Reformed confessions of faith

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

The Westminster Confession. Title page, 1st ed.

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

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Confessions
The Belgic Confession.

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

Continental Reformed
  • Confession of the East Friesland Preachers (1528)[2]: 15 
  • Tetrapolitan Confession (1530)
  • Synodical Declaration of Bern (1532)[2]: 13 
  • First Confession of Basel (1534)[3]
  • First Helvetic Confession/Second Confession of Basel (1536)[3]
  • Geneva Confession (1536)[3]
  • Altered Augsburg Confession (1540)[4]
  • Confession of the English Congregation at Geneva (1556)[3]
  • Guanabara Confession of Faith (1558)[5]
  • French Confession of Faith (1559)
  • Confession of the Christian Faith (1559)[2]: 19 
  • Belgic Confession (1561)
  • Second Helvetic Confession (1562)
  • Erlauthal Confession (1562)[2]: 18 
  • Hungarian Confession (1562)[2]: 19 
  • Confession of Nassau (1578)[2]: 21 
  • Bremen Consensus (1595)[2]: 21 
  • Sigismund Confession (1614)[2]: 21 
  • Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934)
  • Belhar Confession (1986)
    • First adopted in South Africa and since adopted by many mainline Reformed churches.

Presbyterian
The Westminster Confession and catechisms were produced by a committee rather than a single author.

Congregationalist

The presbyterians' Westminster was formed by an assembly of ministers called by parliament for use in the established churches of England and Scotland. For congregationalists, this was not the case. The difference in application of the congregationalists' primary confession, Savoy, is that it was written as a declaration of consensus, and as such it was not treated as morally binding upon church officers like Westminster for presbyterians[10] (called subscriptionism[11]).

Local congregational churches are historically formed around covenants (e.g. the Dedham Covenant), often unique to that church, another kind of confession.[1]

Baptist

Baptist confessions, like the congregationalists, are statements of agreement rather than enforceable rules. They "have never been held as tests of orthodoxy, as of any authoritative or binding force; they merely reflect the existing harmony of views and the scriptural interpretations of the churches assenting to them."[15]

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

Baptist churches, like the congregationalists with whom they share views of polity, compose church covenants for the local congregation.[1]

  • First London Baptist Confession (1644)[16]
  • The Confession of Somerset (1656)[15]
  • Second London Baptist Confession (1689)[17]
    • Adopted in America as the Philadelphia Confession (1742)[15]
  • New Hampshire Confession (1833 or 1844)[15]
  • Baptist Affirmation of Faith 1966

Anglican

Anglican churches are not confessional in the same strict sense as in Lutheran churches.[18][19] Anglican doctrine is most defined by Lex orandi, lex credendi ("the law of praying [is] the law of believing").[20][21]

Methodist
  • Calvinistic Methodist Confession of Faith (1823)[26]

Catechisms
German Theologian Michael Landgraf portraying a reenactment of Zacharias Ursinus, principal author of the Heidelberg Catechism.

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

Continental

Presbyterian

Congregationalist
  • Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes (1656)

Baptist
  • Keach's Catechism (1677)

Anglican

Constitutions, ordinals, and platforms of church order
The Synod of Dort was convened to respond to the Remonstrants.

These documents relate to the ecclesiastical polity of the church.

Continental
  • Church Order of Dort (1618)
  • Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1641)[28]

Presbyterian

Congregationalist
  • Cambridge Platform (1648)[29]
  • Platform of Discipline of the Savoy Declaration (1658)
    • Full title: Of the Institution of Churches, and the Order appointed in them by Jesus Christ
  • Fifteen Articles of the Saybrook Platform (1708)
  • Boston Platform (1865)[12]

Occasional documents
The Consensus Tigurinus found common ground between Calvin in Geneva and Bullinger in Zurich.

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

  • Zwingli's Sixty-Seven Articles (1523)[3]
  • Ten Theses of Berne (1528)[3]
  • Lausanne Articles (1536)[3]
  • Zurich Consensus (1549)[2]: 14 
  • Sendomir Consensus (1570)[2]: 19 
  • Harmony of the Confessions of Faith (1581), a response to the Lutheran Formula of Concord.
  • Canons of Dort (1619)
  • Helvetic Consensus (1675)
  • Conclusions of Utrecht (1905)

References
  1. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". ccel.org. § 2. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  2. Rohls, Jan (1998) [1987]. Theologie reformierter Bekenntnisschriften [Reformed confessions: Theology from Zurich to Barmen] (in German). Translated by John Hoffmeyer. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22078-9.
  3. Cochrane, Arthur C. (2003). Reformed Confessions of the Sixteenth Century. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22694-7.
  4. Schaff, Philip (ed.). "Creeds of Christendom, Volume I." ccel.org. § 41. Retrieved 2024-04-18. It is, to a certain extent, also the Confession of the Reformed and the so-called Union Churches, in Germany, namely, with the explanations and modifications of the author himself in the edition of 1540
  5. Carson, D. A. (27 January 2015). Themelios, Volume 36, Issue 2. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-62564-954-6.
  6. Scots Confession (1560). Confession of Faith Ratification Act (1560), (Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1560/1.
  7. "Confession of Faith: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church". opc.org. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  8. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (2004). "Book of Confessions, Confession of 1967" (PDF). Louisville, Kentucky: The Office of the General Assembly. pp. 252–262. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  9. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (2004). "Book of Confessions" (PDF). Louisville, Kentucky: The Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  10. Davies, Horton (1948). The worship of the English Puritans. Internet Archive. Westminster [London] : Dacre Press. p. 274.
  11. "The Confessional Subscription Debate at Westminster Theological Seminary in California". opc.org. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  12. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". ccel.org. § 103. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  13. Bremer, Francis J.; Webster, Tom, Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2006, p. 354.
  14. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". ccel.org. § 102. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  15. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". ccel.org. § 105. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  16. Gribben, Crawford. The Puritan Millennium: Literature and Theology, 1550–1682 (Revised Edition), Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2008, p. 252.
  17. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Documents, Reformed.
  18. Turnbull, Richard (15 July 2010). Anglican and Evangelical?. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-1-4411-1475-4.
  19. Avis, Paul (2013). The Anglican Understanding of the Church: An introduction. SPCK. pp. 65–. ISBN 978-0-281-06815-9.
  20. Earey, Mark (2013). Beyond Common Worship: Anglican Identity and Liturgical Diversity. SCM Press. pp. 100–. ISBN 978-0-334-04739-1.
  21. Platten, Stephen; Woods, Christopher (2012). Comfortable Words: Polity, Piety and the Book of Common Prayer. Hymns Ancient and Modern. pp. 142–. ISBN 978-0-334-04670-7.
  22. "Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 2, 1552–1566". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  23. Muller, Richard A. (2004). "John Calvin and later Calvinism". In Bagchi, David; Steinmetz, David C. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-52177-662-2.
  24. Schaff, Philip (1877). The Creeds of Christendom: The history of creeds. Harper.
  25. "Confessions of Faith, The Westminster Confession of Faith" (PDF). Louisville, Kentucky: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 2004 [1646]. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  26. Confession of Faith of the Calvinistic Methodists or the Presbyterians of Wales at the Wayback Machine (archived July 27, 2011)
  27. "Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 1, 1523–1552". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  28. Calvin, Jean; Reid, J. K. S. (John Kelman Sutherland) (1977). Calvin: theological treatises. Internet Archive. Philadelphia : Westminster Press. pp. 56–72. ISBN 978-0-664-24156-8.
  29. Walker 1894, pp. 114, 221.
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