# Puritans/Protestant Scholastics



## py3ak (Nov 9, 2008)

Which of the Puritans would fall into the category of Protestant Scholastics? Obviously there were Protestant Scholastics (for instance on the Continent) who would not be considered Puritans, but were there any Puritans who were not also Protestant Scholastics?


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## MW (Nov 9, 2008)

Perhaps the difference comes down to whether the individual was engaged in University level teaching, e.g. Samuel Rutherford, or conducted his ministry in the parish, as with the Alleines; and in some cases, as with Dr. Owen, one can see the scholastic in his polemical works and the pastoral in his more practical writings.


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## py3ak (Nov 9, 2008)

Yes, I wondered about that. Of course at times the scholastic seems to irrupt into the pastoral as well!


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## JohnOwen007 (Nov 10, 2008)

Hey Ruben, it must be remembered that, as Richard Muller has cogently shown, "Scholasticism" is fundamentally a _methodology_. Once that is grasped then we can recognise that (as Matthew rightly noted) Scholasticism went on in the universities, and from time to time the methodology dripped out into sermons, commentaries, catechisms, and other such genres.

However, it was the desire of people like William Perkins in the work of preaching and popular writing, to reach everybody no matter how little educated. Hence, the scholastic terminology was attempted to be left in the study. I say "attempted" again because the scholastic methodology was so ingrained that from time to time it was used almost unwittingly in the pulpit.

Blessings brother.


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