Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition which has developed from the practices and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation. Adherents of Anglicanism are called "Anglicans"; the majority of Anglicans are members of national or regional ecclesiastical provinces of the international Anglican Communion, which forms the third-largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. They are in full communion with the See of Canterbury, thus the Archbishop of Canterbury, whom the communion refers to as its primus inter pares, he calls the decennial Lambeth Conference, chairs the meeting of primates, the Anglican Consultative Council. Some churches that are not part of the Anglican Communion or recognized by the Anglican Communion call themselves Anglican, including those that are part of the Continuing Anglican movement and Anglican realignment. Anglicans base their Christian faith on the Bible, traditions of the apostolic Church, apostolic succession and the writings of the Church Fathers.
Anglicanism forms one of the branches of Western Christianity, having definitively declared its independence from the Holy See at the time of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. Many of the new Anglican formularies of the mid-16th century corresponded to those of contemporary Protestantism; these reforms in the Church of England were understood by one of those most responsible for them, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, others as navigating a middle way between two of the emerging Protestant traditions, namely Lutheranism and Calvinism. In the first half of the 17th century, the Church of England and its associated Church of Ireland were presented by some Anglican divines as comprising a distinct Christian tradition, with theologies and forms of worship representing a different kind of middle way, or via media, between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism – a perspective that came to be influential in theories of Anglican identity and expressed in the description of Anglicanism as "Catholic and Reformed".
The degree of distinction between Protestant and Catholic tendencies within the Anglican tradition is a matter of debate both within specific Anglican churches and throughout the Anglican Communion. Unique to Anglicanism is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services in one Book used for centuries; the Book is acknowledged as a principal tie that binds the Anglican Communion together as a liturgical rather than a confessional tradition or one possessing a magisterium as in the Roman Catholic Church. After the American Revolution, Anglican congregations in the United States and British North America were each reconstituted into autonomous churches with their own bishops and self-governing structures. Through the expansion of the British Empire and the activity of Christian missions, this model was adopted as the model for many newly formed churches in Africa and Asia-Pacific. In the 19th century, the term Anglicanism was coined to describe the common religious tradition of these churches.
The word Anglican originates in Anglicana ecclesia libera sit, a phrase from the Magna Carta dated 15 June 1215, meaning "the Anglican Church shall be free". Adherents of Anglicanism are called Anglicans; as an adjective, "Anglican" is used to describe the people and churches, as well as the liturgical traditions and theological concepts developed by the Church of England. As a noun, an Anglican is a member of a church in the Anglican Communion; the word is used by followers of separated groups which have left the communion or have been founded separately from it, although this is considered as a misuse by the Anglican Communion. The word Anglicanism came into being in the 19th century; the word referred only to the teachings and rites of Christians throughout the world in communion with the see of Canterbury, but has come to sometimes be extended to any church following those traditions rather than actual membership in the modern Anglican Communion. Although the term Anglican is found referring to the Church of England as far back as the 16th century, its use did not become general until the latter half of the 19th century.
In British parliamentary legislation referring to the English Established Church, there is no need for a description. When the Union with Ireland Act created the United Church of England and Ireland, it is specified that it shall be one "Protestant Episcopal Church", thereby distinguishing its form of church government from the Presbyterian polity that prevails in the Church of Scotland; the word Episcopal is preferred in the title of the Episcopal Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church, though the full name of the former is The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Elsewhere, the term "Anglican Church" came to be preferred as it distinguished these churches from others that maintain an episcopal polity. Anglicanism, in its structures and forms of worship, is understood as a distinct Christian tradition representing a middle ground between what are perceived to be the extremes of the claims of 16th-century Roman Ca
William Farel
William Farel, Guilhem Farel or Guillaume Farel, was a French evangelist, Protestant reformer and a founder of the Reformed Church in the Principality of Neuchâtel, in the Republic of Geneva, in Switzerland in the Canton of Bern and the Canton of Vaud. He is most remembered for having persuaded John Calvin to remain in Geneva in 1536, for persuading him to return there in 1541, after their expulsion in 1538, they influenced the government of Geneva to the point that it became the "Protestant Rome", where Protestants took refuge and non-Protestants were driven out. Together with Calvin, Farel worked to train missionary preachers who spread the Protestant cause to other countries, to France. Farel was born in 1489 in Gap, he was a pupil of the pro-reform Catholic priesthood, at the University of Paris, in the earliest years of the Reformation. There he met the scholar Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples who helped Farel obtain a professorship to teach grammar and philosophy at the Collège Cardinal Lemoine in Paris.
With Lefevre he became a member of the Cercle de Meaux gathered together from 1519 by the reform-minded bishop of Meaux, Guillaume Briçonnet. Farel soon became regent of the college. By 1522 he was appointed a diocesan preacher by the Reformist bishop of Guillaume Briçonnet. Farel now could invite a number of evangelical Humanists to work in his diocese to help implement his reform program within the Catholic Church; this group of Humanists included Josse van Clichtove, Martial Mazurier, Gérard Roussel, François Vatable. The members of the Meaux circle were of different talents but they emphasized the study of the Bible and a return to the theology of the early Church. While working with Lefevre in Meaux, Farel came under the influence of Lutheran ideas and became an avid promoter of them. After condemnation by the Sorbonne, Farel evangelized fervently in the Dauphiné. Farel was forced to flee to Switzerland because of controversy, aroused by his writings against the use of images in Christian worship.
He spent time at Zurich with Martin Bucer. He convinced Neuchâtel to join the Reform in 1530. Farel established himself in Geneva in 1532, where he remained as minister, drawing Calvin to the city, but breaking with him over the Eucharist. He, along with Calvin, was banished from Geneva in 1538, in part for his rigorous positions, retired to Neuchâtel, where he died. Although Farel was a friend of Calvin's, he was a promoter of Lutheran ideas in his youth. González, Justo, "John Calvin", The Story of Christianity, 2, Peabody: Prince Press, ISBN 978-1-56563-522-7 Latourette, Kenneth.
Calvinism
Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. Calvinists broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Calvinists differ from Lutherans on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, theories of worship, the use of God's law for believers, among other things; as declared in the Westminster and Second Helvetic confessions, the core doctrines are predestination and election. The term Calvinism can be misleading, because the religious tradition which it denotes has always been diverse, with a wide range of influences rather than a single founder. In the context of the Reformation, Huldrych Zwingli began the Reformed tradition in 1519 in the city of Zürich, his followers were labeled Zwinglians, consistent with the Catholic practice of naming heresy after its founder. Soon, Zwingli was joined by Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, William Farel, Johannes Oecolampadius and other early Reformed thinkers.
The namesake of the movement, French reformer John Calvin, converted to the Reformed tradition from Roman Catholicism only in the late 1520s or early 1530s as it was being developed. The movement was first called referring to John Calvin, by Lutherans who opposed it. Many within the tradition find it either an indescriptive or an inappropriate term and would prefer the word Reformed to be used instead; some Calvinists prefer the term Augustinian-Calvinism since Calvin credited his theology to Augustine of Hippo. The most important Reformed theologians include John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, R. C. Sproul were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I. Packer, John MacArthur, Timothy J. Keller, David Wells, Michael Horton. Reformed churches may exercise several forms of ecclesiastical polity.
Calvinism is represented by Continental Reformed and Congregationalist traditions. The biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 100 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship and the International Conference of Reformed Churches, as well as independent churches. Calvinism is named after John Calvin, it was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552. It was a common practice of the Catholic Church to name; the term first came out of Lutheran circles. Calvin denounced the designation himself: They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism, it is not hard to guess. Despite its negative connotation, this designation became popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later; the vast majority of churches that trace their history back to Calvin do not use it themselves, since the designation "Reformed" is more accepted and preferred in the English-speaking world.
Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvin's own words—"renewed accordingly with the true order of gospel". Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two separate groups: Arminians and Calvinists. However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed tradition. While the Reformed theological tradition addresses all of the traditional topics of Christian theology, the word Calvinism is sometimes used to refer to particular Calvinist views on soteriology and predestination, which are summarized in part by the Five Points of Calvinism; some have argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation. First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, John Oecolampadius, Guillaume Farel; these reformers came from diverse academic backgrounds, but distinctions within Reformed theology can be detected in their thought the priority of scripture as a source of authority.
Scripture was viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's supper; each of these theologians understood salvation to be by grace alone, affirmed a doctrine of particular election. Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, to a larger extent Reformed theologians; the doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther. John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger, Wolfgang Musculus, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Andreas Hyperius belong to the second generation of Reformed theologians. Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion was one of the most influential theologies of the era. Toward the middle of the 16th
Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza was a French Reformed Protestant theologian and scholar who played an important role in the Reformation. He lived most of his life in Geneva. Beza succeeded Calvin as a spiritual leader of the Republic of Geneva, founded by John Calvin himself. Theodore Beza was born in Burgundy, France, his father, Pierre de Beze, royal governor of Vézelay, descended from a Burgundian family of distinction. Beza's father had two brothers. Nicholas, unmarried, during a visit to Vézelay was so pleased with Theodore that, with the permission of his parents, he took him to Paris to educate him there. From Paris, Theodore was sent to Orléans in December 1528 to receive instruction from the famous German teacher Melchior Wolmar, he was received into Wolmar's house, the day on which this took place was afterward celebrated as a second birthday. Young Beza soon followed his teacher to Bourges, where the latter was called by the duchess Margaret of Angoulême, sister of Francis I. At the time, Bourges was the focus of the Reformation movement in France.
In 1534, after Francis I issued his edict against ecclesiastical innovations, Wolmar returned to Germany. Beza, in accordance with the wish of his father, went back to Orléans to study law, spent four years there; the pursuit of law had little attraction for him. He received the degree of licentiate in law August 11, 1539, and, as his father desired, went to Paris, where he began to practice. To support him, his relatives had obtained for him two benefices, the proceeds of which amounted to 700 golden crowns a year. Beza gained a prominent position in literary circles. To escape the many temptations to which he was exposed, with the knowledge of two friends, he became engaged in the year 1544 to a young girl of humble descent, Claudine Denoese, promising to publicly marry her as soon as his circumstances would allow it. In 1548 he published a collection of Latin poetry, which made him famous, he was considered one of the best writers of Latin poetry of his time; some cautioned against reading biographical details in his writings.
Philip Schaff argued that it was a mistake to "read between his lines what he never intended to put there" or to imagine "offences of which he was not guilty in thought."Shortly after the publication of his book, he fell ill and his illness, it is reported, revealed to him his spiritual needs. He came to accept salvation in Christ, which lifted his spirits, he resolved to sever his connections of the time, went to Geneva, the French city of refuge for Evangelicals, where he arrived with Claudine on October 23, 1548. He was received by John Calvin, who had met him in Wolmar's house, was married in the church. Beza was at a loss for immediate occupation. On his way home, he visited Pierre Viret at Lausanne, who brought about his appointment as professor of Greek at the academy there in November 1549. Beza found time to write a Biblical drama, Abraham Sacrifiant, in which he contrasted Catholicism with Protestantism, the work was well received; the text of some verses includes directions for musical performance.
After Clément Marot's death in 1544, John Calvin asked Beza to complete his French metrical translations of the Psalms. Thirty-four of his translations were published in the 1551 edition of the Genevan Psalter, six more were added to editions. About the same time he published Passavantius, a satire directed against Pierre Lizet, the former president of the Parliament of Paris, principal originator of the "fiery chamber", who, at the time, was abbot of St. Victor near Paris and publishing a number of polemical writings. Of a more serious character were two controversies in which Beza was involved at this time; the first concerned the doctrine of predestination and the controversy of Calvin with Jerome Hermes Bolsec. The second referred to the burning of Michael Servetus at Geneva on October 27, 1553. In defense of Calvin and the Genevan magistrates, Beza published, in 1554, the work De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis. In 1557, Beza took a special interest in the Waldensians of Piedmont, who were being harassed by the French government.
On their behalf, he went with William Farel to Bern, Zürich and Schaffhausen to Strasburg, Mömpelgard, Göppingen. In Baden and Göppingen and Farel made a declaration concerning the Waldensians' views on the sacrament on May 14, 1557; the written declaration stated their position and was well received by the Lutheran theologians, but was disapproved of in Bern and Zurich. In the autumn of 1558, Beza undertook a second journey with Farel to Worms by way of Strasburg in the hopes of bringing about an intercession by the Evangelical princes of the empire in favor of the persecuted brethren at Paris. With Melanchthon and other theologians assembled at the Colloquy of Worms, Beza proposed a union of all Protestant Christians, but the proposal was decidedly denied by Zurich and Bern. False reports reached the German princes that the hostilities against the Huguenots in France had ceased and no embassy was sent to the
Predestination in Calvinism
Predestination is a doctrine in Calvinism dealing with the question of the control that God exercises over the world. In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, God "freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass." The second use of the word "predestination" applies this to the salvation, refers to the belief that God appointed the eternal destiny of some to salvation by grace, while leaving the remainder to receive eternal damnation for all their sins their original sin. The former is called "unconditional election", the latter "reprobation". In Calvinism, people are predestined and effectually called in due time to faith by God. On predestination, the Belgic Confession of Faith states: We believe that all the posterity of Adam, being thus fallen into perdition and ruin by the sin of our first parents, God did manifest himself such as he is; the Westminster Confession of Faith states: God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.
By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, others foreordained to everlasting death. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected... are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted and kept by His power. Through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, adopted and saved, but the elect only; the rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as He pleaseth, for the glory of His Sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by. The Westminster Confession states in Chapter X: All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ.
Double predestination of the elect and non-elect was taught in pre-Christian Qumran and Manichaeism after 250 CE. In Christianity, the doctrine that God unilaterally predestines some persons to heaven and some to hell originated with Augustine during the Pelagian controversy in 412 CE. Augustine explicitly defended God's justice in sending newborn and stillborn babies to hell although they had no personal sin; as a disciple of Augustine, John Calvin taught double predestination. Modern Calvinists respond to the ethical dilemma of double predestination by explaining that God's active predestination is only for the elect. God provides grace for the damned God withholds salvific grace. Calvinists teach that God remains just and fair in creating persons he predestines to damnation because although God unilaterally works in the elect producing regeneration, God does not force the damned to sin, it is not the view of any of the Reformed confessions, which speak of God passing over rather than reprobating the damned.
Scholars have disagreed over whether Heinrich Bullinger accepted the doctrine of double predestination. Frank A. James says that he rejected it, preferring a view called "single predestination" where God elects some to salvation, but does not in any way predestine to reprobation. Cornelis Venema, on the other hand, argues that "Bullinger did not articulate a doctrine of single predestination," and defended double predestination on a few occasions. Calvin's belief in the uncompromised "sovereignty of God" spawned his doctrines of providence and predestination. For the world, without providence it would be "unlivable". For individuals, without predestination "no one would be saved". Calvin's doctrine of providence is straightforward. "All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God." Therefore, “nothing happens but what has knowingly and willingly decreed.” This excludes "fortune and chance." Calvin applied his doctrine of providence concerning "all events" to individuals and their salvation in his doctrine of predestination.
Calvin opened his exposition of predestination with an "actual fact". The "actual fact" that Calvin observed was that among those to whom "the covenant of life" is preached, it does not gain the same acceptance. Although, "all are called to repentance and faith", in actual fact, "the spirit of repentance and faith is not given to all". Calvin turned to the teachings of Jesus for a theological interpretation of the diversity that some people accept the "covenant of life" and some do not. Pointing to the
Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zürich church and pastor at Grossmünster. A much less controversial figure than John Calvin or Martin Luther, his importance has long been underestimated. Heinrich Bullinger was born to Heinrich Bullinger senior, dean of the capitular church, Anna Wiederkehr, at Bremgarten, Aargau; the bishop of Constance, who had clerical oversight over Aargau, had unofficially sanctioned clerical concubinage, having waived all penalties against the offense in exchange for an annual fee. As such and Anna were able to live as virtual husband and wife, young Heinrich was the fifth son born to the couple. At 12 years of age, Bullinger was sent to the distant but celebrated gymnasium of Emmerich in the Duchy of Cleves. In 1519, at the age of 15, his parents, intending him to follow his father into the clergy, sent him to the University of Cologne, just as Luther's protests against the sale of indulgences was becoming known.
In 1520–21 Bullinger felt that he needed to decide the issues for himself and, having been exposed to Luther's works, began his own reading of Peter Lombard's Sentences and the Decretum of Gratian. This led him to recognize that both relied on the authority of the Church Fathers, which in turn led him to read them, including Chrysostom's and Jerome's commentaries and Melanchthon's'Loci communes'. From this reading Bullinger came to conclusion that Lutheran teaching was more faithful to the Church Fathers and the Bible than medieval authors. In 1522, now a convinced "Martinian", Bullinger ceased receiving the Eucharist giving up his previous intention of entering the Carthusian order and earned his Master of art degree. In 1523, he accepted a post as head of the cloister school at Kappel, though only after negotiating special conditions that meant he didn't need to take monastic vows or attend mass. At the school, Bullinger initiated a systematic program of Bible reading and exegesis for the monks there.
He heard Jud preach several times during Reformation in Zürich. During this period, under the influence of the Waldensians, Bullinger moved to a more symbolic understanding of the Eucharist, he contacted Zwingli with his thoughts in September 1524. In 1527, he spent five months in Zürich studying ancient languages and attending the Prophezei that Zwingli had set up there. While there, he impressed the Zürich authorities and they sent him with their delegation to the Bern Disputation - there he met Bucer and Haller for the first time. In 1528, at the urging of the Zürich Synod, he left the Kappel cloister to become a regular parish minister. In 1529 Bullinger's father announced that he had been preaching false doctrines for years and now renounced them in favour of Protestant doctrines; as a result, his congregation at Bremgarten decided to remove him as their priest. Several candidates were invited to preach sermons as potential replacements, including the young Bullinger, his sermon was so powerful that it led to an immediate burst of iconoclasm in the church, the congregation spontaneously stripped the images from their church and burned them.
In the same year, he married a former nun. His marriage was regarded as a shining example, his house was continually filled with fugitives and people searching for advice or help. Bullinger was a caring father of his eleven children who liked to play with them and wrote verses to them for Christmas. All of his sons became Protestant ministers themselves. After the defeat at Battle of Kappel, where Zwingli fell, the Aargau region was forced to return to Catholicism. Bullinger and two other ministers were expelled to the protest of the inhabitants. Having gained a reputation as a leading Protestant preacher, Bullinger received offers to take up the position of pastor from Zürich, Basel and Appenzell. During his negotiations with the civic leaders of Zürich, Bullinger refused to accept their terms - they had offered him the position with the condition that he should not criticise government policy. Bullinger insisted on his right to expound the Bible if it contradicted the position of the civic authorities.
In a compromise, they agreed that Bullinger had the right to criticize the government in writing. Bullinger took up the post of minister of Zürich. Bullinger arrived with his wife and two little children in Zürich, where he on the Sunday after his arrival stood in Zwingli's pulpit in the Grossmünster and, according to a contemporary description, "thundered a sermon from the pulpit that many thought Zwingli was not dead but resurrected like the phoenix". In December of the same year, he was, at the age of 27, elected to be the successor of Zwingli as antistes of the Zürich church, he accepted the election only after the council had assured him explicitly that he was in his preaching "free and without restriction" if it necessitated critique of the government. He kept his office up to his death in 1575. Bullinger established himself as a staunch defender of the ecclesiological system developed by Zwingli. In 1532, when Jud proposed making ecclesiastical discipline separate from the secular power, Bullinger argues that the need for a separate set of church courts ended when the magistrate became Christian, that in a place with a Christian magistr
Reformed baptismal theology
In Reformed theology, baptism is a sacrament signifying the baptized person's union with Christ, or becoming part of Christ and being treated as if they had done everything Christ had. Sacraments, along with preaching of God's word, are means of grace through which God offers Christ to people. Sacraments are believed to have their effect through the Holy Spirit, but these effects are only believed to be beneficial to those who have faith in Christ. In Reformed theology, baptism is the sacrament of initiation into the visible church, or body of people who publicly claim faith in Christ. Baptism signifies regeneration and remission of sin. Reformed Christians believe that the children of those who express faith in Christ should be baptized; because baptism is believed to be beneficial only to those who have faith in Christ, infants are baptized on the basis of the promise of faith which will come to fruition in life. Christian baptismal theology prior to the Reformation taught that sacraments, including baptism, are means or instruments through which God communicates grace to people.
The sacrament was considered valid regardless of. Not everyone who received a sacrament, received the grace signified by the sacrament; some medieval theologians spoke of an obstacle of mortal sin which blocks the grace of the sacrament, while others insisted that the recipient be positively open and responding in faith to the sacrament in order to receive any benefit. Baptism was believed to be used by the Holy Spirit to transform the believer, offered the benefits of remission of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; the sacrament of penance was believed to be necessary for forgiveness for sins committed after baptism. During the Reformation, Martin Luther rejected many of the Catholic Church's seven sacraments, but retained baptism and the Lord's Supper, he saw many practices of the medieval church as abuses of power intended to require work in order to merit forgiveness for sin after baptism rather than faith alone. Luther attached the promise of salvation to baptism, taught that life after baptism should be spent in recollection of it and the dying to sin it signified.
Huldrych Zwingli, the earliest theologian considered part of the Reformed tradition, was vigorously opposed to worship practices he believed to be based on tradition rather than the Bible. He disagreed with Anabaptists, who refused to baptize their children on scriptural grounds. Through his arguments with Anabaptists, Zwingli arrived at the position that baptism was a sign of the covenant between God and his people, but that it did not convey grace to the baptized, he saw baptism as identical to the circumcision of Israelites in the Old Testament in this respect, used this idea in polemics against Anabaptists. Zwingli's emphasis on baptism as a pledge or oath was to prove unique in the Reformed tradition. Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli's successor, continued the teaching of the continuity of God's covenants and circumcision with baptism. Bullinger emphasized that baptism indicates duties to the baptized in response to God's grace. John Calvin was influenced by Martin Luther's idea of baptism as God's promises to the baptized person attached to the outward sign of washing with water.
Calvin maintained Zwingli's idea of baptism as a public pledge, but insisted that it was secondary to baptism's meaning as a sign of God's promise to forgive sin. He maintained that sacraments were effective instruments in bringing about the promises they represent, however he maintained that the promises could be refused by the baptized, would have no effect in that case. Calvin distinguished between the outward sign of the washing of water with the promises that baptism signifies while maintaining that they were inseparable. Calvin's baptismal theology is similar to that of Luther, it differs in the way Calvin subordinated sacraments to the preaching of the word of God. While Luther placed preaching and sacraments on the same level, Calvin saw sacraments as confirmation, added to the preaching of the word of God. From the end of the sixteenth century through the eighteenth century, a period known as Reformed orthodoxy, Reformed baptismal theology further developed the covenantal meaning of baptism.
Theologians more defined the sacramental union of baptism, or the relationship between the outward washing with that which it signifies. In the high orthodox period, theologians such as Hermann Witsius expanded the covenantal meaning of baptism using analogies such as Noah's Ark and the crossing of the Red Sea, which carried the theological themes of the resurrection and eternal life; this period saw the emergence of Reformed Baptists. Reformed Baptist theologians had much in common with the Reformed, but saw baptism as a sign of the baptized's fellowship with Christ rather than a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, as a result did not baptize their children. Friedrich Schleiermacher, an influential nineteenth-century Reformed theologian, saw baptism as the way the church receives new members and taught that faith is a precondition for baptism, he was ambivalent about the practice of infant baptism, teaching that it was not an essential institution, but could be continued as long as the church was faithful in bringing children to confirmation.
Schleiermacher saw baptism as individual rather than initiating one into a covenant community, rejected the idea that baptism should be connected with Old Testament circumcision. Scottish nineteenth-century Reformed theologian William Cunningham sought to articulate a distinctively Reformed theology of baptism in the modern world. Cunningham preferred the writings of Zwingli on the sacraments, writing that Calvin an
Calvinism portal
Mather, Frederic Gregory (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.
