Daniel Hyde traces the historical roots of the Reformed churches, their key beliefs, and the ways in which those beliefs are expressed. The result is a roadmap for those newly encountering the Reformed world and a primer for those seeking to know more about their Reformed heritage.
God always intended to have a people to love: a church Jesus said nothing could destroy (Matthew 16:18). Simonetta shows how God has kept this promise for two thousand years.
This sweeping and eminently readable book is the first synthetic history of Calvinism in almost fifty years. It tells the story of the Reformed tradition from its birth in the cities of Switzerland to the unraveling of orthodoxy amid the new intellectual currents of the seventeenth century. As befits a pan-European movement, Benedict’s canvas stretches from the British Isles to Eastern Europe. The course and causes of Calvinism’s remarkable expansion, the inner workings of the diverse national churches, and the theological debates that shaped Reformed doctrine all receive ample attention. The English Reformation is situated within the history of continental Protestantism in a way that reveals the international significance of English developments. A fresh examination of Calvinist worship, piety, and discipline permits an up-to-date assessment of the classic theories linking Calvinism to capitalism and democracy. Benedict not only paints a vivid picture of the greatest early spokesmen of the cause, Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin, but also restores many lesser-known figures to their rightful place. Ambitious in conception, attentive to detail, this book offers a model of how to think about the history and significance of religious change across the long Reformation era.
"The Dutch Reformed Church in the American Colonies remains the best study of the early years of the Reformed Church in North America. De Jong's careful account takes the readers on a fascinating journey from the establishment of a Dutch church at a mill in New Amsterdam to the early years of an indigenous American denomination. Along the way we become acquainted with issues in the colonial period that are pertinent in the twenty-first century for the Reformed Church in America: church multiplication, leadership training, discipleship, regional tensions, adaptation to cultural changes, worship, and liturgy. De Jong helps us to see that, in many respects, the more things change, the more they remain the same." The Rev. Dennis N. Voskuil, Ph.D. President and De Witt Professor of Church History Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan "The reissue of De Jong's classic study is very welcome. Though of course there has been other important work on various aspects of the colonial Dutch Reformed experience in the thirty years since the book's first appearance, still it remains the standard comprehensive account - a careful and thorough work that shows a mastery of the sources and sticks close to them." The Rev. John Coakley, Ph.D L. Russel Feakes Professor of Church History, New Brunswick Theological Seminary New Brunswick, New Jersey
The nature and life of the church is one of the most crucial issues facing Christians in the closing years of the twentieth century. Questions of ministry and liturgy, authority and freedom, appear in a wide variety of guises throughout the world-wide church. Relativism and uncertainty seem to be as common in the church as in the world. Many Christians wonder whether there is any way forward. In this context, The Reformation of the Church is an invaluable aid. An anthology of documents, drawn largely but not exclusively from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it presents in a readily accessible form the finest thinking of the reformed fathers on authority and freedom, the need for reformation, the nature of the government, unity and membership of the church of Jesus Christ. Warmly welcomed when first published in 1965, and widely use since then, these documents provide invaluable material for ministers, elders, leaders, students and all Christians who are concerned to see Christ's church fulfill her God-given role at a critical juncture in her history.