Calvinist theologain. Turretin was the grandson of an Italian Protestant who emigrated to Geneva and the son of a leading Swiss theologian in the early seventeenth century. Benedict Turretin was a proponent of the orthodox Calvinism formulated at the Synod of Dordt (1618-19), and he promoted the Canons of Dordt in Switzerland and France. Francis advocated the same sort of Calvinism as his father, and is most widely known for presenting orthodox Calvinism in a scholastic manner.
Francis was born and died in Geneva, but was educated in a variety of theological centers; Geneva, Leiden, Utrecht, Paris, Saumer, Montauban, Nimes. In 1647 he became pastor to the Italian congregation in Geneva, and in 1653 he was named a professor of theology as well. He was named a professor of theology as well. He was known for his mild and friendly personality as known for his mild and friendly personality as well as for his unbending interpretation of Calvinism. In 1675 he published the Formula Consensus Helvetica, and in 1688 his famous four volume work, the Institutio, one of the fullest expressions of Calvinist scholasticism. Francis died in Geneva and was succeeded in his pastoral and teaching positions by his son, Jean Alphonse (1671-1737). Jean Alphonse, contrary to his father, worked to remove the scholastic Calvinist standards.
Francis Turretin's theology is generally what became known as Calvinist orthodoxy in the tradition of Theodore Beza and the Dutch theologians who opposed Arminius. In addition, it reflected the idea of verbal biblical inspiration as written into the Helvetic Consensus Formula of 1675. Turretin's contribution to this theology was to create precise and complete doctrinal positions. Calvin's theology provided the framework, and Turretin developed carefully worded dogmas based on scripturally derived principles. Though Calvin, using a more humanist scholarship, allowed contradictions and problems to stand, Turretin sought to present the most complete set of logical deductions possible in order to reject unorthodox interpretations and to present a biblical and complete theology. Doctrines deduced from the "decrees of God" provided Turretin with his basic approach to all theology; thus, Calvinist orthodoxy concentrated for the most part on ideas about predestination, reprobation, and salvation by unmediated grace.
This orthodoxy was not maintained in the eighteenth century. Questions about biblical texts were raised by theologians who continued to use humanist exegesis and by others who questioned orthodox ideas of verbal inspiration (Helvetic Consensus) and infallibility (Belgic Confession). Also, theologians such as Turretin's son played down the use of precise doctrines that tended to divide Protestants; instead, they identified basic beliefs (as the Apostles' Creed) in order to promote unity. Francis's theology was revived, however, in the nineteenth century by the American Presbyterians of the Princeton school of theology, most notably Charles Hodge. Turretin's Institutio was reprinted in 1847, and became a standard textbook for orthodox training in American Presbyterianism.
R. J. VANDERMOLEN