The teachings of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), who reacted strongly to the Calvinist teaching on double-predestination. Arminius taught that our salvation or damnation is not simply a matter of eternal predestination but is determined also by our free-will. For Reformed theologians we are save because we have been predestined. Arminius taught that it is God's decree to save all who repent; our salvation is, therefore, predicated on our response to God's grace and dependent on His foreknowledge of our faith and perseverance. Put in caricature, it may be said that Reformed teachings asserts that we were predestined and therefore grace proved effective, whereas Arminianism affirms that because grace proved effective, we are "predestined" (that this last participle is not one they would use because of its Calvinistic overtones).
Arminius's teaching was developed by his students and published in the five theses of the Remonstrant Articles (1610). These say:
1. Predestination is conditional on a person's response and grounded in God's foreknowledge,
2. While Christ died for each and every person, only those who believe are saved,
3. No one, however, can believe unless he is empowered by divine grace,
4. This grace is irresistable,
5. Whether all those so regenerated by faith and grace will persevere cannot be determined before hand.
These articles naturally provoked a great deal of controversy, made all the more threatening amidst the gathering storms of inter-national conflicts that would soon erupt into the Thirty Years' War. The Dutch Church called a synod at Dort between 1618-19, in which the five points were refuted (out of which the Calvinists came up with their own five counter-points we now know as TULIP) and resulted in condemnation of the Articles and exile of many of their proponents.
The Synod of Dort did not, however, extinguished the flame of Arminianism. Its influenced spread, and in the British Isles their influence was to be witnessed in two particular significant experiences. Charles I was to become so deeply affected by the Arminianism of his Bishop, William Laud, that he sought to impose his own liturgical reform in the Church in Scotland. It sparked a violent uproar that led first to the Bishops' Wars, and via a torturous series of twists in events, to the English Civil War which ended with his own defeat and beheading. A century later, Charles Wesley would find Arminianism consonant with his own heart and it became the recognized perspective of the Wesleyian or Methodist denomination he founded.
Today most Christians are more open and tolerant of Arminianism than the early Calvinists did, and it is not uncommon to find many thoughful Christians who believe that the truth of the matter is to be found somewhere between the assertions of Calvin and Arminius.
Further Reading & Resources:
Bruce Ware, Systematic Theology I. Lecture 4: Calvinism and Arminianism. BiblicalTraining.org.
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John A. Aloisi, "Jacob Arminius and the Doctrine of Original Sin," Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 21 (2016):183-205.
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Society of Evangelical Arminians. You will find almost everything you want to know about the subject here. N
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