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Reformed and Presbyterian
churches share a common origin in the Reformation
in 16th-century Switzerland.
Reformed is the term identifying churches regarded as Calvinistic in
doctrine. The term presbyterian designates a collegial type of church
government by pastors and by lay leaders called elders,
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. (see also Index: Reformed church) | |
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A slogan for the Lutheran
Reformation was "by faith alone." Reformed Christians added the
principle "to God alone the glory." Reformed Christians emphasized
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
Zwingli's Sixty-Seven Articles of
1523. Others, such as the Zurich Consensus of 1549, sought unity between
groups on controversial doctrines. 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. | |
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This section treats developments within the Reformed and Presbyterian
churches after the Reformation. For a discussion of the emergence of these
churches, see above History
of the Protestant movement .
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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, 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 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 continuing Hungarian Reformed
churches in Romania, Czechoslovakia,
the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia as well as in the present state of Hungary.
(see also Index: pastoral
care) | |
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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 denominations exist in present-day
Czechoslovakia. A Christian Peace Movement, which has gained international
significance, developed from these churches in Prague during the 1950s. | |
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Though Poland produced an influential Reformed theologian in Jan Laski
(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. | |
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Congregational churches in Bulgaria and Evangelical churches in Greece
are members of the World Alliance
of Reformed Churches. | |
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French
Calvinists, or Huguenots,
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 developed a
theory of resistance to the unjust state, but the end of effective
resistance came with the fall of La Rochelle in 1628. Huguenots remained as
a weakened, tolerated minority in France. On Oct. 18, 1685, Louis XIV
revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had granted Huguenots limited toleration.
At least 250,000 French Protestants emigrated 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 practice 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
placed Reformed congregations under state control, with pastors on state
salary. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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
Christians in the Palatinate faced an attempt at their destruction.
Many fled to the Netherlands,
America, and Prussia, where Reformed churches were established. The
Hohenzollern Elector of Brandenburg
was converted to Calvinism in 1609. Hohenzollern rulers permitted the
establishment of Reformed churches among refugees and also continued
Reformed churches in territories that came later under Prussian rule. (see
also Index: Hohenzollern
dynasty) | |
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Frederick William III of Prussia in 1817 proposed a union of Reformed
and Lutheran churches. Reformed theologian Friedrich
Schleiermacher 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. (see also Index:
Prussian Union of 1817, Lutheranism) | |
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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
confession in opposition to Nazi corruption of the Gospel. This led to the 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 Hitler by the Confessing
Church. After World War II the Confessing Church ceased, but its work
continued to be an inspiration to churches in both West and East Germany.
The Reformed Alliance remains active in unified Germany. | |
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The failure of the Puritans
either to complete establishment of a presbyterian system during the
Westminster Assembly in 1648 or 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, which expelled the Roman Catholic sovereign James II, gave English
Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists limited toleration outside the
state 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. (see also Index: 1688, Revolution
of) | |
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The free-church spirit changed the Reformed ethical emphasis on parish
discipline to formation of voluntary societies dedicated to preserve the
sabbath, to suppress vice, to abolish slavery, and to work for moral reform. | |
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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. | |
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The refusal of the Episcopal bishops
of the Church of Scotland to accept the legitimacy of William and Mary in
1688 resulted in presbyterian government for the church. State interference
in the appointment of pastors along with evangelicalism
gave 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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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
and Emil Brunner, whose theological influence went far beyond Switzerland
and the Reformed tradition, emerged from that movement with less utopian
political realism. | |
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Persons of Reformed 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, 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. (see also Index:
Christian Reformed Church in
North America) | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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In 1622 an institute was founded in Leiden (the Netherlands) to prepare missionaries
for the Dutch Indonesian 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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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Other African nations with large Presbyterian church membership include
Madagascar, Kenya, Zaire, Cameroon, Malawi, Egypt, and Ghana.
Churches from 16 other African nations belong to the World Alliance. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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Since the time of Martin
Bucer and John Calvin
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 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. | |
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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. | |
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Reformed churches consider themselves to be the Roman
Catholic Church reformed. Calvin in his Institutes
spoke of the holy Catholic Church as mother of all the godly. Bullinger
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. (see also Index: "Institutes
of the Christian Religion," ) | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. (see also Index:
religious education) | |
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In Presbyterian churches a local congregation is ruled internally by a
session moderated by the pastor and composed of laity (elders) 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. (see also Index:
pastoral care) | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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, impressed by this, has called Calvin a "Christian
socialist." The English Puritans
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. | |
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In Zwingli, Calvin,
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. | |
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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. (J.C.S.) | |
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