PREDESTINAZIONE

The tension between divine justice and mercy is one of the oldest theological axes of Christianity. From this tension, and from attempts to think through its implications, the doctrine of predestination emerged. In the sixteenth century predestination became a fundamental point on which the distance between the Radical Reformers and the solutions adopted by the Reformation churches was measured. In responding to both the theoretical challenge and the ecclesiological, civil, and political implications of an increasingly schematic predestinarianism, the Radical Reformation produced a variety of alternatives. This essay seeks to identify and examine their main tendencies and distinctive features.