Editing Hugo Grotius (section)

===Commentaries of the 18th century===
[[Andrew Dickson White]] wrote:

<blockquote>
Into the very midst of all this welter of evil, at a point in time to all appearance hopeless, at a point in space apparently defenseless, in a nation of which every man, woman, and child was under sentence of death from its sovereign, was born a man who wrought as no other has ever done for the redemption of civilization from the main cause of all that misery; who thought out for Europe the precepts of right reason in international law; who made them heard; who gave a noble change to the course of human affairs; whose thoughts, reasonings, suggestions, and appeals produced an environment in which came an evolution of humanity that still continues.{{sfn|White|1910}}
</blockquote>

In contrast, [[Robert A. Heinlein]] satirized the Grotian [[governmental theory of atonement|governmental]] approach to theology in ''[[Methuselah's Children]]'': "There is an old, old story about a theologian who was asked to reconcile the [[doctrine]] of [[Divine Mercy]] with the doctrine of [[original sin|infant damnation]]. 'The Almighty,' he explained, 'finds it [[predeterminism|necessary]] to do things in His official and public capacity which in His private and personal capacity He deplores.'"{{sfn|Heinlein|1958|p = 324}}