THE THEOLOGY BEHIND TOLERATION

Philippus van Limborch (1633–1712) ;

Theologia Christiana ad Praxin Pietatis ac Promotionem Pacis Christianæ Unicè Directa [First Edition] [John Locke Confidant] [1686] [Johann Christoph Wolf Copy]

Amstelædami: Apud Henricum Wetstenium, 1686.
FROM REFORMATION THEOLOGY TOWARD RELIGIOUS TOLERATION.
First edition of Philippus van Limborch's principal theological work, published in Amsterdam in 1686. As professor at the Remonstrant Seminary, Limborch developed a systematic theology emphasizing free will, practical piety, liberty of conscience, and Christian peace in opposition to strict Calvinist predestination. Contemporary and later biographical sources identify the Theologia Christiana as his most important work.

LIMBORCH AND JOHN LOCKE.
The book appeared while Locke was living in exile in the Netherlands and developing his own arguments for religious toleration. Limborch became a close friend and intellectual companion; Locke composed his Epistola de Tolerantia during the winter of 1685–86 and addressed it to Limborch. Their discussions and correspondence placed both men within the developing European debate over liberty of conscience and the proper limits of religious authority.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: A SUBSTANTIAL AMSTERDAM QUARTO.
Quarto, approximately 8 by 9.75 inches. [16], 916, [36] pages. Latin text printed in double columns. Title page printed in red and black with woodcut printer's device; decorative woodcut initials, headpieces, and tailpieces throughout. Modern dark cloth library buckram with gilt spine titling and patterned endpapers.

CONDITION: Rebound in sturdy library cloth with firm hinges and a solid structure. The text block has a pronounced diagonal warp or ripple through approximately the first 300 pages, gradually flattening by about page 390. Pages mildly age-toned with scattered foxing. Early dark brown ink blot at page 780. Ex-library markings include bookplate and small ink stamps to the title page and preliminary leaves.

PROVENANCE:  THE JOHANN CHRISTOPH WOLF COPY.
Signed on the title page by Johann Christoph Wolf (1683–1739), the German Lutheran theologian, Hebraist, and bibliographer best remembered for his Bibliotheca Hebræa. Wolf's ownership gives the volume an important early scholarly association directly connected with the religious scholarship of the period.
Then AN INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.
Additional marks record the book's subsequent passage through institutional collections, including an 1880 Wesleyan Library Society stamp and the Hammond Library at Chicago Theological Seminary. The volume was deaccessioned.

RELIGIOUS AND INTELLECTUAL SIGNIFICANCE: THE REMONSTRANT SYSTEM DEFINED.
 The Theologia Christiana provided a comprehensive presentation of Remonstrant theology, developing the tradition associated with Jacobus Arminius, Simon Episcopius, and Stephan Curcellaeus. Against strict Calvinist predestination, Limborch emphasized human moral freedom, practical Christianity, and the possibility of peaceful coexistence among Christians divided by doctrine.

IN LOCKE'S INTELLECTUAL CIRCLE.
Its publication in 1686 places the book at an especially important moment. Locke was then in the Netherlands and in close contact with Limborch. Both men were actively considering religious toleration, and scholarship notes the similarity of their ideas and the likelihood that they discussed them directly. Locke's famous Letter Concerning Toleration, written during this same period and addressed to Limborch, makes their relationship central to the history of early modern arguments for religious liberty.

FROM THEOLOGY TOWARD THE ENLIGHTENMENT.
The importance of the book therefore extends beyond the history of Arminianism. Limborch's emphasis on conscience, reason, moral choice, and religious peace places the Theologia Christiana within the broader intellectual movement away from seventeenth-century confessional conflict and toward Enlightenment debates over toleration and individual belief.

A SCHOLAR'S COPY.
Johann Christoph Wolf's ownership adds another dimension. Rather than an anonymous institutional copy, this volume was once part of the working library of a significant early eighteenth-century theologian and Hebraist. That association substantially strengthens an otherwise compromised copy whose modern rebinding and institutional history would ordinarily limit its collector appeal.

SUBJECTS: Remonstrants, Arminianism, Systematic Theology, Church History, Religious Toleration, Dutch Imprints.
GENRES: Ex-Library Copy, First Edition, Early Printed Book.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Short Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN) 101063784; USTC 1836779.

Item #22437

Price: $375.00