrrhonism, but with the understanding that verifiability can only be expressed as a rejection of the testimonials to the truth of faith. J. Sadler

Presents an analysis of Fenelon's critique (Refutation du systeme du P. Malebranche [Refutation of the System of P. Malebranche]) of Malebranche's Traite de la nature et de la grace (Treatise on Nature and Grace). In the first seven chapters, Fenelon shows that Malebranche destroys divine freedom, making this world the only world possible. Similar arguments showing the contingency of the world & divine liberty are traced to their post-Cartesian origins in exchanges between G. W. Leibnitz & Arnaud, as well as to the work of St. Thomas Aquinas & H. Gouhier. It is noted that Fenelon's critique stopped short of advocating an opposing form of determinism, such as in the case of Arnaud. J. Sadler

A reflection on A. M. Ramsey's Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion (1748-49) discussing liberty as free will, & liberty & self-determination belonging to the rational subject. Ramsey argues that liberty is the eternal, immutable, & universal law in the world, which applies equally to loving God for oneself, & loving all other creatures in proportion to their resemblance to God. Tolerance & political liberty are justified by virtue of universal salvation & freedom, & the universality of grace & the free cooperation of intelligent creatures. While Ramsey's politics aligned with exiled Jacobites, he was also guided by providentialism in protecting the integrity of divine & human freedom, & in choosing a conciliatory, but skeptical, approach to English rule. His classic defense of Freemasonry drew on his position in the organization in France in the 1730s. J. Sadler

Discusses the debate between John Locke & the Remonstrants, especially Dutch theologians Philippus van Limborch, Jacobus Arminius, & Simon Episcopius, in the 17th century. The Remonstrants' concepts of indifference & the freedom of indifference are presented, & implications on theological & political ideals as found in the work of Ugo Grozio, Cornelius de Witt, & Adriaan van Paets are identified. Despite their strong friendship & intellectual affinities, Locke & van Limborch were sharply divided on the issues of indifference in relation to the will & free judgment of man. An appendix reproduces the English text of Pelagius redivivus, or Pelagius Raked Out of the Ashes by Arminius & His Schollers (1626), written originally in Latin by English clerics supportive of Augustinianism, & drawing parallels between Remonstrant (Arminian) doctrines & those of Pelagius. Accusations of heterodoxy against Remonstrant doctrine were nourished by this work that proposed the Remonstrants' polemical assimilation of the heresy of Pelagius. 1 Appendix. J. Sadler