from 2003

‘Reformed catholicity’: retrieval of the catholic tradition in contemporary Reformed theology

Billings: a current of contemporary Protestant theology that reads the Reformed tradition as part of the church catholic. It joins theocentrism, exegesis alongside pre-modern authors, and deep listening to the Fathers, Aquinas and the Reformers; Allen and Swain’s Reformed Catholicity (2015) became its programmatic book. Models include Haynes, Nevin, Bavinck, Barth and Torrance.

Key points

• Billings: ‘Reformed catholicity’ approaches Reformed theology as part of the larger Christian tradition, the ‘holy, catholic church’ of the Apostles’ Creed. ‘Catholicity’ had two early senses – ecclesial (the Church’s oneness against schismatics) and qualitative (growth into fullness; Cyril of Jerusalem); recent Reformed catholicity stresses the qualitative sense – growth into fullness and maturity in Christ – more than ecclesial unity. Four features – theocentrism, God’s action through Scripture and exegesis, ‘deep listening’ to pre-modern authors, knowing God for all doctrine; influential examples are Webster (Holy Scripture), Sonderegger (two-volume Systematic Theology) and Vanhoozer (The Drama of Doctrine). After Allen and Swain: Christ alone is the magisterial authority; tradition serves the Word – being more biblical means ‘traditioning’. Late-modern theology lives in Taylor’s ‘immanent frame’; the answer is listening to pre-modern voices, as in ressourcement and ad fontes. After Webster, theologies of retrieval treat Christianity as irreducible – ‘not a version of anything’; answers may lie in the Christian past. After John Bolt’s English edition of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics (2003–2008), scholarship on Bavinck went from a trickle to a torrent. Bavinck (1854–1921) builds a theocentric dogmatics as an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed; grace restores creation rather than abolishing it. He drew on Augustine and Aquinas but kept Leiden’s modern gifts – historical criticism and Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel. Possible models include the Black ecclesial tradition (Haynes), Nevin, Bavinck, Barth and Torrance, and post-Barthian historians of the Reformation

People

• Herman Bavinck
• Michael Allen
• Scott Swain
• John Webster
• Katherine Sonderegger
• Kevin Vanhoozer
• John Williamson Nevin
• Lemuel Haynes
• Karl Barth
• Thomas F. Torrance
• John Owen
• Charles Taylor
• Cyril of Jerusalem

Place

North America, Europe