The Battle for the Sabbath in the Dutch Reformation
Devotion or Desecration?
by Kyle J. Dieleman
Hardback (Published)
(January 2019)
ISBN: 9783525570609
6.06 x 9.09 inches
Price: $99.00
On back order
Having established the importance of the Sabbath in Dutch Reformed theology and lived piety, the author argues the emphasis on Sunday observance is best understood as resulting from two main factors. First, the emphasis on proper Sunday observance is a result of the Reformed church authorities attempting to maintain the pious reputation of the Reformed faith and establish the identity of the Reformed Church amid multiple other confessional identities. Second, proper observance of the Sabbath was important because it ensured order within the church and society more broadly.
Kyle J. Dieleman focuses on the doctrinal and practical importance of Sunday observance in the early modern Reformed communities in the Low Countries. My project investigates the theological import of the Sabbath and its practical applications. The first step is to focus on how Dutch Reformed theologians conceived of the Sabbath. The theology of the Sabbath, I argue, moves over time from an emphasis on spiritual rest to participating in the ministries of the church to a strict rest from all work and recreation. The next step is to explore congregants’ actual Sunday practices. By attending to church governance records at the national, regional, and local levels the importance of proper Sabbath observance quickly becomes clear. The provincial synod records, classes’ records, and consistory records indicate that church authorities were adamant that church members faithfully attend sermon and catechism services, refrain from sinful practices, and abstain from recreational activities. Equally as telling as the observance demanded of church members is how church authorities responded. The church records portray these authorities as fretting over the disordered and unregulated nature of improper Sabbath observance. Having established the importance of the Sabbath in Dutch Reformed theology and lived piety, I argue the emphasis on Sunday observance is best understood as resulting from two main factors. First, the emphasis on proper Sunday observance is a result of the Reformed church authorities attempting to maintain the pious reputation of the Reformed faith and establish the identity of the Reformed Church amid multiple other confessional identities. Second, proper observance of the Sabbath was important because it ensured order within the church and society more broadly.
- By (author) Kyle J Dieleman
"Dieleman helpfully elucidates many theological implications relating to the theory and practice of the Sabbath in the Reformed tradition." Spohnholz, Jesse, Church History, October 16, 2019
—
Other Titles in this Series
A Knot Worth Unloosing
The Interpretation of the New Heavens and Earth in Seventeenth-Century England
Volume 53
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
Learning to Pray
The Heidelberg Catechism's Teaching on Prayer in its Sixteenth-Century Context
Volume 82
Britain and the Bestandstwisten
The Causes, Course and Consequences of British Involvement in the Dutch Religious and Political Disputes of the Early Seventeenth Century
Volume 28
Johannes Cocceius and the Exegetical Roots of Federal Theology
Reformation Developments in the Interpretation of Hebrews 7-10
Volume 7
The Jews in English Baptist Eschatology
Conversion, Restoration, and National Identity, 1649-1815
Volume 84
Union with God
An Assessment of Deification (Theosis) in the Theologies of Robert Jenson and John Calvin
Volume 69
Die Pradestinationslehre der Heidelberger Theologen 1583-1622
Georg Sohn (1551-1589), Herman Rennecherus (1550-?), Jacob Kimedoncius (1554-1596), Daniel Tossanus (1541-1602)
Volume 10
Reformation of the Commonwealth
Thomas Becon and the Politics of Evangelical Change in Tudor England
Volume 58
The Anchor of a Believer’s Hope
John Flavel's (ca. 1627-1691) Theology of Death, Dying, and Eternal Destiny
Volume 83
Debated Issues in Sovereign Predestination
Early Lutheran Predestination, Calvinian Reprobation, and Variations in Genevan Lapsarianism
Volume 42
Calvinus clarissimus theologus
Papers of the Tenth International Congress on Calvin Research
Volume 18
Heinrich Alting (1583-1644)
Lebensbild und Bedeutung fur die reformierte Historiografie und Dogmengeschichtsschreibung des 17. Jahrhunderts
Volume 56
Similar Books
A Companion to Christianity and Sport in Europe and North America (19th-21st centuries)
Volume 1: Western and Eastern Europe
A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean
The Correspondence of Leo III and ʿUmar II
Volume 6
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Balthasar Caymox of Nuremberg
Early Modern German Print Publishers: Popular Prints of the Seventeenth Century
Beyond Sovereign Courts
Agents and Practices in Early Modern Spanish and Habsburg Diplomacy
Volume 3
Circulation, Use, Impact
The Consumption of Architectural Books in the Early Modern Eastern Adriatic
Volume 1
Councils, Conflicts, Correspondence
Urban Diplomacy in Reval (Tallinn) and Lübeck (c. 1470–1570)
Volume 67
Creating the Woman in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 16th Melammu Workshop, Innsbruck, 2–3 June 2022
Volume 13
Cultic Kisses
Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans. Festschrift for Angelika Berlejung on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday
De/colonizing Theologies
Glocal Histories, Contemporary Challenges, Theoretical Reflections
Volume 4
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
