Reformed and Presbyterian churches

▪ Christianity

Introduction

      name given to various Protestant churches that share a common origin in the Reformation in 16th-century Switzerland. Reformed is the term identifying churches regarded as essentially Calvinistic in doctrine. The term presbyterian (presbyter) designates a collegial type of church government by pastors and by lay leaders called elders (elder), or presbyters, from the New Testament term presbyteroi. Presbyters govern through a series of representative consistories, from the local congregation to area and national organizations, commonly termed sessions, presbyteries, synods, and assemblies.

      A slogan for the Lutheran Reformation (Luther, Martin) was “by faith alone.” Reformed Christians added the principle “to God alone the glory.” Reformed Christians taught that God's word alone and no mere human opinion should be the norm for faith. “To God alone the glory” determined attitudes toward church government and worship, the design and furnishing of church buildings, and even secular authority. Reformed churches are confessional in nature, and during the 16th and early 17th centuries a number of manifestos of faith were written. Some of these confessions were theses for debate, such as Huldrych Zwingli (Zwingli, Huldrych)'s Sixty-Seven Articles of 1523. Others, such as the Zurich Consensus of 1549, sought unity between groups on controversial doctrines. This consensus, which bridged the theological gap between Zwinglian and Calvinist thought, proved important for the increasing use of the term Reformed. The very names of the Geneva, Helvetic, French, Belgic, and Scots confessions indicate the relationship of Reformed churches to the rising sense of nationhood in 16th-century Europe. A harmony of confessions prepared in 1581 shows the agreement among national churches as well as between Reformed confessions and the Lutheran Augsburg Confession. Some national confessions had international significance. The Second Helvetic Confession became standard for churches in countries east of Switzerland. The Heidelberg Catechism had great importance in the churches of the Netherlands and wherever the Dutch settled. The Westminster Confession of Faith, produced in 1648 by a committee appointed by the English Parliament, had its greatest influence among Presbyterian and Congregational churches outside of England.

History

      This section treats developments within the Reformed and Presbyterian churches after the Reformation. For a discussion of the emergence of these churches, see Protestantism, history of (Protestantism).

After the Reformation in Europe

Reformed churches in eastern Europe

      Reformed Christianity in eastern Europe had great strength among Hungarians. By 1576 the government of the Hungarian Reformed Church emerged with superintending bishops chosen by church councils of pastors and elders. In 1606 István (Stephan) Bocskay (Bocskay, István), prince of Transylvania, secured recognition of the rights of Hungarian Reformed churches in territories under both Habsburg and Turkish rule, and Reformed faith was identified with Hungarian nationalism. The Transylvanian town of Debrecen became known as the Calvinist Rome. Transylvania, a sovereign state at the Peace of Westphalia (Westphalia, Peace of) ending the Thirty Years' War in 1648, fell under Habsburg domination later in the century. This resulted in a Counter-Reformation against Protestants, which was lightened by toleration in 1781 and equality under the law in 1881. Partitioning of Hungary in 1919 and 1945 left a significant number of Hungarian Reformed churches in Romania, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia as well as in the present state of Hungary.

      The Thirty Years' War was devastating to the Hussite Unity of Brethren in Bohemia, who had identified with the Reformed tradition during the Reformation. Protestantism survived underground until limited toleration came in 1781. Two Czech Brethren churches exist in the current Czech Republic. A Christian Peace Movement, which gained international significance, developed from these churches in Prague during the 1950s.

      Though Poland produced an influential Reformed theologian in Jan Łaski (d. 1560), the Counter-Reformation reduced Reformed churches to the status of a small sect in Poland by the 17th century. In 1648 there were still more than 200 Reformed congregations, but by the late 20th century there were only eight congregations in Poland, five in Lithuania, and one in Latvia.

      Congregational churches in Bulgaria and Evangelical churches in Greece are members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Presbyterian and Congregational)).

Reformed churches in France

      French Calvinists, or Huguenots (Huguenot), set the pattern for presbyterian organization on a national level at a synod of the Reformed Church of France in 1559. During the religious wars of the next decades they sought to gain official recognition, a goal partially achieved with the Edict of Nantes (Nantes, Edict of) in 1598. Huguenots remained as a weakened, tolerated minority in France. On Oct. 18, 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. At least 250,000 French Protestants immigrated to Prussia, Holland, England, and America. After the suppression of the Camisard (French Protestant peasant) revolt in 1715, Louis XIV announced the end of the toleration of Protestantism in France. Yet that very year a group met in Nîmes to plan restoration of the Reformed Church. With the 1789 French Revolution equality under the law came to Protestants. Napoleon (Napoleon I) placed Reformed congregations under state control, with pastors on state salary.

      A national synod did not meet again until 1848. At that time a free Evangelical Synod was organized, separating from the state-recognized church over the issue of state support. In 1905 state support of the old synod was withdrawn, and the two synods were united in 1938.

      When Alsace was annexed to France in 1648, a number of Reformed Christians were brought into the French nation. But the Reformed Church in Alsace-Lorraine, whose history has been different from that of the Reformed Church of France, remained a separate organization. Outside of French-speaking Switzerland, French Reformed churches are the largest Protestant group in the Latin countries of Europe, each having a Reformed Church. French Reformed Christians have played a role in the World Council of Churches, in liturgical and theological renewal, in relating the church to technology and urbanization, and in Catholic–Protestant and Communist–Christian dialogue.

Reformed churches in Germany

      The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 established the legality of Reformed churches in German states, according to the pleasure of the ruling prince. At the end of the 17th century Reformed worship in the Palatinate was prohibited. As a result, many Reformed Christians immigrated to the Netherlands (Netherlands, The), America, and Prussia, where they established Reformed churches. The Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia was converted to Calvinism in 1609. He and his successors permitted the establishment of Reformed churches among refugees and also continued Reformed churches in territories that came under Prussian rule.

      Frederick William III of Prussia in 1817 proposed a union of Reformed and Lutheran (Lutheranism) churches. The eminent Reformed theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (Schleiermacher, Friedrich) led ministers in support of this union but shared with them a concern for the loss of Reformed systems of self-government to monarchial absolutism. The union became a pattern for a majority of Protestants in Germany. Distinctively Reformed territorial churches are still to be found in northwestern Germany. The Reformed Church of Anhalt joined in the Union Evangelical Church in 1981.

      A Reformed Alliance was organized in Germany in 1884 to preserve the Reformed heritage. A synod held in Altona in January 1934 drew up a confessional statement in opposition to the German Christians' corruption of the Gospel. This led to the Barmen Synod of (Barmen, Synod of) May 1934, in which Christians of Lutheran, Union, and Reformed background joined in the Barmen Confession of Faith. This confession was the basis for resistance to the German Christians' racist understanding of Christianity, which enjoyed the support of the Nazi government. The Reformed Alliance remains active in unified Germany.

Reformed churches in England and Wales

      The failure of the Puritans (Puritanism) both to complete establishment of a presbyterian system during the Westminster Assembly in 1648 and to continue a looser arrangement of independent churches under Cromwell opened the way in 1660 to an episcopal restoration in the Church of England. Those Reformed Christians who could not accept this became persecuted Nonconformists. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 (Glorious Revolution), which expelled the Roman Catholic sovereign James II, gave English Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists limited toleration outside the established church. Many Presbyterian congregations became Unitarian during the next century. This movement was checked by the Evangelical Awakening of the 18th century, which reinvigorated the Nonconformist groups.

      In 1972 the United Reformed Church was formed out of the Congregational Union of England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England. The Presbyterian (Calvinistic/Methodist) Church of Wales, formed in the 18th century, has a substantial membership.

Reformed churches in Scotland and Ireland

      The refusal of the Episcopal bishops (bishop) of the Church of Scotland to accept the legitimacy of William and Mary in 1688 resulted in presbyterian government for the Scottish church. State interference in the appointment of pastors along with evangelicalism gave (Evangelical church) rise to secessionist movements in the 18th century, culminating in 1843 in a major schism and the formation of the free church of Scotland under Thomas Chalmers. In 1900 secession and free churches became the United Free Church, which in turn reunited with the Church of Scotland in 1929.

      In Ireland the Presbyterian Church has roots both among Scottish settlers and also among English Puritans of the early 17th century. Although the church is represented in all of Ireland, most of its membership resides in Northern Ireland, where Irish nationalism is a crucial issue.

Reformed churches in The Netherlands and Switzerland

      The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Eighty Years' War for the independence of the Netherlands. The Reformed Church, which was identified with Dutch nationalism, constituted the majority church within a nation that had remarkable tolerance for religious minorities.

      Closer state control of the church followed the Napoleonic era. This and an enervated theology prompted two secessions from the Dutch Reformed Church, the first in the 1830s and the second in the 1880s. These secession churches united as the Gereformeerde Kerken in The Netherlands, which exist alongside the traditional Hervormde Kerk. Abraham Kuyper, the scholarly neo-Calvinist leader of the second of these secessions, served as prime minister of The Netherlands with a conservative coalition in Parliament from 1901 to 1905. The two main bodies of Reformed Protestantism in The Netherlands cooperate on many levels.

      Nineteenth-century evangelical secession and 20th-century reunion occurred in Swiss Reformed churches, which continue to be organized along cantonal lines. A Christian Socialist movement was developed in the early 20th century. Karl Barth (Barth, Karl) and Emil Brunner, whose theological influence went far beyond Switzerland and the Reformed tradition, emerged from that movement with less utopian political realism.

Reformed and Presbyterian churches in the United States

The colonial period

      Persons of Reformed (Christian Reformed Church in North America) background were important in shaping and directing the political and religious course of the 13 American colonies. In 1611 Alexander Whitaker, son of a Reformed theologian, began to establish churches in Virginia. Elder William Brewster (Brewster, William), in the 1620 Plymouth Colony, used the writings of the English Presbyterian Thomas Cartwright as his guide in church government. A Dutch Reformed Church was organized on Manhattan Island in 1628, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 was a new model Reformed church and commonwealth. In the 17th century Waldensian refugees came to Staten Island, and Huguenots settled in New York and New England. These were followed by Scots-Irish immigrants, who settled throughout the colonies, and by German Reformed refugees from the Palatinate.

      The 18th-century Great Awakening—led by Calvinist preachers Jonathan Edwards, Theodore Frelinghuysen, George Whitefield, and Gilbert Tennent—encouraged an evangelical Christianity often at odds with establishment attitudes. Hence revival-seasoned clergy learned to fight for the free expression of religion. These evangelicals joined with deists in supporting religious liberty in the constitutional foundation of the United States.

The 19th century

      Most religious groups in the new nation had a Calvinist viewpoint and pattern of life, favouring constructive activity rather than idle enjoyment. Art, music, literature, and recreation were approved only if edifying. Sunday was a quiet day with minimal farm chores, freedom from business cares, Sunday school, church, and conversation among friends. A disciplined nation might receive the blessing of God and enjoy peace and prosperity. Revivalism was seen as the means by which people could be brought under the Lord's discipline. Revivals then bore fruit not only in disciplined souls but also in movements for women's rights, abolition of slavery, and temperance. Saving souls and building a better world came to be two aspects of the Kingdom of Christ in America.

The 20th century

      After the Civil War (1861–65) conflict developed between those who adapted Darwinism to theology and those who saw evolution as a threat to biblical authority, between those who championed higher biblical criticism and those who opposed it. This conflict peaked in a fundamentalist-modernist controversy in the 1920s with fundamentalists withdrawing to the edges of American denominational life. In the 1980s television preachers gave the fundamentalist perspective not only new popularity but also political significance.

      Mainline denominations, however, have been in numerical decline. Reformed Christianity is still concerned about achieving a more just society and at the same time is working for the redemption of individuals. There is debate over goals and methods.

Reformed and Presbyterian world mission

Asia

      In 1622 an institute was founded in Leiden (the Netherlands) to prepare missionaries for the Dutch Indonesian (Indonesia) colonies. Building upon work begun by Catholics, Presbyterian missionaries established churches in Indonesia that by the late 20th century comprised at least one-third of all Asian Reformed and Presbyterian Christians.

      Presbyterian churches in Korea have been established for more than 100 years and are second in Asian membership to the Reformed churches of Indonesia. Not only have these churches grown rapidly in South Korea, but through immigration they constitute the fastest growing segment of Presbyterian churches in the United States. Identified with Korean nationalism in the past, these churches have found themselves in tension with the government of South Korea. In 1986 contact was made with Presbyterian Christians in North Korea after 40 years of isolation.

      The strong Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has been identified more with the native Taiwanese than with church members coming from mainland China after 1945. Conflict with the government has resulted in the jailing of Taiwanese Presbyterian leaders.

      Presbyterian and Reformed churches exist in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, India, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. There is also a strong Presbyterian and Reformed component in larger United churches in Japan, the Philippines, India, and China. With new tolerance in the 1980s in the People's Republic of China, a resurgence of the United Protestant Church of Christ in China has taken place. Church buildings have been reopened and new congregations formed.

Africa

      Reformed churches in Africa date from Dutch settlement in South Africa in 1652 as well as from settlements by Huguenot and German Reformed refugees somewhat later. With British occupation in South Africa in 1806 Scots brought Presbyterianism. By the late 20th century half of the Presbyterian and Reformed membership in Africa was in the Republic of South Africa. White Dutch Reformed churches have been closely identified with the government policy of apartheid. At the meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Ottawa, Can., in 1982 apartheid was declared heresy. Two of the white Reformed denominations then were suspended from the alliance, and the Reverend Allan Boesak, a Colored Reformed pastor and leader of the anti-apartheid forces, was named president of the World Alliance. A confessional statement, the Kairos Document, drawn up in 1985 by Reformed, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and other church leaders, affirmed a theology unconditionally opposed to the state theology of South Africa. It has been compared to the 1934 Barmen Confession in Germany calling for resistance to the state.

      Other African nations with large Presbyterian church membership include Madagascar, Kenya, Congo (Kinshasa), Cameroon, Malaŵi, Egypt, and Ghana. Churches from 16 other African nations belong to the World Alliance.

Other areas

      In Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as in the Pacific Islands and West Indies where there were former British colonies, there are both Presbyterian churches and United or Uniting churches with Presbyterian components.

      In 10 countries of Latin America there are member churches of the World Alliance, but half of the Presbyterian and Reformed membership is found in Brazil. Since most of the Presbyterian membership in these countries is of middle-class background, liberation theologies that identify with the concerns and needs of the poor have created controversy. There is a small but vigorous Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba.

      The success of the world mission can be seen in the vanguard of Reformed theology. For most of the 20th century influential Reformed theologians included such white, male, North Atlantic leaders as Barth, Brunner, John and D.M. Baillie, Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr, Hendrik Kraemer, and Jürgen Moltmann. This type of leadership has begun to make room for theologians from Asia, Latin America, and Africa, such as C.S. Song, Kosuke Koyama, Mariane Katoppo, Yong-Bok Kim, Elsa Tamez, and Allan Boesak. Reformed theology has become global.

Reformed Christians in the ecumenical movement

      Since the time of Martin Bucer (Bucer, Martin) and John Calvin (Calvin, John) the Reformed movement has had leaders who were untiring in efforts toward church unity. In the 17th century the Scot John Dury and the Czech John Amos Comenius were notable for their ecumenical (ecumenism) efforts. While later Pietism and Evangelicalism divided churches, people were also encouraged to put aside differences for common goals. Mission societies received support and sent missionaries from diverse denominational backgrounds. In the past 150 years Presbyterian and Reformed churches have not only reunited among themselves but also have formed close links with churches of other historical backgrounds. In the United States discussion and the adoption of consensus papers have taken place since 1961 by a Consultation on Church Union that included Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, Episcopal, and Disciples churches.

      The World Council of Churches was organized in 1948. Reformed and Presbyterian churches participate in local and regional councils of churches and interfaith groups. Since the second Vatican Council (1962–65), called by Pope John XXIII, there has been increased dialogue with Roman Catholics. The insights coming through ecumenical and interfaith relationships make for more global, more dynamic, and more relevant teaching and practice in Reformed and Presbyterian churches.

Teachings

Doctrines

      Reformed churches consider themselves to be the Roman Catholic Church (Roman Catholicism) reformed. Calvin in his Institutes (Institutes of the Christian Religion) spoke of the holy Catholic Church as mother of all the godly. Bullinger (Bullinger, Heinrich) in the Second Helvetic Confession made it clear that Reformed churches condemn what is contrary to ecumenical creeds. Interpretations of the early Church Fathers and decrees and canons of councils “were not to be despised, but we modestly dissent from them when they are found to set down things differing from, or altogether contrary to, the Scriptures.” Universal articles of Christian faith, such as the doctrines of the Trinity, the humanity and divinity of Christ, and the sin of man and the saving work of Christ, are affirmed in Reformed faith.

      Reformed churches share with Lutheran and other Protestant communions the concept of justification by grace through faith as central to the Gospel. The essence of faith is God's forgiving love coming as a gift through Jesus Christ. As with Lutherans, the true treasure of the church is this good news of the grace of God. Scripture is the authoritative witness of the good news, but, as was stated in the Westminster Confession, “authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.” Calvin said: “There is no doubt that faith is a light of the Holy Spirit through which our understandings are enlightened and our hearts are confirmed in a sure persuasion.” Such understanding is shared by Lutheran and Reformed Christians.

The church and the sacraments

      Calvin tried unsuccessfully to mediate between the Lutherans and Zwinglians, holding that Zwingli had been more concerned to show how Christ was not present than how he was and affirming, with Luther, the real presence of the resurrected Christ in communion. In the 1980s Lutheran and Reformed churches in Europe and the United States came to recognize each other's ministries of word and sacrament.

      Both Calvin and Bucer, more than Luther, were concerned to keep the “profane” from receiving communion. This encouraged the development of church discipline, and the use of elders to oversee discipline within the parish became a feature of Reformed church life. In the struggle to maintain that discipline, Calvin's successor, Theodore Beza, asserted that the presbyterian form of government was ordained by Christ.

Scripture and tradition

      Before the Reformation, humanists rejected arguments that appealed to the authority of church tradition. They made the authority of Scripture central in the church. Following them, Reformed Christians insisted that no authority in the church was on a level with Scripture; by Scripture all tradition was to be judged.

church and state

      The position in the Swiss Reformation was that church and state should render reciprocal service yet remain distinct. The church invisible consisted of God's elect, but the membership of a visible church approximated the population of the corresponding state. Beyond borders national churches kept communion with each other in spite of differences of custom.

      Obedience was required of Christians, even to unworthy rulers, unless the ruler commanded disobedience to God. On such occasions, God rather than man must be obeyed. But even then, the private individual should not actively resist the ruler. It was the responsibility of lesser magistrates to bring such rulers into line. Sixteenth-century resistance of Huguenots in France, Protestants in Scotland, and Puritans in England was justified on this basis.

      English Puritans asserted that the government of the state should be patterned after their form of government in the church. This teaching was one source of modern constitutional government. Another source in Reformed tradition was the belief that no one person should be trusted with unlimited power, a doctrine James Madison built into the U.S. Constitution.

      There has been a constant Reformed hope that the kingdoms of this world may be brought closer to the will of God and that this would result in a better justice for all. This view requires that church people become involved in politics.

The sovereignty of God and double predestination

      There has been no argument in Reformed theology about the positive side of the doctrine of predestination concerning the election of those whom God wills to save. Difference of opinion, however, arose over whether God determines who is reprobated. Bullinger did not believe that it was God's will that “one of these little ones should perish.” He maintained that Christians should always hope for the best for all. Calvin affirmed “double” predestination, meaning that both reprobation and election are within the active will of God. His reason found this appalling but scriptural. To call God, thereby, unjust was to judge One who is the very standard of justice.

      In his Institutes Calvin discussed predestination in the context of the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Later theologians expounded predestination more abstractly as an aspect of God's sovereignty. Arminianism rose in protest to this. The defenders of double predestination thought that Arminianism would cut the nerve of the Protestant doctrine of justification by grace alone and lead people back to popery. Hence, at Dort in 1618, double predestination was affirmed as Reformed orthodoxy.

Worship and organization

Liturgy

      In the Reformation earlier liturgies were modified by using the vernacular, removing anything that implied the reenacting of sacrifice in the mass, providing for congregational confession, and emphasizing the preaching of the word. Following Erasmus' recommendation, the singing of Psalms became characteristic of Reformed worship. While most Reformed churches today use a broad spectrum of vocal music, some hold exclusively to Psalms.

      Stress on preaching reached its peak among English Puritans. Some clergy preached two hours on an Old Testament text on Sunday morning, two hours on a New Testament text in the afternoon, and devoted the evening to discussion of the day's sermons with the congregation. Calvin held that the Eucharist should be celebrated weekly, though others believed that it was too sacred for such frequent use. Care was taken to instruct participants and to prepare them for confession. The Eucharist was served around a table.

      In the 20th century attention has been given to relating worship to the social and material needs of human beings as well as to communicating the word to human hearts and minds. At the Iona Community in Scotland, for example, where worship is directed to those intending to work in economically deprived areas, and at the Taizé Community in France new forms of worship are being developed. In recent years there has been emphasis upon celebration in response to the good news of God, a greater appreciation of the arts in worship than in the past, and a concern for inclusive language.

Religious education

      The requirements of Reformed life have demanded an educated clergy and an informed laity. Besides academic training for pastors, the early practice was for them to meet often and for one to interpret Scripture and for the others to engage in critical discussion. Queen Elizabeth I suppressed the custom in England, for she believed that four sermons a year were quite enough and that gatherings of pastors might be subversive.

      Lay education was accomplished through preaching the word and teaching the catechism, such as Calvin's Little Catechism, which was designed for teaching the young. Others, such as the Westminster Larger Catechism, were used to instruct pastors and teachers. More recently catechetical instruction has given way to inductive forms of education, with emphasis on the age level at which instruction takes place. There is also concern to relate the Christian faith to the daily life of the larger community.

Present organization of Reformed and Presbyterian churches

      In Presbyterian churches a local congregation is ruled internally by a session moderated by the pastor and composed of laity (elders (elder)) elected from the congregation. A presbytery formed of pastors and elders representing each congregation rules over local congregations on a district level. In other Reformed churches the district association has less power and the local congregation more than in Presbyterian churches. In Hungarian Reformed churches a presiding bishop moderates the presbytery.

      Beyond the district level are regional synods or conferences and national assemblies. These bodies are usually composed of an equal number of clergy and laity. Since 1875 there has been a World Alliance of Reformed Churches, which was joined in 1970 at Nairobi, Kenya, by the International Congregational Council to form the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Presbyterian and Congregational). There are about 160 member denominations.

      Although a few Reformed groups still have a special relationship to the government of their nation, there is little difference in practice between established and free Reformed churches.

Social ethics

      Reformation leaders were involved in the total life of their communities. Calvin's relation to the education, health and welfare services, refugee settlement, industry, finance, and politics of Geneva is well documented. The historian R.H. Tawney (Tawney, Richard Henry), impressed by this, has called Calvin a “Christian socialist.” The English Puritans (Puritanism) believed that if they could reshape the political and church life of the nation, God's blessing would come upon the land instead of war, famine, and pestilence. Concern to achieve greater social justice for humankind has been normative among Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Such concern in the past has been seen as resulting sometimes in petty rules and harsh administration, but in new forms that concern is still a living force.

Types of Reformed piety

      In Zwingli, Calvin (Calvin, John), William the Silent, and Cromwell, a classic type of Reformed piety was manifest. Those persons saw themselves as God's instruments in redeeming human affairs, even at cost to themselves, and they had high expectations of others. Living under God's mercy, they showed little fear of the powers of this world and were ready to make choices on a pragmatic basis.

      In a less heroic mold were Reformed Christians who did not expect to change history but who encouraged the development of godliness in those about them, beginning with themselves. The increasing emphasis in the late 16th century upon the personal experience of saving faith helped the Reformed tradition to become a nursery for Pietism in the late 17th and 18th centuries. Along with a more confessional orthodoxy and a more rationalistic liberalism, such Pietism remains to the present. A new style of worldly Christianity is emerging with Christ, standing for and with the oppressed, as the model.

John Colin Stillwell

Additional Reading

William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (1988), which places Calvin in his contemporary context; John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism (1954, reissued 1973), a comprehensive treatment of the rise and development of Presbyterian and Reformed churches, with an excellent bibliography; James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition (1968), an overview of the variety of forms developed in the Reformed tradition of the public worship of God; Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics Set Out and Illustrated from the Sources, rev. and ed. by Ernst Bizer (1950, reprinted 1978; originally published in German, 1861), a work enabling the reader to get beyond Calvin's Institutes to some acquaintance with other Reformed theologians of the 16th and 17th centuries; Robert McAfee Brown, Theology in a New Key: Responding to Liberation Themes (1978), and Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (1981), interpretations of Third World theology; John H. Leith, An Introduction to Reformed Tradition: A Way of Being the Christian Community, rev. ed. (1981); Arthur C. Cochrane (ed.), Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century (1966), 12 classic confessions of the 16th century, with historical introductions; and Thomas F. Torrance (ed. and trans.), The School of Faith: The Catechisms of the Reformed Church (1959), 10 catechisms of the 16th and 17th centuries. Useful periodicals include Reformed World (quarterly), published by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Presbyterian and Congregational), which reports on the life and work of Reformed and Presbyterian churches throughout the world; and American Presbyterians: Journal of Presbyterian History (quarterly), on all aspects of American Presbyterian history.James C. Spalding

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