Catholic Today
A Reformed Conversation about Catholicity
by Willem van Vlastuin
Hardback (Published)
(May 2020)
ISBN: 9783525540817
6.06 x 9.06 inches
Price: $144.00
In stock
What is the real meaning of the church for Christian life? If we confess Christian faith, the church is one of the twelve articles, which implies that the church is rather important. In the creeds of the early church catholicity is confessed as characteristic for the church. This means that the church cannot exist without catholicity. What does this qualification mean? In this study the author listens to the understanding of the concept of catholicity in the theology of Ignatius, Cyprian, Cyril, Augustine and Vincent. In the second part of the book some representatives of the reformed tradition are analyzed, namely John Calvin, James Ussher, John Owen, Herman Bavinck and Gerrit Berkouwer. This analysis leads to a comparison between the early church and the reformed tradition. Listening to theologians from the early church and the reformed tradition, Van Vlastuin presents an up-to-date concept of the catholicity of the church which clarifies among others that the visibility of the church belongs to the essence of Christ’s body, that practicing the catholicity of the church is necessary against denominationalism and party formation, that loss of catholicity leads to spiritual and theological impoverishment, that the understanding of catholicity implies also orthodoxy with consequences for the interpretation of ‘semper reformanda’ and that the consciousness of catholicity is related to the citizenship of two worlds.
- By (author) Willem van Vlastuin
"Catholic Today is an interesting book that treats a challenging topic. . . . . The main value of this book, beyond its historical analyses, lies in better understanding the state of ecumenical discussions and catholicity among Reformed churches in the Netherlands." McGraw, Ryan, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
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Other Titles in this Series
Why Heaven Kissed Earth
The Christology of the Puritan Reformed Orthodox Theologian, Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680)
Volume 13
The Promise of the Trinity
The Covenant of Redemption in the Theologies of Witsius, Owen, Dickson, Goodwin, and Cocceius
Volume 48
Accepted and Renewed in Christ
The Twofold Grace of God and the Interpretation of Calvin's Theology
Volume 2
Christ and the Covenant
Francis Turretin's Federal Theology as a Defense of the Doctrine of Grace
Volume 1
Calvinus Pastor Ecclesiae
Papers of the Eleventh International Congress on Calvin Research
Volume 39
Reprobation: from Augustine to the Synod of Dort
The Historical Development of the Reformed Doctrine of Reprobation
Volume 63
Reformed Evangelicalism and the Search for a Usable Past
The Historiography of Arnold Dallimore, Pastor-Historian
Volume 61
Reformed Covenantal Eudaimonism
Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635–1711) on Highest Good, Virtue, and Law
Volume 87
Calvinus sacrarum literarum interpres
Papers of the International Congress on Calvin Research
Volume 5
Christ and the Old Covenant
Francis Turretin (1623-1687) on Christ's Suretyship under the Old Testament
Volume 51
Histories that Mansoul and Her Wars Anatomize
The Drama of Redemption in John Bunyan's Holy War
Volume 15
Reforming Good Works in Geneva
Bénédict Pictet’s Doctrine of Good Works and His Place in Late Reformed Orthodoxy
Volume 85
John Edwards (1637-1716) on Human Free Choice and Divine Necessity
The Debate on the Relation between Divine Necessity and Human Freedom in Late Seventeenth-Century and Early Eighteenth-Century England
Volume 22
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