Philosophy and Theology in early Puritanism: William Ames’ Criticism of Metaphysic

• Main Author: Rodion Valentinovich Savinov
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Theological Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), 2019-12-01
• Series: Религия, церковь, общество
• Subjects: reformation; metaphysics; theology; puritanism; discussions
• Online Access: http://rcs-almanac.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/savinov_2019.pdf

The article discusses the content of the «Theological Disputation against Metaphysics» by William Ames, one of the creators of Puritan theology. It is shown that Ames’ disputation against metaphysics and the line of his argumentation, firstly, goes back to the scholastic discussions about the content of Corpus Aristotelicum, and secondly, is rooted in the criticism of secular knowledge that was given by the Reformers (Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon and others). Besides, it was a moment in the confessional debate with the project of the Catholic «natural theology», presented by Suarez’s treatises. At last, it substantiates a new understanding of human activity, associated primarily with the practical, rather than contemplating meaning of human life that reflects the characteristic of the Post-Reformation culture.