Reformed Catholicity

What kind of community is the Church, and what is the center, and the outer limits, of the Christian Faith? How does the confessional Reformed tradition relate to the Christian tradition as a whole? How does the ontology of Scripture as the Church's divinely inspired canon affect the work of theology? Does the story of Scripture's formation illuminate the relationship of Scripture to tradition and confession?

These and other questions are explored in this core class in the Greystone program. "Catholicity" is an often-misunderstood term, and "Reformed Catholicity" sounds to some ears like a contradiction, but in fact the early and formative voices of Reformed Protestantism were persuaded the life and health of the Church depends on its catholicity in Protestant, not Roman Catholic terms.

In recent decades, developments in the "theological interpretation of Scripture," "canonical hermeneutics/theology," and advanced research into the texts and figures of post-Reformation Reformed theologians and confessions have returned the question of Reformed catholicity to the attention of the Church. New efforts include a considered zeal:

1. to retrieve the best of the patristic and medieval traditions on which the Reformation depended;

2. to reconsider the Reformed catholic efforts of bodies such as the Regensburg Colloquy and Westminster Assembly as well as figures such as Martin Bucer, William Perkins, John Williamson Nevin, and Herman Bavinck;

3. and to renew the Church's practical commitment to the Bible as Holy Scripture rather than mere historical artifact or source
   material.

Advances in responsible models and commendations of catholicity in theology are plentiful and varied, and some of the most promising ideas proceed not only from scholarly voices across the disciplines in our own day but also through distinctive 20th and 21st century Reformed contributions in biblical theology, on the unity of theology, on canon and Christology, and on Scripture and tradition. These and other shifts in scholarship—especially work on canon, the rule of faith, the nature of history, and pneumatology—place us in an enviable position of great opportunity. This class argues for the nature and the importance of Reformed catholicity, and charts the way forward for further development.