ar·dent
/ˈärdnt/
adjective
- enthusiastic or passionate.
Dr. Garrett was and is enthusiastic and passionate about Jesus and theology. (I write “is” because God is the God of the living, not the dead.)
I am somewhat confident he was not Reformed based on some discussions I had with him in my “Theology of American Cults” class back in early 1990. I had a lengthy dialogue with him regarding “Seed Faith” theology as related to the “New Thought” movement that birthed Christian Science, Unity, and a number of other cults.
A few weeks after that discussion, I purchased the book, “The Agony of Deceit,” which had just come out, and Michael Horton was analyzing TV preaching from a Reformed perspective. Garrett considered it a slight weakness of the book, limiting its audience, since all biblical Christians can agree that many TV preachers are often rank heretics if we analyze their teaching by simply a broad ecumenical Christian standard.
I know that Garrett affirmed perseverance of the saints, so he was not Arminian. But I also don’t think he was Reformed.
As a systematic theology professor, Garrett refrained from explicitly presenting his own views in order not to unduly influence his students, and sought to treat multiple viewpoints fairly. At the same time, I had the sense that his viewpoints were highly nuanced and would not easily fit in typical categories.
Garrett apparently wrote a series of articles on Calvinism that appeared in the Alabama Baptist that critiqued Calvinism. Tom Ascol wrote what appears to be a fair and helpful critique of Garrett’s articles that you can find here:
Leo Garrett | Category | Tom Ascol Blog |
Ascol helpfully provides hyperlinks to the original Garrett articles which I recommend you read before Ascol’s comments to provide the proper context.
