Reformed Christianity

• 1. Origins And Early History

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  In 1529, the Marburg Colloquy failed to mediate disputes regarding the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper between followers of Huldrych Zwingli and Martin Luther. This failure defined early Reformed theology by its opposition to Lutheran views on the Eucharist while maintaining a spiritual presence of Christ as propounded later by John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger. The first wave of theologians included figures like Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, and Guillaume Farel who emerged from diverse academic backgrounds yet shared key themes such as the priority of scripture as the sole source of authority. These thinkers viewed Scripture as a unified whole which led to a covenantal theology of baptism and the Lord's Supper as visible signs of God's grace. They denied the corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist that Lutherans affirmed through sacramental union. Each understood salvation to be by grace alone and affirmed a doctrine of unconditional election where some people are chosen by God to be saved regardless of their actions. Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were significant influences on these early theologians and those who followed them. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther's teachings.

• 2. Theological Frameworks

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  Reformed theologians use the concept of covenant to describe how God enters into fellowship with people throughout history. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theologians developed a particular theological system called federal theology which orders God's life with people primarily in two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is made with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden where terms require perfect obedience for blessed life. Because Adam and Eve broke this covenant by eating forbidden fruit they became subject to death and were banished from the garden. This sin passed down to all mankind because all people are said to be in Adam as a covenantal or federal head. A second covenant called the covenant of grace was made immediately following Adam and Eve's sin offering salvation from death on condition of faith in God. Reformed Christians believe that God predestined some people to be saved while others were predestined to eternal damnation. This choice by God to save some is held to be unconditional and not based on any characteristic or action on the part of the person chosen. The five points of Calvinism known as TULIP summarize these doctrines though there is no historical relationship between them and the Canons of Dort.

• 3. Global Demographics And Spread

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  A 2011 report of the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life estimates that members of Presbyterian or Reformed churches make up 7% of the estimated 801 million Protestants globally or approximately 56 million people. In South Korea there are 20,000 Presbyterian congregations with about 9, 10 million church members scattered in more than 100 Presbyterian denominations making Presbyterianism the largest Christian denomination in that nation. According to Global Christianity: A Guide to the World's Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe published in 2020, Presbyterian and Reformed Christians numbered around 65,446,000 people representing 0.8% of the world's population. Congregationalists were listed at 4,986,000 with 0.1% of the global population totaling 70,432,000 people across three branches of Reformed Christianity. The World Communion of Reformed Churches includes some United Churches and has 80 million believers in 211 member denominations around the world. Calvinism became the dominant doctrine within the Church of Scotland and the Dutch Republic while spreading to parts of Germany especially those adjacent to the Netherlands in places like Palatinate Kassel and Lippe. There are about 3.5 million Hungarian Reformed people worldwide today.

• 4. Economic And Political Impact

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  In a letter dated 1545 to Claude de Sachin John Calvin criticized arguments against charging interest for money suggesting that walls and roofs of houses are barren yet permissible to charge someone for allowing them use. He qualified his view by saying money should be lent to people in dire need without hope of interest while a modest interest rate of 5% should be permitted in relation to other borrowers. Max Weber wrote in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that capitalism in Northern Europe evolved when the Protestant ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade. After their fight for independence from Spain in 1579 the Netherlands under Calvinist leadership granted asylum to religious minorities including French Huguenots English Independents and Jews from Spain and Portugal. In Geneva Calvin was more careful than Luther to keep church structures and city authorities apart going one step further by including elected laymen known as elders or presbyters in his concept of church government. Calvin favored a mixture of democracy and aristocracy as the best form of government aiming to safeguard rights and freedoms of ordinary men and women through checks and balances. The ideological basis of the American Revolution was largely provided by radical Whigs who had been inspired by thinkers like Milton Locke James Harrington and Algernon Sidney.

• 5. Denominational Branches

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  The Reformed tradition is historically represented by Continental Presbyterian Reformed Anglican Congregationalist Calvinistic Methodist and Reformed Baptist denominational families. Presbyterian churches are named for their order of government by assemblies of elders or presbyters especially influenced by John Knox who brought Reformed theology and polity to the Church of Scotland after spending time on the continent in Calvin's Geneva. Congregationalism originates in Puritanism a sixteenth-century movement to reform the Church of England where local churches consider themselves rightfully self-ruled by their own officers not higher ecclesiastical courts. The Savoy Declaration a revision of Westminster serves as the primary confession of historic Congregationalism while Evangelical Congregationalists are internationally represented by the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship. Reformed Methodists also known as Calvinistic Methodists form a minority of the Methodist tradition adhering to Reformed theology codified in the Confession of Faith of the Calvinistic Methodists from 1823. In the United Kingdom the Calvinistic Methodist Church is also known as the Presbyterian Church of Wales with divines including George Whitefield and Howell Harris leading the way. Reformed Baptists unlike other Reformed groups exclusively practice believer's baptism observing a more congregational polity taken from the Congregationalists.

• 6. Worship Practices And Sacraments

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  The original Lord's Day service designed by John Calvin was a highly liturgical service containing the Creed Alms Confession and Absolution the Lord's supper Doxologies prayers Psalms being sung the Lords prayer being sung and Benedictions. Many early Calvinists eschewed musical instruments and advocated a cappella exclusive psalmody in worship though Calvin himself allowed other scriptural songs as well as psalms. Since the 19th century some Reformed churches have modified their understanding of the regulative principle making use of musical instruments believing that Calvin and his early followers went beyond biblical requirements. The Westminster Confession of Faith limits sacraments to baptism and the Lord's Supper denoting them as signs and seals of the covenant of grace. Baptism is for infant children of believers as well as believers as it is for all the Reformed except Baptists and some Congregationalists. On the Lord's supper the Westminster Confession takes a position between Lutheran sacramental union and Zwinglian memorialism stating that Christ is spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith does not use the term sacrament but describes baptism and the Lord's supper as ordinances as do most Baptists.