Fausto Sozzini

Fausto Sozzini
Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus; 1539–1604), the Italian theologian namesake of Socinianism.[1]
Born
Fausto Paolo Sozzini

5 December 1539
Siena, Republic of Siena in the Holy Roman Empire
Died4 March 1604(1604-03-04) (aged 64)
Lusławice, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Notable workExplicatio primae partis primi capitis Evangelistae Johannis (1563), Disputatio de Jesu Christo servatore (1578), De sacrae Scripturae auctoritate (1580s), De statu primi hominis ante lapsum disputatio (1610)[1]
Theological work
LanguageItalian, Neo-Latin
Tradition or movementSocinianism[1][2][3]
Notable ideasDenial of divine foreknowledge regarding the actions of free agents,[2] Rejection of the pre-existence of Christ[2]
Fausto Sozzini
EraProtestant Reformation[2][3]
Radical Reformation[2][3]
Main interests
Nontrinitarian Christian theology[2][3]
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Fausto Paolo Sozzini, or simply Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus; Polish: Faust Socyn; 5 December 1539 – 4 March 1604), was an Italian Renaissance humanist and theologian,[1] and, alongside his uncle Lelio Sozzini, founder of the Nontrinitarian Christian belief system known as Socinianism.[1][2] His doctrine was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Polish Reformed Church between the 16th and 17th centuries,[1][3][4] and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period.[1][3][5]

Fausto Sozzini recollected most of his uncle Lelio's religious writings by traveling over again his routes throughout early modern Europe, and systematized his Antitrinitarian beliefs into a coherent theological doctrine.[1] His polemical treatise De sacrae Scripturae auctoritate (written in the years 1580s and published in England in 1732, with the title A demonstration of the truth of the Christian religion, from the Latin of Socinius) was highly influential on Remonstrant thinkers such as Simon Episcopius, who drew on Sozzini's arguments for viewing the sacred scriptures as historical texts.[6]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Biagioni, Mario (2018). "SOZZINI (Socini), Fausto". Enciclopedia Treccani. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 93. Rome: Treccani. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Mortimer, Sarah (2010). "The Socinian Challenge to Protestant Christianity". Reason and Religion in the English Revolution: The Challenge of Socinianism. Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 13–38. ISBN 978-0-521-51704-1. LCCN 2010000384.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Williams, George Huntston (1995). "Chapter 28: The Rise of Unitarianism in the Magyar Reformed Synod in Transylvania". The Radical Reformation (3rd ed.). University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press. pp. 1099–1133. ISBN 978-0-943549-83-5.
  4. ^ M. Hillar: "Poland's Contribution to the Reformation: Socinians/Polish Brethren and Their Ideas on the Religious Freedom," The Polish Review, Vol. XXXVIII, No.4, pp. 447–468, 1993. M. Hillar, "From the Polish Socinians to the American Constitution," in A Journal from the Radical Reformation. A Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 22–57, 1994. M. Hillar, "The Philosophical Legacy of the XVIth and XVIIth Century Socinians: Their Rationality." in the book "The Philosophy of Humanism and the Issues of Today," eds. M. Hillar and F. Prahl, pp. 117–126, American Humanist Association, Houston, 1995. Marian Hillar, "The Philosophical Legacy of the 16th and 17th Century Socinians: Their Rationality." In The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, Alan M. Olson, Executive Editor, Vol 4. Philosophies of religion, Art, and Creativity, Kevin Stoehr (ed.), (Charlottesville, Virginia: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1999) Marian Hillar, "The XVIth and XVIIth Century Socinians: Precursors of Freedom of Conscience, of Separation of Church and State, and of the Enlightenment." In Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, Vol. 9, pp. 35–60, 2001, eds. Robert D. Finch, Marian Hillar, American Humanist Association, Houston, TX 2001. Marian Hillar, "Laelius and Faustus Socinus Founders of Socinianism: Their Lives and Theology." Part 1. Journal from the Radical Reformation. Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism, Vol. 10, No. 2. Winter 2002. pp. 18–38. Marian Hillar, "Laelius and Faustus Socinus Founders of Socinianism: Their Lives and Theology." Part 2. Journal from the Radical Reformation. Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism, Vol. 10, No. 3. Spring 2002. pp. 11–24.
  5. ^ Wilbur, Earl Morse (1952) [1945]. "The Unitarian Church under Calvinist Princes: 1604-1691". A History of Unitarianism: In Transylvania, England, and America. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 121–122.
  6. ^ Daugirdas, Kęstutis (2009). "The Biblical Hermeneutics Of Socinians And Remonstrants In The Seventeenth Century". Arminius, Arminianism, and Europe. 39: 87–114. Retrieved 6 May 2019.