Arminiani e sociniani nel Seicento: rifiuto o reinterpretazione del cristianesimo sacrificale?

The terms "Socinian" and "Arminian" (despite their often equivocal and polyvalent use) primarily indicate the exponents of two small Christian communities looked upon with great suspicion by the established churches: the Ecclesia minor of the Polish Brethren, on the one hand, and the Dutch Remonstrant Brotherhood, on the other. Two numerically small and marginalized groups, but capable of influencing considerable circles of theologians and intellectuals of different denominational backgrounds in many European countries. The Dutch Remonstrants, in any case, faced frequent allegations of Socinianism: far from diminishing with time, this charge became even harsher and more insistent after the destruction of the Ecclesia minor and the consequent Socinian diaspora. This study shows, however, that it was not a one-way relationship: Arminius' heirs in turn influenced Sozzini's, as evidenced by the development of the two theological traditions on the crucial theme of Christ's redemption and atonement. On this as on other subjects, at the end of the seventeenth century, the theses of the Remonstrants established some hegemony over the doctrinal elaborations of the successors of the Socinian tradition.