Abstract:Most criticism of John Barclay’s Argenis (1621)—often cited as the most influential romance of the seventeenth century—focuses on the romance’s topical allusions and political arguments; certainly, the neoclassical romance’s political dialogues and use of allegory invite such readings. However, focus on the romance as a roman à clef has neglected the romance’s formal innovations. Bringing together romance form and topical engagement, I argue that Barclay’s romance attempts to formally realize divine providence, highlighting the reader’s initial ignorance in order to foreground God’s omniscience. This attempt at the formal realization of providence not only provides theological justification for the genre’s characteristic waywardness; it also represents Barclay’s entry into debates over Calvinism in the early decades of the seventeenth century, when the French Wars of Religion and the Synod of Dort highlighted the immediacy of the Calvinist question for European intellectuals. Barclay’s formal demonstration of providence, coupled with his allusive polemic, allows him to present and refine an alternative understanding of divine foreknowledge which also accounts for the efficacy of human action—a moral particularly relevant to Barclay’s contemporary readers, beset by an increasing awareness of the instability of their world.

中文翻译：

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一定的失明：浪漫，普罗维登斯和约翰·巴克莱的《阿吉尼斯》中的加尔文

摘要：约翰·巴克莱（Barclay）的Argenis（1621）（通常被称为17世纪最有影响力的爱情小说）的大多数批评都集中在浪漫主义的主题典故和政治论点上。当然，新古典浪漫主义的政治对话和寓言的运用吸引了人们的阅读。但是，将浪漫主义作为罗马谱号而忽略了浪漫主义的形式创新。我将浪漫形式和主题订婚结合在一起，认为巴克莱的浪漫试图正式实现神圣的天意，突出了读者最初的无知，以凸显神的全知。正式实现天意的这种尝试不仅为该类型特征性的任性提供了神学上的证明；而且，它也代表着巴克莱在十七世纪初期几十年进入有关加尔文主义的辩论，当时法国的宗教战争和多特宗教会议强调了加尔文主义问题对欧洲知识分子的直接性。巴克莱对天意的正式展示，加上他的典故之争，使他能够提出和完善对神的预知的另一种理解，这也说明了人类行动的效力-这种道德与巴克莱的当代读者特别相关，这是由于人们对巴克莱的当代意识日益增强所困扰。他们的世界不稳定。