Two hundred years ago, William Dunlop, a professor of church history at the University of Edinburgh, published two volumes of confessions that had enjoyed “public authority” in Scotland since the Reformation. While the Westminster Standards (1647–48) filled the first volume, more than 10 earlier confessional documents — including the Geneva Catechism (1542), the Scots Confession (1560) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) — filled the second. By placing Westminster in the broader tradition of Reformed (“Calvinist”) theology, Dunlop honored a distinctly Reformed custom: He compiled a book of confessions.
Not long after Roman Catholic Mary Tudor rose to the English throne in 1553, the outspoken Scottish reformer John Knox felt compelled to leave the British Isles. After a spell in Frankfurt, Knox joined a fellowship of religious refugees from across Europe who had thronged to Geneva.
This year Presbyterians celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. The theses, which criticized the sale of indulgences by church officials, are considered the opening salvo in the Protestant Reformation — a movement that emphasized individual relationships with God and salvation through faith alone.
In late October 1517, an obscure Augustinian monk teaching at a minor German university offered a set of propositions, inviting an academic debate. Many Presbyterians can picture Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, but we are hard-pressed to say what the theses were about, and why they sparked a movement that both reformed and divided the church.
In late October 1517, an obscure Augustinian monk teaching in a minor German university offered a set of propositions, inviting an academic debate. Many Presbyterians can picture Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, but we are hard-pressed to say what the theses were about, and why they sparked a movement that both reformed and divided the church.
Over the past few years, three members of my very Protestant extended family have become Roman Catholic. All of these conversions were undertaken with little or no contact with the other persons. These shifts have deepened the question that all of us face, particularly on Reformation Day: What is the future of Protestantism, particularly Reformed Protestantism?
