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Journal articles on the topic 'Baptism. Reformed Church'
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1
Wood, John Halsey. "Church, Sacrament, and Society: Abraham Kuyper's Early Baptismal Theology, 1859-1874." Journal of Reformed Theology 2, no. 3 (2008): 275–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156973108x333768.
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AbstractThis article considers the development of Abraham Kuyper's theology of baptism during his early life, from 1859 as a theology student at Leiden University through 1874, the conclusion of his pastoral career in the Netherlands Reformed Church. After initially rejecting the institutional church, Kuyper began to develop a theology for a free church in order to bring Calvinism into rapport with modern times. This paper argues that Kuyper's theology of baptism developed as part of this vision of a modern Calvinist church, one that was both a voluntary institution and an objective, divinely sanctioned institution. The fluctuations of Kuyper's early baptismal theology reflect the tensions of this proposal for a modern church, but by the end or his pastoral career Kuyper had settled on the primacy of the institutional church in baptism.
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Durber, Susan. "Baptism, Unity and the United Reformed Church." Ecumenical Review 62, no. 1 (March 2010): 4–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.2009.00041.x.
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Deniati, Deniati, and Yesaya Adhi Widjaya. "Baptisan Anak Dalam Pengakuan Iman Westminster dan Katekismus Heilderberg." Journal KERUSSO 5, no. 1 (March 16, 2020): 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.33856/kerusso.v5i1.120.
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Baptism is one of the sacraments recognized by the church and is believed to be a seal for believers, and a sign of Christ's ownership. However, if you look at the practice in the church, many questions will arise, both regarding the instruments used in baptizing and the subjects to be baptized (children or adults). This is due to a lack of understanding of baptism as well as differences in interpretation of the Bible and the confession of faith used in the church. This difference results in the emergence of conflicts between churches and the courage of certain sects, thus making statements that the other sects are wrong or right. Despite believing or using the same Bible and creed, each church has a different understanding and way of implementing baptism in the church. Therefore, the church needs to be sensitive to this. The Church of God needs to have the same unity or standard of truth, so that in carrying out church discipline, it remains in accordance with the truth of God's Word, the Bible. Seeing the gaps or facts that occur in the church of God, the purpose of writing this paper is to show the views of two faith confessions recognized by the Reformed church regarding child baptism and show how the practice of baptism should be practiced in the church community of God.
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Keane, Drew Nathaniel. "A Reconsideration of the Continued Practice of Confirmation in the Episcopal Church." Anglican Theological Review 100, no. 2 (March 2018): 245–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000332861810000202.
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Many Episcopal liturgists argue for the elimination of confirmation. This essay explores the reformed rite of confirmation, the doctrine of the Book of Common Prayer (1979), and considers objections to the rite involving its relationship to the sacraments of baptism and communion. I argue that it is a nuanced application of the New Testament's teaching on baptism to a context in which infant baptism is normative. The supposed redundancy and theological untidiness of confirmation prove, in fact, to be its strength.
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Faber, Ryan L. "Infant Baptism: God’s Promise or Ours?" Studia Liturgica 51, no. 1 (March 2021): 31–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0039320720981068.
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This article examines the baptism liturgies of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). It argues that parental promises eclipse the promise of God in the practice of baptism in the CRC. A discernible shift from an emphasis on God’s promise in the CRC’s oldest liturgy to an increasing emphasis on parental promises in the new liturgies adopted by Synods 1976 and 1994 is observed. Ambiguity about the meaning of baptism is evident in the CRC’s newest baptism liturgies, adopted by Synods 2013 and 2016. This article concludes that the denomination should adopt a new baptism liturgy in which parental promises are made only after the administration of their child’s baptism.
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Menzies, Robert P. "Luke's Understanding of Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Dialogues with the Reformed Tradition." Journal of Pentecostal Theology 16, no. 2 (2008): 86–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/174552508x294215.
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AbstractIn this article, Menzies notes that Reformed theologians have tended to read Luke's writings in the light of Paul's epistles. As a result, their theological reflection on the Spirit has centered more on his work in the Word and sacraments, the 'inner witness' of the Spirit, and less on his mission to the world. Additionally, this methodology has encouraged Reformed scholars to associate the Pentecostal gift (i.e. Spirit baptism) with conversion and regeneration. However, through an examination of key passages in Luke-Acts, Menzies argues that Luke has a unique contribution to make to a holistic biblical theology of the Spirit. Luke's understanding of baptism in the Holy Spirit is different from that of Paul. It is missiological rather than soteriological in nature. The Spirit of Pentecost is, in reality, the Spirit for others - the Spirit that compels and empowers the church to bring the 'good news' of Jesus to a lost and dying world. It is this Lukan, missiological perspective that shapes a Pentecostal understanding of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Menzies concludes that the clarity and vigor of Luke's message is lost when his narrative is read through Pauline lenses. Luke has a distinctive voice and it is a voice the church needs to hear.
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Spinks, Bryan D. "A Seventeenth-Century Reformed Liturgy of Penance and Reconciliation." Scottish Journal of Theology 42, no. 2 (May 1989): 183–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003693060005643x.
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In the Babylonian Captivity, 1520, Luther launched an attack on the number of ordinances which the medieval Western Church labelled ‘sacraments’. According to Luther, only three were worthy of the title sacrament: baptism, the bread, and penance. Although critical of the prevailing penitential system, Luther not only defended the sacramental status of penance, but also the practice of auricular confession:As to the current practice of private confession, I am heartily in favor of it, even though it cannot be proved from the Scriptures. It is useful, even necessary, and I would not have it abolished.
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Breytenbach, Cilliers. "Die Identität eines Christenmenschen – Im Anschluß an Paulus." Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik 33, no. 1 (February 1, 1989): 263–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.14315/zee-1989-0139.
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Abstract In this Germantranslation of an essay published 1988 in Afrikaans, the South African author criticizes the views ofthe influential Dutch Reformed New Testament scholar, E. P. Groenewald. In 1947 Groenewald published an essay on the nature ofthe Early Church and Pauline theology, in an effort to justify apartheid ideologically. The views expressed in that essay are still alive among concervatives in the DRC. From the perspective of Pauline soteriology, so Breytenbach argues, Apartheid is principally incompatible with Christian baptism.
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Kennedy, David J. "A Kind of Liturgical ARCIC? The Ecumenical Potential of the four Eucharistic Prayers of Rite A in The Alternative Service Book 1980." Scottish Journal of Theology 44, no. 1 (February 1991): 57–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0036930600025230.
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This essay originated as a contribution to the joint course on eucharistic theology and practice for St Mary's Seminary, Oscott, and The Queen's College in Birmingham. Its purpose was to highlight, in a context in which Roman Catholic, Methodist, United Reformed, and Church of England ordinands were considering divergent approaches to the eucharist, that many of the questions were faced by the Church of England internally because of its doctrinal breadth. The Eucharistic Prayers of The Alternative Service Book 1980, therefore, can almost be regarded as ‘agreed statements’, but in the setting of worship and as a means of worship, and so are worthy to be set alongside purely theological statements such as the Final Report of ARCIC 1 or the WCC document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry as a liturgical contribution to the continuing ecumenical debate.
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Brock, Peter. "Dilemmas of a Socinian Pacifist in Seventeenth-Century Poland." Church History 63, no. 2 (June 1994): 190–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3168587.
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The antitrinitarian Polish Brethren, from the inception of their denomination as a breakaway from the Calvinist Reformed Church in 1565, had earnestly debated the issue of whether a “true Christian” might collaborate in the workof the sword-bearing magistracy, take part in war, or kill a fellow human being in self-defense. Whereas the brotherhood in the militarily exposed Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with a few exceptions, gave a positive answer, the congregational leaders in the more secure kingdom of Poland for the most part said no. To do any of these things, the latterargued, entailed disobedience to Jesus’ commandments as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in the New Testament. For Christ replaced the laws of the Old Testament, which had allowed the ancient Israelites to wage just wars and wield the sword for good cause, with a gospel of love and defenselessness. This doctrine of nonresistance the pacifist Brethren, of course, had taken over from the Anabaptists of central Europe, whose insistence on adult baptism they also adopted.
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Ford, John D. "Conformity in Conscience: The Structure of the Perth Articles Debate in Scotland, 1618–38." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46, no. 2 (April 1995): 256–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046900011362.
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Most Scots have heard of the National Covenant subscribed in Edinburgh around the end of February 1638. Few, by contrast, know anything about the five acts or articles (requiring the observation of holy days, episcopal confirmation of the laity, kneeling in the act of receiving the eucharist, and permitting the celebration of both communion and baptism in private) passed by a general assembly of the Church at Perth twenty years earlier. Yet those who took time to read the Covenant through would find that its signatories were, among other things, renewing a fifty-year-old pledge to resist all ‘vain allegories, ritis, signes, and traditions brought in the Kirk, without or againis the Word of God and doctrine of this trew reformed Kirk’, and were agreeing more immediately to refrain from the ‘practice of all novations, already introduced in the matters of the worship of God’ until they could be ‘tryed & allowed in free assemblies, and in Parliaments’. Those who examined the aftermath of the Covenant would also learn that it was one of the first acts of the general assembly convened at Glasgow later in 1638 to abjure the Perth Articles. If the National Covenant remains a crucial component of Scottish national consciousness, few Scots, for all the talk of Laud's Liturgy and Jennie Geddes, have much awareness of the debate about church ceremonies that helped to form the context in which the Covenant was produced.
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Gazal, André A. "‘By Force of Participation and Conjunction in Him’: John Jewel and Richard Hooker on Union with Christ." Perichoresis 12, no. 1 (June 1, 2014): 39–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/perc-2014-0003.
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ABSTRACT The author of a Christian Letter cited a passage from John Jewel’s A Reply to Harding’s Answer in which the first major apologist of the Elizabethan Settlement spoke of the role of faith and the sacraments in union with Christ. Andrew Willet, the likely author of this work, quoted it against Richard Hooker in order to show how the latter contravened the sacramental theology of the national Church as interpreted by Jewel as one of the foremost expositors of its doctrine. Jewel, however, in his Reply to Harding’s Answer, enumerates four means of the Christian’s union with Christ: the Incarnation, faith, baptism, and the Eucharist-a fact overlooked in A Christian Letter by its author in his endeavor to impeach Hooker’s orthodoxy. Proceeding from the observation that both Jewel and Hooker believed that the locus of Christian salvation is union with Christ, this essay compares the two divines’ respective views of this union by examining the manner in which they understand the role of each of these means forming and maintaining this union. On the basis of this comparison, the essay argues that A Christian Letter misrepresented Jewel’s position and that Hooker’s view of union with Christ was essentially the same as the late bishop of Salisbury’s, notwithstanding some differences in detail and emphases. The article concludes with the opinion that Hooker represents continuity of a particular soteriological emphasis in the Elizabethan Church that can possibly be traced back to Jewel as a representative of the Reformed tradition stressing this doctrine.
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Gregersen, Niels Henrik. "Guds frie nåde, troens frie gensvar: Frelsens betingelser hos N. F. S. Grundtvig og John Wesley." Grundtvig-Studier 55, no. 1 (January 1, 2004): 103–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v55i1.16458.
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Guds frie nåde, troens frie gensvar: Frelsens betingelser hos N. F. S. Grundtvig og John Wesley[Free Divine Grace andfree Response o f Faith: Conditionalist Motives in N. F. S. Grundtvig and John Wesley]By Niels Henrik GregersenThe essay aims to point out common theological grounds between John Wesley (1703-1791) and N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872). It is argued, first, that Wesley and Grundtvig share the same problem of how to reformulate the Reformation insight in God’s unconditional justification in a context of modernity, in which human freedom is seen as essential also in spiritual matters. It is furthermore argued that Wesley and Grundtvig concur in criticizing the Augustinian-Reformed doctrine of double predestination. Both argue that grace is for all humankind, but grace is not an irresistible force that captivates the human mind. Grace, rather, is a divine self-offering that stimulates the sinner to give a positive response to God’s free offer. Due to his Arminian allegiance, Wesley was an outspoken conditionalist, who explicitly criticized Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Grundtvig’s critique of Augustine and Luther, by contrast, was mostly of a more indirect nature and couched in his independent use of the Augustinian motifs of grace. The most important difference between Wesley and Grundtvig, however, is that whereas Wesley develops an expanded notion of prevenient grace, Grundtvig expands the traditional notion of creation and imago dei. According to Grundtvig’s doctrine of baptism (central to his so-called Church View), the invitation by Christ to become baptized puts the requirement on the old human being (who is not yet baptized by the Holy Spirit) that he or she must renounce the Devil and embrace the truth of God. Grundtvig’s rich doctrine of imago dei and divine providence can thus be seen as a functional equivalent to Wesley’s doctrine of prevenient grace. Grundtvig, however, never shared Wesley’s view of the possibility of a Christian perfection. Instead, Grundtvig developed a theory of the possibility of a post-mortal conversion (cf. 1 Pet 3). This eschatological vision has the same universal scope as Wesley’s doctrine of prevenient grace, but involves a temporal relaxation as compared with Wesley’s evangelicalism.The common ground between Grundtvig and Wesley casts a new light on the very structure of Grundtvig’s theology. Grundtvig’s “Church View” should not be understood as a precursor to 20th century dialectical theology. Divine action, according to Grundtvig, is certainly primary to human activity, but it is not unilateral. The baptismal covenant between God and the human person involves an “agreement”, or contract, between two parties, God and humanity. God offers His divine grace, but human beings should themselves accept grace in order to be part of salvation. This important motif is reflected in Grundtvig’s doctrinal writings, especially in his doctrine of baptism; however, conditionalist motifs can also be found in his hymns and sermons.
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Dever, Mark E. "Moderation and Deprivation: A Reappraisal of Richard Sibbes." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 43, no. 3 (July 1992): 396–413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046900001354.
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Among the Puritan ‘martyrs’ celebrated by Samuel Clarke and Daniel Neal, few have been more frequently mentioned and less carefully considered than Richard Sibbes (1577–1635). Sibbes, primarily remembered as Preacher of Gray's Inn and author of The Bruised Reede, has been presented as one of a number of early Stuart preachers who neither approved nor practised bending the knee in communion, nor wearing the surplice, nor signing the cross in baptism, and yet who somehow remained within the Established Church. He was, it is reported, constantly troubled by Laud. Doubly deprived, censured and silenced, Sibbes became a model for his numerous disciples – among them Thomas Goodwin, John Davenport, John Cotton – who would later find their way into dissent. It is supposed that only the power of his lawyer-friends and noble patrons allowed him to retain his ministry at Gray's Inn for almost two decades. After his death, his writings became almost entirely the possession of Nonconformists and Sibbes came to be read through separatist spectacles. And yet, although remembered as espousing a robustly reformed theology, his moderation was particularly admired by those who followed him. Sibbes seemed to stand above the tumult of the times, ‘to preserve the vitals and essentials of religion, that the souls of his hearers, being captivated with the inward beauty and glory of Christ, and being led into an experimental knowledge of heavenly truths, theirspirits might not evaporate and discharge themselves in endless, gainless, soul-unedifying, and conscience-perplexing questions’.
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Fiddes, Paul. "Christian Doctrine and Free Church Ecclesiology: Recent Developments among Baptists in the Southern United States." Ecclesiology 7, no. 2 (2011): 195–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/174553111x559454.
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AbstractThe main substance of this article is an extended review of a recent book by a Southern Baptist historical theologian, Malcolm Yarnell, entitled The Formation of Christian Doctrine, which aims to root the development of doctrine in a free-church ecclesiology. This review offers the opportunity to examine a spectrum of ecclesiologies that has recently emerged among Baptists in the Southern region of the United States of America. Four 'conservative' versions of ecclesiology are identified, which are named as 'Landmarkist', 'Reformed', 'Reformed-Ecumenical' and 'Conservative Localist'. Four 'moderate' versions are similarly identified, and named as 'Voluntarist', 'Catholic', 'Moderate Localist' and 'World-Baptist'. While these categories are not intended to be mutually exclusive, the typology is useful both in positioning Yarnell's particular thesis, and in making comparisons with recent Baptist ecclesiology in Great Britain, which has focussed on the concept of covenant. Yarnell's own appeal to covenant is unusual in Southern Baptist thinking, and means that he cannot be easily fitted into the typology suggested. Though he belongs most evidently to the group named here as 'Conservative Localists', and is overtly opposed to any concept of a visible, universal church except in an eschatological sense, it is suggested that his own arguments might be seen as tending towards a more 'universal' view of the reality of the church beyond its local manifestation. His own work thus offers the promise that present polarizations among Baptists in the southern United States might, in time, be overcome.
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Kottelin-Longley, Margot. ""What shall I do? The more I kill the greater becomes their number!": the suppression of Anabaptism in early sixteenth century." Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 19 (January 1, 2006): 182–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67308.
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The Anabaptist movement was a ‘common man’s reform movement’ in Luther’s Europe. The Anabaptists wanted to reform the church according to New Testament guidelines more radically than either Luther or Zwingli were ready to do. For example, they baptised adults instead of infants, because they had observed that only adults were baptised in the Gospels, including the baptism of Jesus. In reformation Europe any adults baptised by these reformers would have already received baptism as infants. It was this practise of re-baptising members of the Catholic Church that gave them the name ‘Anabaptists’. ‘Re-baptism’ was a heresy deserving death, and to classify these radical reformers thus made them legally subject to execution. In this article the author first explains what she means by the ‘Anabaptist movement’. This includes an introduction to early Swiss Anabaptism and to the way in which it was speedily persecuted by the religious authorities. This persecution caused flight and that in turn caused the movement to spread. As the number of Anabaptists increased to thousands, so did the persecution by torture and death. Stories of some Anabaptist martyrs are recounted during the course of this article. The author also looks at the various justifications for the burning of heretics, as well as at the corresponding theological understanding by those who were burned.
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Bates, J. Barrington. "Giving What Is Sacred to Dogs? Welcoming All to the Eucharistic Feast." Journal of Anglican Studies 3, no. 1 (June 2005): 53–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1740355305052822.
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ABSTRACTThis article sets out to provide a context for contemporary discussions about baptism and Eucharist — specifically, the practice of offering communion to those who have not been baptized — and will examine the baptismal theology of the early church and compare this with the thinking of contemporary reformers. I will review scriptural evidence, Patristic thought, and some contemporary scholarship, demonstrating no evidence to support a claim of returning to the authentic roots of the tradition. Rather than condemn or condone the practice of communicating the unbaptized, I recommend that we study it more carefully — lest the church miss a significant opportunity for evangelism. Yet caveat lector: this practice remains an exception — not the norm.
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Alexis-Baker, Andy. "’Lest I Make You a Tertullian’: Early Anabaptist Baptismal Narratives and Patristics." Perichoresis 17, no. 4 (December 1, 2019): 93–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/perc-2019-0030.
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Abstract Anabaptists have long been thought to have been ‘biblicists’ and shunned reading patristic literature. But a close analysis of the debates Anabaptists had with Magisterial Reformers shows that the Anabaptists developed an extensive history of baptism using church fathers. They attempted to show that adult baptism was the norm in the earliest centuries of the church and that infant baptism was the innovation away from the Bible. This debate was about who had inherited the biblical faith around baptism.
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Henke, Manfred. "Toleration and Repression: German States, the Law and the ‘Sects’ in the Long Nineteenth Century." Studies in Church History 56 (May 15, 2020): 338–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/stc.2019.19.
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At the beginning of the period, the Prussian General Law Code did not provide for equal rights for members of ‘churches’ and those of ‘sects’. However, the French Revolution decreed the separation of church and state and the principle of equal rights for all citizens. Between the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the revolution of 1848, Prussian monarchs pressed for the church union of Lutheran and Reformed and advocated the piety of the Evangelical Revival. The Old Lutherans felt obliged to leave the united church, thus eventually forming a ‘sect’ favoured by the king. Rationalists, who objected to biblicism and orthodoxy, were encouraged to leave, too. As Baptists, Catholic Apostolics and Methodists arrived from Britain and America, the number of ‘sects’ increased. New ways of curtailing their influence were devised, especially in Prussia and Saxony.
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Žilys, Saulius. "Parishes Registers and Lists of Parishes Residents in the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences: Genesis and Confessional Singularity." Bibliotheca Lituana 2 (October 25, 2012): 123–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/bibllita.2012.2.15583.
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The article treats baptismal, matrimonial and death parish registers in 17th–20th centuries, also lists of confirmees and lists of converts to Roman Catholic Church or Orthodox Church, lists of parishes and parishes’ residents of territories in Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and East Prussia. Manuscript materials used in article belong to various Christian and non-Christian confessions: Roman Catholic, orthodox, uniate, evangelical reformers, evangelical Lutheran, Karaite, Jew/Hebrew, Tartar. The article treats origin of parishes’ registers chronology, how parishes’ registers were written, and which information was in them also defines confessional singularity. Focus on 17th–18th century parishes registers – mostly Roman Catholic.Church parishes registers at first were started to write in Italy (1396) and in Provence. The Council of Trent of Roman Catholic Church in 1563 obligated fill in baptismal and matrimonial parish registers, ordinary “Rituale romanorum” in 1614 obligated to fill in death registers and lists of parishes residents. Filling of parishes registers in Roman Catholic and Protestant churches became overall in 17th century, in Orthodox and Uniate churches – in 18th century. The first information about parishes’ registers in Lithuania was introduced in visiting-round of Samogitia bishop in 1579, but the oldest known parish register is baptismal register of Joniškis church and it begins in 1599.The article treats evolution of parishes’ registers in Lithuania. Noticeable that death registers were started to fill only in 17th century and involved only part of departed.
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Ferguson, Everett. "Spiritual Circumcision in Early Christianity." Scottish Journal of Theology 41, no. 4 (November 1988): 485–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0036930600031768.
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Modern ecumenical discussions and liturgical reform have given new interest to the ceremonies of Christian initiation. The Reformed churches have traditionally held the view that baptism takes the place of circumcision in the economy of salvation. The interpretations of circumcision in early Christian and patristic literature would suggest a modification, or at least a nuance, to that view.
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Root, Michael. "Ecumenism in a Time of Transition." Horizons 44, no. 2 (November 7, 2017): 409–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/hor.2017.118.
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To assess the present state and future possibilities of personal and ecclesial ecumenism between Protestant and Catholic Christians is a difficult task. On the one hand, the diversity among Protestants is so great few generalities hold for all of them. The challenges involved in Catholic relations with the Church of England are quite different than those involved in relations with the Southern Baptist Convention, and different in yet other ways from those involved in relations with a Pentecostal church in South Africa. In a broad sense, one can think of a spectrum of Protestant churches, some with whom Catholic relations might be close, and then a series of churches at a greater distance from Catholicism with whom relations would be more limited. That picture is only partially true, however. On many social issues, Catholics can work more closely with Evangelicals, with whom there are deep differences over sacraments and ecclesiology, than they can with more socially liberal representatives of, say, the Lutheran or Anglican traditions. In this brief reflection, I will be concerned with the Protestant communities with whom the greatest possibilities of a wide spectrum of closer relations seem to exist, such as the Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed churches.
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Doe, Norman. "The Teaching of Church Law: An Ecumenical Exploration Worldwide." Ecclesiastical Law Journal 15, no. 3 (August 15, 2013): 267–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956618x13000422.
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Religion law – the law of the state on religion – has been taught for generations in the law schools of continental Europe, though its introduction in those of the United Kingdom is relatively recent. By way of contrast, within the Anglican Communion there is very little teaching about Anglican canon law. The Church of England does not itself formally train clergy or legal officers in the canon and ecclesiastical laws that they administer. There is no requirement that these be studied for clerical formation in theological colleges or in continuing ministerial education. The same applies to Anglicanism globally – though there are some notable exceptions in a small number of provinces. This is in stark contrast to other ecclesiastical traditions: the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist and United churches all provide training for ministry candidates in their own systems of church law, polity or order. However, no study to date has compared the approaches of these traditions to the teaching of church law today. This article seeks to stimulate an ecumenical debate as to the provision, purposes, practices and principles of the teaching of church law across the ecclesiastical traditions of global Christianity. It does so by presenting examples of courses offered (institutions, purposes, subjects, methods and levels), the educative role of church law itself, requirements under church law for church officers to study the subject, and parallels from the secular world in terms of debate in the academy and practice on the nature of legal education, particularly the role played in it by the Critical Legal Studies movement.1
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TIMMERMANN, ACHIM. "The Microarchitectural Stage-Management of Baptism from Lateran IV to the Counter-Reformation." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 71, no. 3 (April 30, 2020): 527–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046920000056.
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Although not liturgically mandated, the ostentatious microarchitectural font cover became one of the most significant ecclesiastical furnishings of the later Middle Ages. In fact, as a church fixture it survived well into the seventeenth century, not only in Catholic but also in Protestant regions, even though its eye-catching forms represented an obvious target for radical reformers and iconoclasts. Despite their enduring presence and their obvious importance to the communities that erected them, font covers remain little researched and understood. Revolving around a discussion of their intensely visual nature, this article is an attempt at a first outline of a history of this fascinating genre of church furnishing.
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Michna, Gregory. "The Long Road to Sainthood: Indian Christians, the Doctrine of Preparation, and the Halfway Covenant of 1662." Church History 89, no. 1 (March 2020): 43–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0009640720000025.
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AbstractThis essay explores the origins and expansion of New England Praying Towns in the context of the ongoing theological and religious debates of 1646–1674. This period spawned significant debates regarding the extent of the Abrahamic covenant, the requirements for church membership, and the nature of conversion. The ministers present at the Synod of 1662 gathered to settle the question of “extended baptism,” an issue where Indian and English concerns intersected. Reformers who promoted a generational vision of church membership emphasized the efficacy of spiritual preparation for younger generations and the power of a broader and more inclusive church covenant. This development benefitted Algonquians living in Praying Towns because theological preparation validated efforts to catechize and instruct Praying Indians in religious matters. Likewise, a broadening vision of church membership enabled some colonists to consider the possibility that Indians might be included within their religious communities. These projects, launched before the formalization of the Halfway Covenant in 1662, presented a tangible example of spiritual preparation in practice and served to validate the conversionary process within the colony at large. English observers found Indian conversion impressive (or reacted with intense skepticism) because most theologians considered Indians unlikely converts, especially in larger numbers. For Algonquians demonstrating an interest in English spirituality, church membership represented a degree of parity with their New England brethren. Tracing the development of New England missions, the pathway to church membership, and the debates on both missions and extended baptism reveals both the possibilities and limits to the inclusion of Indian Christians within New England's religious institutions.
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WOOD, JOHN HALSEY. "Going Dutch in the Modern Age: Abraham Kuyper's Struggle for a Free Church in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 64, no. 3 (June 6, 2013): 513–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046911002600.
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The nineteenth century witnessed a transition from the ancien régime to the ‘age of mobilisation’, says Charles Taylor, from an organically and hierarchically connected society to a fragmented society based on mass participation, charismatic leaders and organisational tactics. Amid this upheaval the Netherlands Reformed Church faced an unprecedented crisis as it lost its taken-for-granted social status. This essay examines the new legitimation that Abraham Kuyper offered the Church through his Free Church theology, and how various other aspects of his theology, including his baptismal and public theology, developed in conjunction with his ecclesiology. Kuyper's ecclesiology thus offers a case study of problems that ecclesiology in general faced due to the social and cultural shifts of the nineteenth century.
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Nugroho, Teguh. "Misi dalam Gereja Anabaptis Abad XVI: Tinjauan dari Perspektif Paradigma Misi menurut David J. Bosch." Jurnal Teologi 10, no. 1 (May 30, 2021): 85–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.24071/jt.v10i1.3392.
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The birth of Anabaptist movement appeared in the context of church reformation by Martin Luther in the sixteenth century in Europe.Anabaptist movement was aimed to renewing the Church according to the Scriptures, because many Protestant reformers, such as Luther and Zwingli, were not radical. They still practice some of the rules and teachings of the Roman Catholic church, such as infant baptism and maintaining the Church's relationship with the State. The Anabaptists movement rejects these practices. The Anabaptists attempted to carry out a more radical reform than their predecessors. The Anabaptist group itself has a membership of about 1.7 million worldwide. The data raises the question of how they made their mission. The facts show that the Anabaptists were persistent missionaries in preaching their Faith. The Anabaptist mission is based on three Anabaptist beliefs: Jesus became the center of faith, Mennonite who put peace and community as the center of life. These three beliefs will be analyzed using David J. Bosch's three paradigms to see the correlation between "Mission as Mediating Salvation” and the belief that Jesus is the center of faith, "Mission as Evangelism" with Mennonite beliefs that promote peace, and "Mission as Ministry by the Whole People of God” with community is the center of live. The results of this analysis will show the radicalism of the Anabaptist movement.
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WALSH, MARTIN W. "Martin and Luther: The Reformer and his Name-Saint." Michigan Academician 47, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.7245/0026-2005-47.1.1.
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ABSTRACT Although born on the Vigil of the Feast of Saint Martin of Tours and given that saint's name at baptism, Luther had very little truck with his name-saint, whether during his early career as monk and theologian or in his years as the vanguard of the Reformation. Indeed, it would seem he honored Saint George more than Saint Martin. The power of Martin's name and of the iconic image of his sharing his mantle with a beggar, however, would not be ignored by Luther's followers or by his opponents. This paper examines the intersection of the image of Saint Martin with the career of the great Reformer focusing on such events as the Leipzig Debate of 1519 and examples from the polemical literature, such as Thomas Murner's The Great Lutheran Fool. Moreover, in the development of anecdotal “Luther lore” after his death we find a general rapprochement of Luther commemorations with the traditional German celebration of a carnivalesque Martinmas. If Luther largely ignored his name-saint, present day Lutheranism embraces the Bishop of Tours, as evidenced by its numerous church dedications and images of Saint Martin's Charity.
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Kuo, Henry S. "The Accra Confession as Dangerous Memory: Reformed Ecclesiology, the Ecological Crisis, and the Problem of Catholicity." Religions 11, no. 7 (June 30, 2020): 320. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel11070320.
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This study presents the Accra Confession as a theological response to the ecological crisis from a Reformed perspective while also addressing its critical weakness, namely the problem of universality in both Reformed ecclesiology and global approaches to ecological destruction. Because of a fragile universality, both Reformed churches and global institutions find it difficult to agree on a concrete plan to address climate change. Theologically, this difficulty arrives not primarily from disagreement with the existence or causes of climate change but how Christian theological values translate concretely to acts of justice. This study proposes a way to ground these discussions on the concept of dangerous memory by resourcing the theology of Johann Baptist Metz. Dangerous memories allow stories of the suffering vanquished to be constitutive to the construction of caritas, which in turn serves as a suitable theological foundation for addressing differing approaches to engaging climate issues. Reading the Accra Confession as dangerous memory, then, provides a valuable resource to the Reformed community by allowing the testimonies of those affected adversely by climate change to substantially inform theological discourses on climate justice.
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McAreavey, John. "Mixed Marriages: Conversations in Theology, Ecumenism, Canon Law and Pastoral Practice." Ecclesiastical Law Journal 8, no. 37 (July 2005): 121–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956618x00006207.
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This paper traces the developments in the Catholic law on mixed marriages beginning with an outline of the canonical provisions that were in force prior to the Second Vatican Council. The impact of the Council teaching on ecumenism and religious freedom became apparent with the promulgation of Matrimonii sacramentum (1966), Crescens matrimoniorum (1967) and Matrimonia mixta (1970). These documents put the legislation on mixed marriages on a new footing and provided the basis for the legislation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Bishop McAreavey analyses various ecumenical dialogues on mixed marriages: ARCIC, the dialogue between the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Catholic Church, and ongoing dialogues between the Methodist Church and the Orthodox Church (primarily in the United States) and the Catholic Church. He notes in particular what those discussions have to say on the issue of ‘the promises’ and canonical form and comments on the provisions of the 1983 Code of Canon Law on mixed marriages. He considers the basis of the commitment required of the Catholic party ‘to remove dangers of defecting from the faith’ and the commitment ‘to do all in his or her power in order that all the children be baptised and brought up in the Catholic faith’. He accepts the view of Fr Navarrete that whereas the former obligation is of divine law the latter obligation goes no further than ‘to do his or her best’ (pro viribus in the Latin phrase). In the final section, he reflects on the pastoral impact of developments in the canon law regarding mixed marriages, noting the statements of the World Gatherings of Interchurch Families in Geneva (1998) and in Rome (2003).
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McGowan, Andrew. "CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM HIM FOR TODAY?" VERBUM CHRISTI: JURNAL TEOLOGI REFORMED INJILI 6, no. 2 (October 14, 2019): 133–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.51688/vc6.2.2019.art3.
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In this article, the author gives an account of the life and theology of C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), the famous Reformed Baptist Minister, who preached in London in the second half of the nineteenth century. The account demonstrates that Spurgeon was not only the most renowned preacher of his day, most of whose sermons were published and are still read widely today but also an author who published many volumes. In addition to his work as preacher and writer, Spurgeon built children’s orphanages, started a theological college and assisted in many noble causes. As part of this benevolent work, his church contributed large sums to support poor relief.
Having told Spurgeon’s story, the article then indicates six areas of Spurgeon’s life and ministry which are helpful for us today: his Passion for Souls; his Devotion to Prayer and Study; His attitude to the Bible & Expository Ministry; his Pastoral Ministry; His Practical Christianity; and His refusal to compromise on the truth of the gospel.
KEYWORDS: Spurgeon, ministry, preach, Bible
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Carwardine, Richard. "Unity, Pluralism, and the Spiritual Market-Place: Interdenominational Competition in the Early American Republic." Studies in Church History 32 (1996): 297–335. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400015473.
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Following independence, Americans’ sense of the special status of their new nation drew succour not merely from their republican experiment but from the unique character of the nation’s religious life. Even before the Revolution Americans had witnessed an extraordinary proliferation of sects and churches, to a degree unparalleled in any single European state, as ethnic diversity increased and the mid-eighteenth-century revivals split churches and multiplied congregations. The Congregationalist establishment in New England and Anglican power in the middle and southern colonies uneasily confronted energetic dissenting minorities, including Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, English Baptists, and German Lutheran and Reformed groups. After 1776 it took some time to define a new relationship between church and state. Colonial habits of thought persisted and prompted schemes of multiple establishment or government support for religion in general. The Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1786 and, five years later, the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution did not succeed wholly in eliminating state authority from the sphere of religion; indeed, residual establishments persisted in Connecticut until 1818 and in Massachusetts until 1833. Yet an important shift was under way towards a ‘voluntary’ system of religious support, in which governmental authority in religion was replaced by increased authority for self-sustaining denominational bodies. After 1790 ecclesiastical institutions grew at an extraordinary pace, shaping the era labelled by historians the ‘Second Great Awakening’. As Jon Butler has reminded us, some 50,000 new churches were built in America between 1780 and 1860, sacralizing the landscape with steeples and graveyards and creating a heterogeneous presence that drew streams of European visitors curious to evaluate the effects of America’s unique experiment in ‘voluntarism’. By 1855 over four million of the country’s twenty-seven million people were members of one of over forty Protestant denominations, most of them recognizable by name as churches with an Old World ancestry but with features which made them distinctively American. Additionally, there were over one million Catholics.
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Carleton, Kenneth W. T. "The traditio instrumentorum in the Reform of Ordination Rites in the Sixteenth Century." Studies in Church History 35 (1999): 172–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400014029.
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The traditio instrumentorum is the ceremony in the rite of conferring holy orders in which an object or objects symbolizing the office to be conferred is handed to the candidate with an appropriate accompanying form of words. This ceremony grew in importance through the Middle Ages, to the extent that in Catholic theology it came to be seen as the essential act of ordination. Eucharistic doctrine and the role of the Church in salvation were key areas of conflict in sixteenth-century Reform movements. The Church’s ministry, therefore, being both intensely bound up with ecclesiastical structures and intimately concerned with the appropriate conduct of worship, was profoundly affected by these fundamental debates. A continuing need for some form of structured ministry was widely felt, though often understood as simply the appointment (for a time) of appropriate persons to the ministry of Word and Sacrament whose sacramental qualification for ministry was their own baptism, by which they entered into the priesthood of all believers, which was different from the unique high priesthood of Christ and completely replaced any sense of a sacrificing priesthood, which was tied up with the Old (and superseded) Testament. Looking to their Bibles for this, as for so much else in their ecclesiologies, the Reformers found only the apostolic laying on of hands with prayer in the conferring of ministry.
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Starreveld, J. C. L. "De Auteur Van De Politia Et Disciplina Civili Et Ecclesiastica (1585)." Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History 77, no. 2 (1997): 145–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/002820397x00234.
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AbstractThe name of the author of the anonymous work De politia et disciplina civili et ecclesiastica (1585) was a wellhidden secret for centuries. An attempt is made to solve this mystery. The name of the printer and the place are mentioned: Leonardus Niestus, Lugduni Batavorum. These explicit data do not lead anywhere. The dedication of the work contains valuable information about the author. He is a relative of F. Junius and H. Smetius, professors at Heidelberg University in theology and medicine and married to sisters of the Corput family from Breda. He mentions several times Italy and the Italians as his homeland, where he is not allowed to go. Lastly his initials are given: I.B.A.C. On the basis of recently published dissertations on one of the members of the Corput family and the Italian church in London in the sixteenth century the conclusion can be made that a member of the Corput family originating from Italy is the author. We found Ioannes Baptista Aurellius Calabrensis (ca.1540-1596) member of a Waldense family from the South of Italy. His mother had sent him in 1558/9 to the Academy of Geneva to prepare for the ministry in Italy. The family in Calabria fell victim to the Inquisition in 1561 and I.B.A.C. became a minister in France and subsequently in the small Italian reformed church of London from 1570 till his death in 1596. In London he married a member of the Corput family, Mary, and became related to Junius, Smetius and Emanuel van Meteren, the famous historian. He published two other works, not anonymous, one in Italian. His now forgotten 'De politia' was influential in the Dutch Republic because it was used by J. Wtenbogaert.
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Espy, John M. "Paul's ‘Robust Conscience’ Re-Examined." New Testament Studies 31, no. 2 (April 1985): 161–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0028688500014624.
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For centuries most Protestant churches, true to the Reformers' understanding of man and the Law, have preached the Christian message by presenting first the Law, so that the hearer would come to recognize his or her sinfulness, and then the Gospel, that the hearer might be brought to hope, and eventually to faith, in Jesus Christ. As the New Testament begins with the stern exhortations of John the Baptist, so, it has been argued, the Christian proclamation should always and everywhere commence with God's command. But now, in seminaries and churches, some have seized upon new expositions of the Law and used them to oppose this preaching scheme as unworkable, since not all will have any sins against the Law to recognize; and even as wrong, on the grounds that this approach inevitably lapses into trying to make people ‘feel guilty’. The result is that many of the new generation of ministers are learning to preach only consolation, or, at most, the judgment upon certain social orders pronounced by popularized liberation theology. It is with this homilectical situation in mind that I offer the following remarks on Paul's understanding of man's relationship to the Law, and through the Law to sin.
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Ситало, А. Ю. "Review of Orthodox-Protestant contemporary polemics: ecclesiology." Theological Herald, no. 4(31) (December 15, 2018): 35–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.31802/2500-1450-2018-31-4-35-62.
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В статье дается обзор полемических моментов, присущих современной протестантской критике православной экклесиологии, и ответы на эту критику со стороны православных полемистов. Исследование экклесиологических вопросов церковной самоидентичности привели в недавнее время большую группу евангелистов из Северной Америки в Право- славие. Эта тема является перспективной с точки зрения ведения диалога с протестан- тизмом в будущем. Одновременно с протестантской стороны появились публикации с разнообразными аргументами против православного учения, включая учение о Церкви. Протестанты выдвигают против православных обвинения в этнической раздробленности, в завышенной важности епископа, в учении о необходимости Таинств, эксклюзив- ности Церкви, ее единоспасительности, неопределенности взгляда на инославных в православном богословии и другие обвинения «по ассоциации» с Римо-католической церковью. Именно с этим приходится иметь дело в современных публикациях и от этого защищаться. В статье рассматриваются антиправославные публикации в рефор- маторском журнале “Credenda Agenda” и их критика в статье «Нереформированная истина» на православном ресурсе. Также изучается исповедь известного евангелистского исследователя Православия Дэниела Кленденина. Рассматривается статья ректора баптистского румынского университета «Эммануил» Пола Негруца и ответ на нее Джоэла Калвесмаки. Приводится отчет комиссии Лос-Анджелесского библейскогоинститута о несовместимости православной веры с «исповеданием» университета. Также изучается баптистская методичка по обращению православных. Отмечаются тенденции православно-протестантской полемики. Разбор дискуссий в порядке их возникновения в печати и на академическом уровне иллюстрирует степень расхождения во взглядах на современном этапе. The article provides a review of polemical issues of contemporary Protestant critique of Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology and various responses from Orthodox polemists. Researches on the topic of ecclesial identity have recently led a large group of North American evangelicals to Eastern Orthodoxy. This is why this topic is quite promising especially in regard to future dialogues with Protestants. At the same time as the conversions reported by Fr. Peter Guillquist took place a number of publications of Protestant authors arose which questioned and criticized Eastern Orthodox essentials including teaching on the Church. Charges of guilt “by association” with Roman Catholicism, nationalism, bishop prerogatives, necessity of Sacraments, exclusiveness of the Church, unclear status of the non-Orthodox, these are some of important claims which one encounters in press and which require a rebuttal. The article on contemporary polemics includes a review of anti-Orthodox publications in a Reformed magazine “Credenda Agenda” and a response to them called “UnReformed Truth” from an Orthodox resource; an article of a famous evangelical researcher of Eastern Orthodoxy Daniel Clendenin “Why I am not Orthodox” and responses on it; “What Evangelicals should know about Eastern Orthodoxy” by Paul Negrut and responses on it; Biola University Task Force Report on compliance of Orthodoxy with the “Statement of Faith” of the University and comments on it; Baptist Manual “Witnessing people of Eastern Orthodox Background” and a response to it. The various tendencies of the polemics are described.
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Grane, Leif. "Grundtvigs forhold til Luther og den lutherske tradition." Grundtvig-Studier 49, no. 1 (January 1, 1998): 21–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v49i1.16265.
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Grundtvig's Relations with Luther and the Lutheran TraditionBy Leif GraneGrundtvig’s relations with Luther and the Lutheran tradition are essential in nearly the whole of Grundtvig’s lifetime. The key position that he attributed to Luther in connection with his religious crisis 1810-11, remained with the Reformer until the very last, though there were changes on the way in his evaluation of the Reformation.The source material is overwhelming. It comprises all Grundtvig’s historical and church historical works, but also a large number of his theological writings, besides a number of his poems and hymns. Prior to Grundtvig’s lifelong occupation with Luther there had been a rejection of tradition as he had met with it in the Conservative supranaturalism. After the Romantic awakening at Egeløkke and the subsequent »Asarus« (the- ecstatic immersion in Nordic mythology), over the religious crisis 1810-1811, when Grundtvig thought he was »returning« to Luther, it was a different Luther from the one he had left a few years before. Though Grundtvig emphasizes the infallibility of the Bible, it is wrong to describe him as »Lutheran-Orthodox« in the traditional sense. In Grundtvig’s interpretation, Luther is above all the guarantee of the view of history he had acquired in his Romantic period, but given his own personal stamp, as it appeared in slightly different ways in the World Chronicles of 1812 and 1817. There already he turns against the theologization of the message of the Reformation that set in with the confessional writings. Ever since he maintained the view of the Reformation that he expounds in the two World Chronicles, though the evaluation of it changed somewhat, especially after 1825.The church view that Grundtvig presented for the first time in »Kirkens Gienmæle« (The Rejoinder of the Church), and which he explained in detail in »Om den sande Christendom« (About True Christianity) and »Om Christendommens Sandhed« (About the Truth of Christianity), was bound to lead to a conflict (as it did) with the Protestant »Scripturalism«, and thus to clarity about the disagreement with Luther. This conflict attained a greater degree of precision with the distinctions between church and state, and church and school, as they were presented in »Skal den lutherske Reformation virkelig fortsættes?« (Should the Lutheran Reformation Really Be Continued? 1830), but it was not really until the publication of the third part of »Haandbog I Verdens-Historien« (Handbook in World History) that the view of church history and of Luther’s place in it, inspired by the congregational letters in the Apocalypse, was presented, in order to be more closely developed, partly in poetical form in »Christenhedens Syvstjeme« (The Seven Star of Christendom), partly in lectures in »Kirke-Spejl« (Church Mirror).Grundtvig had to reject orthodoxy since the genuineness of Baptism and Eucharist depended on their originating from Christ Himself. Nothing of universal validity could therefore have come into existence in the 16th century.Thus the evaluation of Luther and Lutheranism must depend on how far Lutheranism corresponded to what all Christians have in common. Luther is praised for the discovery that only the Word and the Spirit must reign in the church. It is understandable therefore that Luther had to break down the false idea of the church that had prevailed since Cyprian, and Grundtvig remained unswervingly loyal to him. But he cannot avoid the question why Luther’s work crumbled after his death. The answer is that it crumbled because of »Scripturalism« which Grundtvig considers a spurious inheritance from Alexandrian theology. We must maintain Luther’s faith which centres on all that is fundamentally Christian, but not his theological method.Grundtvig believes that with his criticism of Luther he is really closer to him than those who are cringing admirers of him. Grundtvig confesses himself to having committed the mistake of confusing the Bible with Christianity, and he cannot exempt Luther from a great responsibility for this aberration. All the same, in Luther’s case the wrong Yet Luther was induced to want to make his own experiences universally valid since he did not understand that his own use of the Scriptures could not possibly be right for every man. Here Grundtvig is on the track of the individualism which to him is an inevitable consequence of Scripturalism: everybody reads as he knows best. It was not in school, but in church that he saw Luther’s great and imperishable achievement.So while Grundtvig cannot exempt Luther from some responsibility for an unfortunate development in the relation between church and school, he is very anxious to exempt him from any responsibility for the assumption of power in the church by the princes, which is due, in his opinion, to a conspiracy between the princes and the theologians with a view to tying the peoples to the symbolical books.In the development of Grundtvig’s view of church history it turns out that the interest in the national, cultural and civic significance of the Reformation has not decreased after he has given up fighting for a Christian culture. The Reformation must, as must church history on the whole, be seen in the context of the histories of the peoples. Therefore, if it is not to be pure witchcraft, it must have its foundation deep in the Middle Ages.Grundtvig points to what he calls »the new Christendom«: from the English and the Germans to the North. Viewed in that light, the Reformation is a struggle for a Christian life, a folkelig life of the people, and enlightenment.Though the 17th century wrenched all life out of what was bom in the 16th, and the 18th century abandoned both Christianity and folkelig life altogether, it was of great significance for culture and enlightenment that the people was made familiar with Luther’s catechism, Bible and hymn book. What was fundamentally Christian survived, while folkelig life lay dormant.The Reformation was unfinished, and its completion must wait until the end of time. But compulsion is approaching the end, and the force of the Reformation in relation to mother tongue and folkelig life manifests itself more strongly than ever before, Gmndtvig believes. What is fundamentally Christian in Luther must be maintained and carried onwards, while the Christian enlightenment, i.e. theology, depends on the time in question.Life is the same, but the light is historically determined. With this concept of freedom, which distinguishes between the faith in Christ as permanent and the freedom of the Holy Ghost that liberates us from being tied to the theology of the old, Gmndtvig may convincingly claim that it is he who – with his criticism - is loyal to Luther, i.e. to »the most excellent Father in Christ since the days of the Apostles«.
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Tshaka, Rothney S., and Tshepo Lephakga. "Karl Barth’s understanding of Christian Baptism as a basis for a conversation on the praxis of Sacraments in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 69, no. 1 (January 14, 2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v69i1.1330.
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This article is an initial attempt to bring the subject of baptism and to a lesser extent infant baptism in particular, as demonstrated in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, into a conversation with the practice of this phenomenon in African Reformed churches in South Africa, specifically the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). Whilst the Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions regarding the sacraments differ significantly in the understanding of this subject, this article will examine Barth’s understanding of baptism. This is done by critically examining key themes in his Church Dogmatics. The praxis of the sacraments and especially that of baptism continue to be a praxis that is highly venerated in African Reformed theological circles. This is so because it is believed that symbolism continues to occupy centre stage in African Reformed churches. In a sense therefore it seems that the African Reformed Christian leans more towards a Roman Catholic understanding of this sacrament. Is that perhaps true? Essentially this conversation will explore the relationship of faith to baptism and how this impacts on infant baptism for instance.
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Dreyer, W. A. "Die verband tussen doop en lidmaatskap van die kerk." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 55, no. 2/3 (January 11, 1999). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v55i2/3.1603.
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The relationship between baptism and membership of the church. This aricle examines the relaionship between bapism and membership of the church. The author's main thesis is that baptism signifies the unity with Christ, and as such unity with the body of Christ (the church). Research has shown that baptism exists in different religions, cults and sects as an initiation rite. This forms the background to the New Testament,s presentation of baptism as (inter alia) an initiation rite. This article examines not only these baptism rites, but also the different metaphors in the New Testament concerned with baptism as initiation. The history of baptism in the church and the way bapism functions in the Reformed tradition, in terms of church polity and membership of the church, are also examined.
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Floor, L. "'n Nuwe-Testamentiese perspektief op 1892." In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 27, no. 2 (June 25, 1993). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ids.v27i2.1454.
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In this article it is a argued that the unification (1892) of the two Dutch churches, both rooted in the Reformed tradition, was premature. Prior to the unification, the doctrine of the covenant of grace and the view on infant baptism, taught and preached in one of the churches and later on taught in the united churches, were strongly influenced by the theology of Abraham Kuyper. These teachings dealing with the doctrine of the church could not be justified as fully biblical and in line with the teaching of the New Testament.
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Koffeman, Leo. "Costly tolerance." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 72, no. 1 (February 4, 2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i1.3282.
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Tolerance is an aspect of the balance between power and freedom. This contribution starts from a decision taken by the general synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, in 1914, on the issue of church members who did not recognise infant baptism. The synod decided that – on certain conditions – ‘tolerance can be practiced’ towards such members. This contribution analyses and evaluates this decision, with particular attention for the distinction made between fundamental and non-fundamental faith issues. It shows how this decision is related to the broader context of early twentieth century political life in the Netherlands (the ‘Pacification of 1917’), and it concludes with some thoughts on the costliness of true tolerance.
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Nel, Malan, and Eric Scholtz. "Calling, is there anything special about it?" HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 72, no. 4 (May 31, 2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i4.3183.
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Within the Reformed tradition, ‘calling’ is a core concept. Often, this biblical verse is cited when a pastor is installed or a new candidate is ordained, ‘The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it’ (1 Th 5:24 NIV). It is also confessed within this tradition that all Christians are called to be faithful ministers of the graces of God in whatever profession they may serve. In some Presbyterian congregations, it is a practice to say at the baptism of a child, ‘This is your ordination to ministry’. This article focuses on what is meant by calling when we use it in so many ways and with so many meanings. The first part explores the use of the concept in church history by different scholars and leaders – like in the Reformation. The second part briefly explores the implications and impact of the calling of someone into full-time congregational ministry.
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Koning, John, and P. J. Buys. "South African Reformed Baptists and contextualisation: Contemporary understanding, attitudes and praxis." In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 50, no. 4 (June 10, 2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ids.v50i4.2018.
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Postmodernism and urbanisation pose significant challenges and opportunities to Christian witness in the West. In South Africa, Reformed Baptists as well as the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) seem to be battling to engage with and reach new generations in the cities with the gospel. While the reasons for this may be many and varied, one reason for our faltering and seemingly ineffective witness can be traced back to inadequate and unbiblical views of contextualisation. While South African Reformed Baptists are passionately committed to biblical truth and orthodoxy, they appear to be negligent in the matter of faithful biblical contextualisation. Reformed Baptist pastors appear to be slow to take cognisance of and adjust to the unique challenges and opportunities that Postmodernism and urbanisation presents to gospel ministry in South Africa. Some conservative Baptists are suspicious of, or even critical of contextualisation, considering it a compromise with liberal theology. This article provides an overview of the findings of an empirical research that was done among a selected group of Reformed Baptist pastors as well as a selected group of ministers of the RCSA concerning their views on and practice of contextualisation. The article also provides some critical reflection on the findings and some proposals for more effective outreach to postmodern urban people.Keywords: Contextualisation, Reformed, Baptists Reformed Churches in South Africa Church, growth, Postmodernism
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Pieterse, Hendrik J. C. "Oorsigartikel – F. Gerrit Immink se prakties–teologiese studie van die geloofspraktyk: Liturgiese vernuwing in die Protestantse tradisie." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 73, no. 4 (April 21, 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i4.4712.
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This contribution is a review article on the three most important books by F. Gerrit Immink in practical theology. His approach to this discipline is studying faith praxis of the Protestantse Kerk in Nederland (Protestant Church in the Netherlands) which is a church in the Reformed tradition. In his first book he explained his approach to practical theology in a discussion with the action theory and hermeneutical-communucative approaches. His choice for the study of faith praxis opens the way for a more theological approach to him in which communication between God and people is an important aspect. His second book forms the central part of this article. He uses the concept performance in the liturgy which is adopted from the theater world. In the performance by means of the execution of the liturgy by the congregation (preacher, organ, music, singing, praying) they all get involved in the message from the Bible of that Sunday, they are touched by it, it has an effect on them, and they get a new perspective on the problems of everyday life. This is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. The epiclese prayers in the liturgy are prayers for the enlightening and work by the Spirit. He discusses singing, praying, preaching, baptism and Holy Communion in detail. The main idea is that the performance in the liturgy does something to you, it has an effect on you, something happens to you. To my mind there is no need to choose between the ritual approach and the approach he is putting on the table. The approaches can enrich each other.
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Sundkvist, Bernice. "Församlingsspiritualitet i ett liturgiskt perspektiv: The Spirituality of the Congregation from a Liturgical Perspective." Scandinavian Journal for Leadership & Theology, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.53311/2014.1.3.
Full textAbstract:
In this article I have focused on three main types of worship in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The church has a long liturgical tradition and its liturgical services for Sunday worship and other divine services have been reformed, paying attention to both the tradition of the church and its changing context. The work of the Spirit is not excluded per definition by a fixed service. First, the formula allows scope for variation; but foremost, the Evangelical Lutheran theology interprets the work of the Spirit as an immediate inner work in and through external forms. Sunday worship engages the faithful members of the church. The service is ordered by the liturgical year and its spirituality emphasises the beliefs and values of the Christian tradition and the church. But worship cannot be interpreted as just a transmittal of information, the liturgy is structured as a dialogue between God and the congregation. One is in the presence of God, engaging all the thoughts and emotions in one’s life. At the other end of the spectrum, are special services, such as baptism, confirmation, wedding ceremonies and funerals. In these, the emphasis is on life circumstances and the dimension of spirituality as a way of life. These situations are the reason for the ritual. The challenge here in shaping spirituality is to keep both existential questions and questions of faith together as an integrated whole. Between Sunday worship and the special services, we see worship models emerging that have special topics, such as Gloria Dei-masses, metal music masses and rainbow masses and so on. These also focus on spirituality as a way of life, but not from the point of view of the individual or a family, but through specific topics. This form of worship can help the congregation in communicating and serving special needs. The three main types of worship all try to integrate different dimensions of spirituality in their dialogue with God. They are part of the worship in the local congregation as a whole, but since the specific services are often attended by different people, they can be perceived as separate parts. The challenge is to maintain unity through the different dimensions of beliefs, values and ways of life, with harmonious spirituality within the congregation and its worship as the goal.
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Henry, Desmond, and Cornelius J. P. Niemandt. "Waves of mission amongst South African Baptists." Verbum et Ecclesia 35, no. 1 (January 14, 2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v35i1.843.
Full textAbstract:
Baptists in South Africa have developed along lines similar to other denominations of their day (e.g. the Dutch Reformed Church). However, there are six distinct waves of development within Baptist history in South Africa (including an emerging wave) that showcase the growth, development, digressions, limitations and transformation that has taken place in the Baptist denomination in South Africa. These waves are a tremendous help to the Baptist Union of Southern Africa (BUSA) as they seek to be faithful witnesses in the 21st century and beyond. It has become clear: If BUSA is to succeed within the emerging wave of mission and development, it will need a new, updated map to guide them where many have not been before � or BUSA could simply fade into irrelevance in South Africa, impacting other movements and denominations in turn.
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Lotter, George, and Timothy Van Aarde. "A rediscovery of the priesthood of believers in Ephesians 4:1–16 and its relevance for the Missio Dei and a biblical missional ecumenism." In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 51, no. 2 (February 28, 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ids.v51i2.2251.
Full textAbstract:
This article is dedicated to Professor Sarel van der Merwe as missiologist and what he had done for the cause of the missio Dei in South Africa. The role of the laity in the missio Dei was one of the most significant developments followed by most church denominations. The priesthood of believers was the reformational perspective rediscovered by Martin Luther. The reformed tradition rediscovered the role of the laity in missions, which the Baptist church tradition has now developed most extensively in terms of missions. The Catholic Church has recognised the apostolicity of the laity in a decree called ‘Apostolicam Actuositatem’ at the Second Vatican Council in response to the crises of the church. The charismatics gave recognition to the role of the laity through the spiritual gifts of each believer. The role of the laity and of the priesthood of believers has its biblical precedent and foundation in 1 Peter 2:5, 9 and Ephesians 4:1–16. The contribution of Ephesians is that it provides the church with a missional mandate for the ordinary believer to participate in the missio Dei –, a mandate that has to be rediscovered in every age. The priesthood of believers provides an orientation for a biblical missional ecumenism.