On the Death of Christ - And Other Atonement Writings

John Davenant’s Death of Christ remains the most significant and comprehensive example of English hypothetical universalism. Coming on the heels of the Synod of Dordt, Davenant’s Death of Christ is a scholastic treatise dealing with the question of the extent of Christ’s atonement-for whom did Christ die? Avoiding both the Scylla of Arminianism and Charybdis of certain strands of Reformed theology, Davenant employs Scripture, reason, and testimonies from ecclesiastical history in defense of the so-called Lombardian formula: Christ died for all people sufficiently; efficaciously for the elect alone.

John Davenant’s On the Death of Christ, a classic of English Reformed thought on the atonement, is now available in a new translation by Dr. Michael Lynch–the first in modern English. This book also features two shorter letters which Davenant wrote on this topic to both the French Reformed churches and to Herman Hildebrand.

428 pages.

From the book:

“It is truly a matter of sorrow and great sadness that, either from the misfortune or the disease of our age, those mysteries of our religion made known to us for the peace and comfort of our souls are consistently made a topic of litigation and argument. Who could ever have thought that the death of Christ, which was designed to establish peace and destroy enmity, as the Apostle says in Eph 2:14, 17 and Col. 1:20–21, could have become such a fertile ground for begetting such quarrels? Yet, this situation seems to arise from the innate curiosity of human beings, who are more anxious to scrutinize the hidden purposes of God than to embrace the benefits openly offered to them. Accordingly, because there is so much bickering about the question of for whom did Christ die and for whom did he not die?, each of us spends too little time considering that the death of Christ ought to be applied to ourselves by a true and lively faith for the salvation of our own souls.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

A Dissertation on the Death of Christ

1. On the Origin of the Controversy
2. On the Death of Christ, as the Universal Cause of Salvation, Applicable to All Mankind
3. Response to the Objections of Our Opponents
4. The Second Thesis Stated, Explained, and Confirmed
5. The Third Thesis Stated, Explained, and Confirmed
6. The Last Thesis Stated, Explained and Confirmed
7. Concerning the Death of Christ, As It Regards the Predestined Alone

Other Atonement Writings

1. The French Theologians of the Reformed Churches
   Debate About the Will of God Towards Human Sinners
2. Letter to Herman Hildebrand