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The 1640 General Assembly of the Kirk, dominated by Covenanters, was keen to discover something amiss in the doctrine of the Episcopalian John Forbes of Corse. Ultimately they were forced to admit his orthodoxy, even while deposing him for his refusal to subscribe the National Covenant. Modern scholars have succeeded where Forbes's contemporary antagonists failed, representing Forbes as the champion of a party that was, to one degree or another, out of step with the Calvinist orthodoxy of the day. This article examines Forbes's theology at points where his disagreement with contemporary reformed thought has been claimed, and draws implications from its findings for our knowledge and understanding of seventeenth-century Scottish theology more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article introduces the Covenanters and posits them as a phenomenon that was both transatlantic and chronologically transcendent rather than simply as Scottish and seventeenth century. Covenanter beliefs and practices lived on, and Covenanter peoples dialogued with one another over three centuries in Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA. Each generation reached back across the Atlantic and across time for inspiration and meaning in contemporary confrontations with the secular world. We argue that sensibilities history provides a fitting framework for understanding how this unique cultural group remained an ongoing Atlantic experience from 1638 until the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]