“Justified by Faith? Franciscus Gomarus on the Crucial Issue with Jacob Arminius”, in: Henk van den Belt, Klaas-Willem de Jong, en Wim van Vlastuin (eds.), A Landmark in Turbulent Times: The Meaning and Relevance of the Synod of Dordt (1618–1619), Refo500 Academic Studies vol. 84, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022, 131–146.

Next to the well-known debates on predestination, the views of Jacobus Arminius
on the doctrine of justification deserve attention. On several occasions, Arminius
and his opponent Franciscus Gomarus discussed this topic, until shortly before
Arminius’s death in October 1609. Arminius denied that the righteousness of Christ is the material cause of our justification, and instead held that the act of faith itself is, by God’s ‘gracious estimation’ counted as righteousness. Gomarus, on the contrary, insisted on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness as the ground of justification and on an merely ‘instrumental’ role of faith. In further analysis, it is shown that Arminius’s views show a remarkably similarity to those of Faustus Socinus, the notorious Italian freethinker. Though the Synod of Dordt did not make the doctrine of justification a central topic in its Canons, its ongoing teaching on election, grace and faith stands in clear contrast to the decisive role assigned to the human act of faith by Arminius, both in predestination and in justification.