Reformed confessions of faith explained

The reformed confessions of faith are the confessional documents of various Reformed churches. These express the doctrinal views of the churches adopting the confession. Confessions play a crucial part in the theological identity of reformed churches, either as standards to which ministers must subscribe, or more generally as accurate descriptions of their faith. Most confessions date to the 16th and 17th century.

Catechisms, canons, theses and other such documents may not be confessions per se, yet these still serve as symbols of the reformed faith.[1]

Confessions

Confessions state that church's beliefs in a full, while not exhaustive, way.

Continental Reformed

Presbyterian

Congregationalist

The presbyterians' Westminster was formed by an assembly of ministers called by parliament for use in the established churches of England and Scotland. For congregationalists, this was not the case. The difference in application of the congregationalists' primary confession, Savoy, is that it was written as a declaration of consensus, and as such it was not treated as morally binding upon church officers like Westminster for presbyterians[9] (called subscriptionism[10]).

Local congregational churches are historically formed around covenants (e.g. the Dedham Covenant), often unique to that church, another kind of confession.

Baptist

Baptist confessions, like the congregationalists, are statements of agreement rather than enforceable rules. They "have never been held as tests of orthodoxy, as of any authoritative or binding force; they merely reflect the existing harmony of views and the scriptural interpretations of the churches assenting to them."[14]

Part of the baptist movement finds its origin in the nonconformist movement in England, observing Calvinistic theology with the presbyterians and congregationalists. Calvinistic baptists are called reformed or particular baptists. There are further subdivisions of reformed baptists, such as regular and primitive.

Baptist churches, like the congregationalists with whom they share views of polity, compose church covenants for the local congregation.

Anglican

Anglican churches are not confessional in the same strict sense as in Lutheran churches.[17] [18] Anglican doctrine is most defined by Lex orandi, lex credendi ("the law of praying [is] the law of believing").[19] [20]

Methodist

Catechisms

Catechisms are teaching tools in the church, usually in a question and answer format.

Continental

Presbyterian

Congregationalist

Baptist

Anglican

Constitutions, ordinals, and platforms of church order

These documents relate to the ecclesiastical polity of the church.

Continental

Presbyterian

Congregationalist

Occasional documents

These documents are less general in scope than a usual confession. They may confess that church's response to a theological controversy (e.g. the Canons of Dort) or seek to find common ground between discrete churches (e.g. the Consensus Tigurinus).

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library . 2024-03-07 . ccel.org . § 2.
  2. Book: Rohls, Jan . 1998 . Theologie reformierter Bekenntnisschriften . Reformed confessions: Theology from Zurich to Barmen . de . Louisville, Kentucky . Westminster John Knox Press . 0-664-22078-9 . Translated by John Hoffmeyer . 1987.
  3. Web site: Schaff . Philip . Creeds of Christendom, Volume I. . 2024-04-18 . ccel.org . § 41 . It is, to a certain extent, also the Confession of the Reformed and the so-called Union Churches, in Germany, namely, with the explanations and modifications of the author himself in the edition of 1540.
  4. Carson, D. A. (27 January 2015). Themelios, Volume 36, Issue 2. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-62564-954-6.
  5. Scots Confession (1560). Confession of Faith Ratification Act (1560), (Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1560/1.
  6. Web site: Confession of Faith: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church . 2023-11-13 . opc.org . en.
  7. Web site: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) . 2004 . Book of Confessions, Confession of 1967 . 2023-11-13 . The Office of the General Assembly . 252–262 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090811164337/https://www.pcusa.org/oga/publications/boc.pdf . 2009-08-11 . en-us . Louisville, Kentucky.
  8. Web site: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) . 2004 . Book of Confessions . 2023-11-13 . The Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) . https://web.archive.org/web/20090811164337/https://www.pcusa.org/oga/publications/boc.pdf . 2009-08-11 . en-us . Louisville, Kentucky.
  9. Book: Davies, Horton . The worship of the English Puritans . 1948 . Westminster [London] : Dacre Press . Internet Archive . 274.
  10. Web site: The Confessional Subscription Debate at Westminster Theological Seminary in California . 2024-03-07 . opc.org.
  11. Web site: Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library . 2024-03-07 . ccel.org . § 103.
  12. Bremer, Francis J.; Webster, Tom, Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2006, p. 354.
  13. Web site: Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library . 2024-03-07 . ccel.org . § 102.
  14. Web site: Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library . 2024-03-07 . ccel.org . § 105.
  15. Gribben, Crawford. The Puritan Millennium: Literature and Theology, 1550–1682 (Revised Edition), Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2008, p. 252.
  16. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Documents, Reformed.
  17. Book: Turnbull, Richard . Anglican and Evangelical?. 15 July 2010. Bloomsbury Publishing. 978-1-4411-1475-4. 45–.
  18. Book: Avis, Paul . The Anglican Understanding of the Church: An introduction. 2013. SPCK. 978-0-281-06815-9. 65–.
  19. Book: Earey, Mark . Beyond Common Worship: Anglican Identity and Liturgical Diversity. 2013. SCM Press. 978-0-334-04739-1. 100–.
  20. Book: Platten. Stephen . Woods. Christopher . Comfortable Words: Polity, Piety and the Book of Common Prayer. 2012. Hymns Ancient and Modern. 978-0-334-04670-7. 142–.
  21. Web site: Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 2, 1552–1566 . 2024-03-07 . The Gospel Coalition . en-US.
  22. Book: Muller, Richard A. . The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology . Cambridge University Press . 2004 . 978-0-52177-662-2 . Bagchi . David . New York . 135 . John Calvin and later Calvinism . Steinmetz . David C..
  23. Book: Schaff, Philip . The Creeds of Christendom: The history of creeds. 1877. Harper.
  24. Web site: 2004 . 1646 . Confessions of Faith, The Westminster Confession of Faith . 2023-11-13 . Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) . https://web.archive.org/web/20090811164337/https://www.pcusa.org/oga/publications/boc.pdf . 2009-08-11 . en . Louisville, Kentucky.
  25. Web site: Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 1, 1523–1552 . 2024-03-07 . The Gospel Coalition . en-US.
  26. Book: Calvin . Jean . Calvin: theological treatises . Reid . J. K. S. (John Kelman Sutherland) . 1977 . Philadelphia : Westminster Press . Internet Archive . 978-0-664-24156-8 . 56–72.
  27. [Cambridge Platform#CITEREFWalker1894|Walker 1894]

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