# Kevin DeYoung on John Witherspoon and Benedict Pictet as Reformed apologists



## Reformed Covenanter (Feb 15, 2020)

In Kevin DeYoung's thesis, he draws parallels between Benedict Pictet of Geneva and John Witherspoon:

Alongside the titles of president, moral philosopher, and founding father should be a new category: John Witherspoon as Reformed apologist. Like Benedict Pictet (1655-1724), Witherspoon held firmly to the tenets of confessional Calvinism. And like Pictet, Witherspoon was eager to show that the truths of supernatural revelation could be squared with reason. Witherspoon lived in an age of transition where the tenets of orthodox Christianity were under assault. His aim as a minister was to defend and rearticulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without ever altering or disguising it. This is Witherspoon the Reformed apologist (on both sides of the Atlantic) and the Witherspoon largely unknown today. …

Alongside the titles of pastor, president, educator, philosopher, and founding father should be a new category: John Witherspoon as Reformed apologist. Like his theological mentor, the Genevan theologian Benedict Pictet (1655-1724), Witherspoon held firmly to the tenets of confessional Calvinism. And like Pictet, Witherspoon was eager to show that the truths of supernatural revelation (i.e., historic, orthodox, Reformed theology) could be squared with reason.

Kevin DeYoung, ‘John Witherspoon and “The Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel”: The Scottish Career of an American Founding Father’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 2019), abstract, p. 7.

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## Reformed Covenanter (Feb 15, 2020)

@Jeri Tanner - here is something that is broadly relevant to a question you once asked concerning John Witherspoon:

The published address _John Witherspoon and His Times_ (1890) by James McCosh is intriguing, though (due to the constraints of the genre) underdeveloped. McCosh argues that Witherspoon’s political views can be traced to the Solemn League and Covenant, an often overlooked argument which suggests that Witherspoon’s thought even in the political realm was shaped more by the Reformed tradition than by Enlightenment thought.

Kevin DeYoung, ‘John Witherspoon and “The Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel”: The Scottish Career of an American Founding Father’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 2019), p. 8.

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## Jeri Tanner (Feb 15, 2020)

Reformed Covenanter said:


> @Jeri Tanner - here is something that is broadly relevant to a question you once asked concerning John Witherspoon:
> 
> The published address _John Witherspoon and His Times_ (1890) by James McCosh is intriguing, though (due to the constraints of the genre) underdeveloped. McCosh argues that Witherspoon’s political views can be traced to the Solemn League and Covenant, an often overlooked argument which suggests that Witherspoon’s thought even in the political realm was shaped more by the Reformed tradition than by Enlightenment thought.
> 
> Kevin DeYoung, ‘John Witherspoon and “The Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel”: The Scottish Career of an American Founding Father’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 2019), p. 8.


Thanks Daniel. I’ll share this with some at church who may find it of interest as well.

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