One of the Last Great Lights: Petrus van Mastricht

Petrus van Mastricht (1630-1706) lived during a key transition from a world with medieval sensibilities to a world of enlightenment. He studied liberal arts and theology, the latter of which he underwent at the Academy of Utrecht. Here, he learned the standard theological textbooks of the Reformed such as Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae alongside exegetical studies of Scripture (1:xxvi). Mastricht thus ministered within the mainstream of Reformed scholasticism, namely, a method of discerning truth by asking questions, listing objections, responding to objections, and stating positively the truth of the topic. In 1677, Mastricht himself took a position at the Academy...