Reforming Good Works in Geneva : Benedict Pictet’s Doctrine of Good Works and His Place in Late Reformed Orthodoxy

A sweeping reinterpretation of Pictet’s theology

In this groundbreaking study, Miller shows how Bénédict Pictet – the heir to Francis Turretin’s chair of theology in Geneva, who ministered in the twilight years of Geneva’s Reformation – sought to press the necessity of good works to its limit without compromising the Reformed doctrine of justification. Miller explores the historical and intellectual roots of this aim by tracing the development of the doctrine of good works in Pictet’s major Genevan predecessors (Calvin, Beza, Diodati, Turretin), considering the rapid social and theological changes occurring in Geneva at the turn of the eighteenth century, and examining evidence for the influence of the Dutch “Further Reformation” on Pictet’s overall theological program. Along the way, Miller identifies and corrects a significant scholarly misreading of Pictet’s corpus – in particular, a misidentification of which was Pictet’s “major theological text”. The result is a sweeping reinterpretation of Pictet’s theology and its place within the early modern Reformed tradition.