The Act Lectures of John Prideaux

Abstract

Chapter 1 focuses on the Act Lectures that Prideaux delivered in Oxford between 1616 and 1624. The series exhibits the breadth, interconnectedness, and pastoral orientation of the Reformed Conformist vision of grace. As the teaching that Oxford’s senior theology professor delivered on the most public occasion in the university calendar, Prideaux’s Act Lectures represent something close to an official statement of English orthodoxy. They are useful both in terms of the range of topics that they cover and because they offer a coherent account of Reformed Conformist teaching on grace that locates specific debates on the topic within their wider theological context.