Antoine de Chandieu: The Silver Horn of Geneva's Reformed Triumvirate

Offering the first study in any language dedicated to the influential publications of the French Reformed theologian Antoine de Chandieu (1534-1591), Theodore Van Raalte begins by recalling Chandieu's reputation as it stood at the death of Theodore Beza in 1605. Poets in Geneva mourned the end of an era of star theologians, reminiscing about Geneva's Reformed triumvirate of gold, silver, and bronze: gold represented Calvin; silver Chandieu; and bronze Beza. Van Raalte's work sets Chandieu within the context of Reformed theology in Geneva, the wider history of scholastic method in the Swiss cantons, and the gripping social and political milieux of this tumultuous time. Chandieu was far from a mere ivory tower theologian: as a member of French nobility in possession of many estates and castles in France, he and his family acutely experienced the misery and triumph of the French Huguenots during the Wars of Religion. Connected to royalty from the beginning of his career, Chandieu later served the future Henry IV as personal military chaplain and cryptographer. His writings run the gamut from religious poetry (put to music by others in his lifetime) to carefully-crafted disputations which saw publication in his posthumous Opera Theologica in five editions between 1592 and 1620. Chandieu had developed a very elaborate form of the medieval quaestio disputata and made liberal use of hypothetical syllogisms. Van Raalte argues that Chandieu utilized scholastic method in theology for the sake of clarity of argument, rootedness in Scripture, and certainty of faith.

About the Author :
Theodore G. Van Raalte serves as Professor of Ecclesiology at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, ON, having earned his Ph.D. in historical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in 2013. His areas of research and publication include not only Antoine de Chandieu, but also Guillaume Farel, the Reformation in the Swiss Cantons, the French Reformed Churches, and certain pseudonymous works of the period.

Review :
"At last, a deep dive into Antoine de Chandieu's theological treatises, perhaps the most neglected of all of the aspects of the life and work of this fascinating and versatile figure, at once pastor, poet, plotter and professor. Focusing on Chandieu's method, Theodore Van Raalte situates him within the long sweep of medieval and early modern Aristotelianism and the emergence of baroque scholasticism." --Philip Joseph Benedict, Professor Emeritus of Reformation History, University of Geneva "Van Raalte successfully provides a comprehensive view of the life and works of Antoine de Chandieu. He takes us on a tour along the stations of Chandieu's life, from before the Synod of the French Reformed Churches in 1559 through his final works of 1592. Notions of reformed confession and scholastic theology emerge from this investigation of Chandieu as he is finally being drawn out of the shadows of history."--Erik de Boer, author of The Genevan School of the Prophets: The Congregations of the Company of Pastors and Their Influence in 16th-Century Europe "Though long neglected by contemporary scholarship, the reformed minister Antoine de Chandieu played a strategic role in the religious crises and theological disputes of French Protestantism in the second half of the sixteenth century. Van Raalte's impressive monograph skillfully charts the complex and shifting landscape of reformed theological discourse during this tumultuous period, and demonstrates Chandieu's enormous contribution to it."--Scott M. Manetsch, Professor of Church History, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School