This is an unedited reprint of a collection of tracts about the doctrine of the Trinity published by Thomas Firmin (1632-97) in 1691. It was a major shot in a war of words among Anglicans about the doctrine of the Trinity from about 1687-98. (For an overview of this, see Dixon's Nice and Hot Disputes.) The first part contains some writings from Firmin's long-departed friend John Bidle (Biddle) (1615-62) - the first prominent English unitarian. The second contains seven controversial, anonymous writings, about half of which are thought to be by Firmin's friend, the Reverend Stephen Nye (1648-1719). Some central points: the traditional, Athansian doctrine of the Trinity is inconsistent with itself, and with the Bible. Further, several then-recent traditionalist attempts to spell out what the Trinity doctrine amounts to are criticized. These tracts include the second, revised edition of A Brief History of the Unitarians, Called also Socinians. In Four Letters to a Friend.

The relationship between English conformity and the Arminian tradition has long defied neat explanation. In Bisschop's Bench, Samuel D. Fornecker charts the incompatible theological agendas into which post-Restoration Arminian conformity proliferated and challenges the thesis that a monolithic Arminianism marched steadily from the post-Restoration period into the early Hanoverian. Fornecker examines the theological life of the English Church by paying particular attention to the Arminian conformists who accentuated Reformed divinity in an unprecedented display of disambiguation from the Dutch Arminian tradition and those who exercised authority from the Bishops' bench. By demonstrating the scope of intra-Arminian divergence and the negatively defined consensus that united traditionalist clergy otherwise at odds over grace and predestination, Bisschop's Bench provides an illuminating perspective on the Arminian tradition in the political, confessional, and educative contexts of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England.

Mathematics and the Divine seem to correspond to diametrically opposed tendencies of the human mind. Does the mathematician not seek what is precisely defined, and do the objects intended by the mystic and the theologian not lie beyond definition? Is mathematics not Man's search for a measure, and isn’t the Divine that which is immeasurable ? The present book shows that the domains of mathematics and the Divine, which may seem so radically separated, have throughout history and across cultures, proved to be intimately related. Religious activities such as the building of temples, the telling of ritual stories or the drawing of enigmatic figures all display distinct mathematical features. Major philosophical systems dealing with the Absolute and theological speculations focussing on our knowledge of the Ultimate have been based on or inspired by mathematics. A series of chapters by an international team of experts highlighting key figures, schools and trains of thought is presented here. Chinese number mysticism, the views of Pythagoras and Plato and their followers, Nicholas of Cusa's theological geometry, Spinozism and intuitionism as a philosophy of mathematics are treated side by side among many other themes in an attempt at creating a global view on the relation of mathematics and Man’s quest for the Absolute in the course of history. · Mathematics and man's quest for the Absolute · A selective history highlighting key figures, schools and trains of thought · An international team of historians presenting specific new findings as well as general overviews · Confronting and uniting otherwise compartmentalized information