TOTAL DEPRAVITY: WOOHOO! More reader emails, very informative, from Lauren Coats. Email #1: “The doctrine of total depravity was badly named – it doesn’t state that we are as bad as we could possibly be.

“The so-called “5 points of Calvinism” were formulated as answers to Jacobus Arminius, Dutch theologian. To my mind, they suffer accordingly. Designed to answer specific things, they are rather fragmentary in nature. Arminius argued that not all of our faculties were affected by the Fall. Specifically, he exempted Reason and Will. Total Depravity stated that all parts of our being were influenced by the Fall and consequently, none were completely trustworthy.

“Indeed, the Dutch Calvinists regarded themselves as defending Augustinianism from Pelagianism. Rightly or wrongly, they considered Arminius to be the spiritual descendant of Pelagius. Broadly speaking, that disagreement, in one form or another, has continued in both Catholic and Protestant churches right up to the present day. At best, there has been an uneasy truce.

“My own feelings are mixed. Both sides have Scriptural arguments in their favor.”

Later Coats added, “The Calvinist positions were further revised and extended of course, most famously by the Dutch theologian Ursinus(No, I don’t know how he got the nickname ‘Bear,’ but he’s rarely called anything else.) in the Heidelburg Catechism, and by the Scots Presbyterians in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. If you got your data from U.S. Presbyterians, they were probably thinking of the Westminster Standards, which are much more detailed(and harsher), as they attempt a systematic exposition where the Five Points did not.”