Teaching Predestination: Elnathan Parr and Pastoral Ministry in Early Stuart England

In Teaching Predestination, David H. Kranendonk focuses on the ministry of an early seventeenth-century Puritan-leaning theologian, Elnathan Parr (1577–1622). Although relatively unknown today, Parr’s works were popular in his own day. Kranendonk’s survey contributes a nuanced picture of this English Reformed pastor and demonstrates that Parr’s scholastic development of predestination, coupled with his pastoral concern for the salvation and edification of his hearers, resists the caricature of Reformed Scholasticism as being a philosophically speculative system. Here one sees the practical use of predestination for the care of souls as Parr and others aimed to help increase the faith and joy of God’s people.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Elnathan Parr’s Life and Ministry

3. Elnathan Parr’s Principles of Preaching

4. Elnathan Parr’s Exposition of Romans

5. Elnathan Parr’s Grounds of Divinity

Conclusion