This monograph is based on the author's dissertation and is part of a body of scholarship that explores the metaphysics of the Reformation. Aspray contends that the metaphysics of the Reformation cannot be examined from just a historical perspective, and she uses “a philosophical-theological approach” for her research of Reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562). She views Vermigli as a neglected figure of the Reformation and his ideas as important representatives of the movement.
The monograph consists of an introduction that lays out the book's method and approach, and Aspray places her work in context with key scholarship of the Reformation. There are four chapters, each examining Vermigli's writings on key points of Reformation theology. Chapter 1 explores Vermigli's views on divine and human agency and causality; chapter 2 looks at his take on justification and grace; chapter 3 addresses his understanding of the divine presence and the Eucharist; chapter 4 delves into political authority and the role of the magistrate; and the conclusion places the findings of the study in the broader context of the Reformation. Aspray chose Vermigli as the focus of this study for several reasons. He held a wide range of connections to other Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century; his works were widely disseminated; and his work straddled the divide between Scholasticism and humanism.
Chapter 1 explores how Vermigli “directly addresses the question of how God is at work in the world and how divine and human agency relate” (29). Aspray relies on Vermigli's commentaries on the books of Samuel and on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics based on lectures the Protestant Reformer gave in the 1550s. The chapter seeks to illuminate the tensions in Vermigli's writing on “the interplay of divine and human agency” (30). Vermigli believed in divine providence and original sin: only with God's help can people become more virtuous. He used the metaphor of man as a “poison-jar” to explain man's inability to achieve salvation without God.
Chapter 2 focuses on Vermigli's three treatises on justification, where Vermigli tackled how God bestowed grace on his believers. The Reformer wrote theological scholium with biblical commentaries on Genesis, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and Paul's letter to the Romans. Through these texts, Aspray explores Vermigli's understanding on human's union with Christ and how grace works. Aspray notes that “Vermigli stresses that believers should not think that they can subsist in the divine judgement because they have led a virtuous life of holy and noble actions” (58). They must receive righteousness from God.
Chapter 3 examines Vermigli's position on divine presence in the Eucharist. Vermigli was a prominent voice in the eucharistic controversies, debating both Catholics and Lutherans. Aspray notes that even John Calvin praised Vermigli's work on the Eucharist. For this topic, Aspray utilizes three central works, including the Oxford Disputation and Treatise on the Eucharist (1549), the Defensio (1559) against Stephen Gardner, and Vermigli's Dialogue on the Two Natures of Christ. Aspray is particularly interested in what Vermigli's eucharistic theology “implies about his understanding of the relationship between the finite and the infinite” (82).
Chapter 4 delves into Vermigli's political theology and the role of secular authority. Aspray links Vermigli's extensive writing on political issues to the Reformer personally facing religious persecution and exile. Aspray limits the scope of this chapter to the metaphysical framework revealed in Vermigli's work, and to engaging with other scholarship on the topic. According to Aspray, Vermigli saw the magistrate as someone chosen by God to govern and “therefore hold[ing] a crucial socially unifying function” (116). Aspray views two metaphysical models present in Vermigli's “Ideal Commonwealth”: “one participatory (in the case of the magistrate), and the other univocal (in the case of the word of God” (135).
Aspray offers a convincing argument that Vermigli's writings and ideas reflect the period of transition he inhabited between the Middles Ages and the modern world. She wonders if the “metaphysical pluralism” she observes in Vermigli “may well be characteristic of the sixteenth century more broadly” (138). She asserts that the tensions present in Vermigli's work reflect the human condition. This complex theological study is aimed at Reformation scholars, and it is an important contribution to the place of metaphysics in the Reformation.
