Contrar demonstrators

Contraremonstrants (formerly also Gomarists and in the Netherlands also known as the Preciezen ) are a Calvinist religious community named after the Leiden theologian Franciscus Gomarus .

The core of the religious tendency of the counter-demonstrators was the strict interpretation of Calvin's doctrine of predestination , according to which the fate of men was predetermined by God. The counter-demonstrators taught that there was an eternal resolution to elect and reject human beings (the so-called predestination), on the basis of which it was already established before the creation of the world who would be saved forever and who would be damned. Man has no free will ; the elect would be converted by God and bestowed with eternal life , while the rejected would walk towards eternal damnation (double predestination).

Thus the contraremonstrants stood in stark contrast to the supporters of Jacobus Arminius , the remonstrants , according to whose opinion the initiative comes from people and who thus emphasized the freedom of will and belief of the people.

At the Dordrecht Synod in 1618/1619, where the Dordrecht doctrinal rules were adopted, the views of the Remonstrants were condemned by the Reformed Church , and the Gomarists' interpretation predominantly prevailed.

literature

• Alister McGrath : Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution. A history from the sixteenth century to the twenty first . Harper One, San Francisco 2007, ISBN 978-0-06-082213-2 .