Faith and Reason in the thought of Moise Amyraut

Abstract

Disagreements about biblical interpretation in the seventeenth century derived from a variety of sources, including the following: the distinction between canonical and apocryphal texts, the literalness or otherwise with which texts should be understood, the choice of translations and, fundamentally, the role of reason and authority, especially the authority of churches, in interpreting the Scriptures. Moise Amyraut (1596-1664) addressed the last of these issues in a number of writings and provided an interesting Calvinist response to a cluster of epistemological questions which confronted both theologians and philosophers at the time.¹ In examining Amyraut’s account of the role of faith and reason in religious belief, it is helpful to compare it with the views popularly presented by Cartesian contemporaries in the name of the Roman Catholic tradition and to discuss the extent to which both views can be usefully called ‘rationalist’.

Article Footnote

For a survey of Amyraut’s life and writings, see Brian G. Armstrong, Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969).