Dutch Reformed Church

Deel 4 van de hertaalde uitgave van Petrus van Mastricht Theoretisch-Praktische Godgeleerdheid. In dit deel gaat het over de verlossing zoals die toegepast wordt aan de zondaar en over de kerk. De volgende onderdelen van de heilsorde worden behandeld: roeping, wedergeboorte, bekering, vereniging met Christus, rechtvaardiging, aanneming tot kinderen, heiligmaking en heerlijkmaking. In het boek over de kerk gaat het ondermeer over de dienaren van de kerk, de sacramenten, tucht en kerkregering.

This article assesses the role of late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Afrikaner missionaries in their ecological positioning in Nyasaland. As envoys of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church, they were predisposed to self-identify with the dominant colonial culture as representative of ‘‘European civilization.’’ However, their own environmental sensibilities were also shaped by the rural agricultural background from which many of them had come. This article considers their role in the ecological values they directly or indirectly propagated. The theme of ‘‘hunting’’ is especially emphasized here, as well as the planting of trees. A following section concerns indigenous environmental concerns, especially dealing with the theme of rain, and the missionary
response. The argument is made that the missionary discourse was implicitly infiltrated by the indigenous point of view, to the point that missionaries were occasionally convinced to go along with the indigenous perspective in order to get their message across. In the final analysis the suggestion is made that the missionary discourse effectively
became hybridized, and that this historical example might in fact serve as an analogy for the kind of methodological conversion that this article suggests as something that
might helpfully challenge dominant contemporary globalization norms that threaten the environment.

5-Part Discussion Handouts for TULIP

Handouts to discuss the Canons of Dordt (or Dort). Includes summaries of the canons for an introduction and overview.

Helpful to use along with a video series, such as Sproul's "What is Reformed Theology?"

I. INTRODUCTION Neo-Calvinism was a 19th century movement which sought to promote Christ's economic Lordship over all spheres of life. While not making much of a movement in the United States, it was primarily active in the Netherlands, with the help of the leaders of the movement: Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. Though they extended their reach to the United States with the help of their contemporary, none other than Geerhardus Vos, it ultimately did not succeed in the way that Kuyper and the younger Bavinck envisioned. However, if Vos was active in this movement, why don't we hear more about his contributions to it besides being an aide in translating articles? 1 and did he grow towards or away from it? This is what we will be exploring in the current article. While Vos was from the Old World-indeed, a man of two worlds-he was not completely active in the movement started by the Prime Minister from the Netherlands. The thesis that will be set out and proved is that Vos as a theologian continually grew away from Abraham Kuyper and his movement due to many reasons. Nevertheless, with us exploring how he grew away from this tradition of his Old World, we will examine his own theological development, seeing chronologically what and how it affected him. Though Vos was first highly passionate about Kuyper and what he was doing, he changed, a result of being stuck between two different worlds, reflecting his eschatological viewpoint. To understand Vos's stray away from the theological movement then, we must first to come to understand Vos's entire upbringing and life as a theologian. Though certainly much detail will not be given as there is a plethora of biographical information on Vos 2 , I do believe it

In two articles is dealt with the confrontations of Wilhelmus a Brakel (1635-1711) with the local government and what vision he had of the government. This is the first part.
A Brakel stood on the Voetian point of view: the government has a right concerning the church (jus circum sacra), but not in the church (in sacra).
This resulted in that he did not recognize the suspension of Jacobus Koelman (1632-1695) by the government and still let him preach on his pulpit.

In twee artikelen wordt ingegaan op de confrontaties van Wilhelmus a Brakel (1635-1711) met de lokale overheid en welke visie op de overheid hij had. Dit is het eerste deel.
A Brakel stond op het Voetiaanse standpunt: de overheid heeft wel recht omtrent de kerk (jus circum sacra), maar niet in de kerk (in sacra).
Dit resulteerde erin dat hij de schorsing van Jacobus Koelman (1632-1695) door de overheid niet erkende en hem toch op zijn kansel voor liet gaan.

In September 1609 Henry Hudson first made his first landfall in in the river valley named after him (originally known as the North River) in Raritan Bay. Fifteen years later in 1624 Captain Cornelius May (after whom Cape May is named) deposited a party of settlers on Burlington Island upstream in the Delaware River at what was planned to be the center of New Netherland. But it was not to be, and it was at May’s second stop on Manhattan Island that was to become New Amsterdam, the colony’s capital and commercial center. The only Dutch settlement during the New Netherland period, 1624 to 1664, was the patroonship of Pavonia (in what is today Jersey City, NJ), consisting of the agricultural towns of Bergen and Hoboken and several dispersed farms.

Most of the Dutch settlement in New Jersey occurred after the English conquest in 1664. Much of this was secondary settlement of Dutch families from Long Island and Manhattan. They settled along the Hackensack and Saddle River valleys in Bergen County, along the Passaic River valley in Passaic County and Raritan River valley in Middlesex and Somerset counties, and near the Naversink River in Monmouth County. Most of the Jersey Dutch families were farmers, and they became the major slaveholders in eighteenth-century New Jersey. They had a lasting impact on the regional architecture, developing what has become known as the Dutch-American farmhouse with its distinctive gambrel roofs. This was an American innovation, unlike any farmhouses in the Netherlands. They also built distinctive barns based on the combination barn and farmhouse building characteristic of the eastern provinces of the Netherlands.

They also had an important impact on religion in the Middle Colonies. A schism within the Dutch Reformed Church between the Coetus and Conferentie factions led to the founding of a separate college, known as Queens College, in New Brunswick to train ministers in America. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, the domine of the First Reformed Church in New Brunswick, along with his colleague, Gilbert Tennent, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New Brunswick, were the leaders of the religious revival known as the Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies. The Tennent family was instrumental in the founding of the College of New Jersey (later, named Princeton University) to train New Light Presbyterian ministers. The division between the Coetus and the Conferentie factions, and the New Light versus Old Light Presbyterians, correlated with the Whig versus the Tory allegiances during the American Revolution.

In the early nineteenth century the New Brunswick Theological Seminary was separated from Queens College, and the college’s name was changed to Rutgers University. The Dutch Reformed Church also changed its name to the Reformed Church, but the Raritan Valley continued to be the center of its work, which included the church’s involvement in missionary work, the temperance movement, but not the abolitionist movement.  New Jersey gradually abolished slavery under a law that freed all children born to slave parents in 1804 and after.  Thus, by the time of the Civil War there were still some slaves, officially designated as servants for life, primarily in the Dutch settlement areas.

Survivals of the Jersey Dutch dialect continued into the first decade of the twentieth century. The Dutch-American farmhouses, the Reformed churches, and a few Dutch barns remain as visible reminders of the Dutch culture area.  A passion for genealogy continues to the present with Dutch New Jerseyans as active members of the Genealogical and Biographical Society and the Holland Society in New York City.

The second Sunday service has always been a notable liturgical feature of the Reformed churches of Dutch heritage. Since the beginnings of the Dutch Reformed tradition this service has also been associated with catechism preaching. This article examines the origins of this second service in the Dutch tradition and explores how it developed in the first century of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands after the Reformation. Attention is given to the character and liturgy of this service, and to the particular challenges that it faced as it gradually became an established practice. It is also important to notice the relationship of this catechism service to other forms of catechizing, since separate catechizing of youth in the church was a later development. Much of the evidence for this development comes from the national and provincial synods of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands. The fullest information comes from the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), which was especially significant for consolidating the afternoon catechism service in the Dutch Reformed tradition.

This article highlights the presence within the seventeenth-century Dutch Reformed Church of a strong appreciation of their missionary calling. In the first half of the article, attention is given to the presence and character of the idea of missions as evidenced in the proceedings, documents, and decisions of the Synod of Dort. The second half of the article investigates the connection between seventeenth-century Dutch Reformed missionary impetus and the Dutch Further Reformation movement. Approaching the topic from these two perspectives reveals a burgeoning missionary impetus arising from within the Dutch Reformed Church from its early days.

This article explores the treatment of unmarried mothers by the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) at the Cape of Good Hope during the VOC period (1652-1795) in the belief that by concentrating on this exceptional group of people much is revealed of normative practices. For most of its history at the Cape during this period the DRC was not overly biased against unmarried mothers and their illegitimate children, continuing to baptise such children and never acting against the mothers. This changed in the 1780s when the Church started to deny access to its two sacraments – baptism and Holy Communion – to illegitimate children and their parents. Through a detailed exploration of baptismal petitions for illegitimate children and censure cases involving unmarried mothers, this article reveals the growing obsession with regulating the conduct of single women. It is suggested that the origins of this movement lie both in local Cape developments, viz. the socio-economic upheavals caused by the Revolutionary wars, and – perhaps primarily – in changing attitudes towards motherhood created by Enlightenment ideas and Pietistic religion. At the Cape this new ideology was disseminated by the DRC minister H.R. van Lier who used existing Reformed dogma about the sacraments to regulate the morals of unmarried mothers.

Across Europe, the parish church has stood for centuries at the centre of local communities; it was the focal point of its religious life, the rituals performed there marked the stages of life from the cradle to the grave. Nonetheless the church itself artistically and architecturally stood apart from the parish community. It was often the largest and only stone-built building in a village; it was legally distinct being subject to canon law, as well as consecrated for the celebration of religious rites. The buildings associated with the ‘cure of souls’ were sacred sites or holy places, where humanity interacted with the divine.

In spite of the importance of the parish church, these buildings have generally not received the same attention from historians as non-parochial places of worship. This collection of essays redresses this balance and reflects on the parish church across a number of confessions – Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed and Anti-Trinitarian – during the early modern period. Rather than providing a series of case studies of individual buildings, each essay looks at the evolution of parish churches in response to religious reform as well as confessional change and upheaval. They examine aspects of their design and construction; furnishings and material culture; liturgy and the use of the parish church. While these essays range widely across Europe, the volume also considers how religious provision and the parish church were translated into a global context with colonial and commercial expansion in the Americas and Asia. This interdisciplinary volume seeks to identify what was distinctive about the parish church for the congregations that gathered in them for worship and for communities across the early modern world.

Contents:
The early modern parish church: an introduction
Andrew Spicer
Patrician and episcopal rivalry for the Milanese parish church: San Nazaro in Brolo during French and Spanish rule,
Philippa Woodcock
Exploring the features and challenges of the urban parish church in the southern Low Countries. The case of 16th-century Ghent
Anne-Laure Van Bruaene
The Counter Reformation and the parish church in western Brittany (France) 1500-1700
Elizabeth Tingle
The body of the faithful: Joseph Furttenbach’s 1649 Lutheran Church plans
Emily Fisher Gray
Staging the Eucharist, adiaphora, and shaping Lutheran identities in the Transylvanian parish church
Evelin Wetter
Parish temples of Geneva and the Swiss Romande
Andrew Spicer
'Which of them do belong to the parish or not’. The changing rural parish in the Dutch Republic after the Reformation
Arjan Nobel
Unitarian parish churches in early modern Transylvania
Maria Crăciun
Heaven on earth: churches in early modern Hispanic America
Andrew Redden
Franciscans and the parish in early modern Brazil
Ivan Cavalcanti Filho
Parish churches, colonisation and conversion in Portuguese Goa
Mallica Kumbera Landrus
Dutch churches in Asia
Andrew Spicer
'To build up the walls of Jerusalem’: Anglican churches in 17th-century Virginia
Carl Lounsbury
Parish churches in the early modern world - afterword
Beat Kümin

When in 1621 was established the Dutch West India Company, the United Provinces of the Netherlands were ready to enter in the Spanish mare clausum in the New World. Due to their traditional liberal approach to religious freedom, the Dutch colonial possessions in America were characterized by a wide fusion of cultures. While in the former Spanish colonies remains the legacy of Catholicism and Spanish language, the Dutch territories are characterized by its pidginized linguas francas: Papiamentu from the Leeward Antilles, or Shranan from Surinam.
This contribution is based on the historical reasons of the contemporary socio-cultural consequences of the Dutch presence in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast in the 17th
century, and it focuses particularly on the topic of language and religious distribution, together with the politological aspects of decolonization.

Key words: United Provinces of the Netherlands, privateer, WIC, Shranan, Papiamentu, Leeward Antilles, Surinam, Reformed Church

Cornelius Van Til was part of the Dutch reformed or Calvinist day school movement in both the Netherlands and America. He attended a two-room schoolhouse in an immigrant Dutch community in Hammond, Indiana. During his days as professor at Westminster Theological Seminary he founded an independent Christian school that still serves students on three campuses in suburban Philadelphia.

The establishment of Dutch reformed day schools has an important place in the history of America education. Dutch Christians migrated to pursue religious liberty, and settled throughout America establishing Calvinistic schools. Their motivation was the freedom to educate their children in religious schools not controlled by the government. The establishment of these schools was not a reaction to a public school system that was too traditional or too progressive. It was a decision based on religious convictions, and a philosophy of education that considered faith more essential than anything else.

Dutch reformed schools were founded on principles derived from the Reformation. Though outside the common school and public school movements, they have nevertheless been influential on the American educational landscape.  Van Til brings a new perspective to the ongoing traditionalist/progressive debate, suggesting that the differences may be more of a “family quarrel.”

Finally, teachers in Christian schools may appreciate a fresh perspective on the distinctives of a Christian education. The Christian school is not just a public school with some prayer and Bible reading sprinkled on a common curriculum. Van Til addresses what makes a Christian school unique.

Lexham Press is pleased to announce the publication of a major series of new translations of Abraham Kuyper’s key works in public theology. Never before available in English, these works will introduce a new audience to the thoughts of one of Christianity’s most thoughtful public theologians. Comprised of 8 key works spread over 12 volumes, this series will be made available in both a high-quality hardback edition and an enhanced electronic Logos edition. Works of the preeminent statesman, educator and Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper on topics ranging from politics and economics to the Lordship of Christ, ethics, and Islam will be made available in English for the first time. These volumes will provide rich resources for the church as Christians seek to live faithfully in the world today.

For ordinary people, the impact of the Reformation would have centred around local parish churches, rather than the theological debates of the Reformers. Focusing on the Calvinists, this volume explores how the architecture, appearance and arrangement of places of worship were transformed by new theology and religious practice.

Based on original research and site visits, this book charts the impact of the Reformed faith across Europe, concentrating in particular on France, the Netherlands and Scotland. While in some areas a Calvinist Reformation led to the adaptation of existing buildings, elsewhere it resulted in the construction of new places of worship to innovative new designs. Reformed places of worship also reflected local considerations, vested interests and civic aspirations, often employing the latest styles and forms of decoration, and here provide a lens through which to examine not only the impact of the Reformation at a local level but also the character of the different religious settlements across Europe during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

This article presents an historical appraisal of Botlhale Tema's historical novel about her extended family set in the nineteenth-and twentieth-century Western Transvaal. Tema's forbearers were seized as children following commando attacks and raised as inboekelinge (registerees, a euphemism for slaves) in the households of Boer farmers in the Rustenburg district. Tema's novel, which is based on family interviews and some archival research, is a rich genealogical and cultural resource for understanding the experience of a particular group of rural oorlamse (Dutch-speaking blacks) and the complex identity they created. By using Tema's novel with missionary correspondence and published sources, it is possible to suggest some of the processes that account for oorlamse merger into African communities in the twentieth century.

This book examines John Calvin’s sense of vocation.

1) It begins with an analysis of thinking on prophecy in early, medieval, and Reformation theology.

2) It finds Calvin within a non-mystical, non-apocalyptic prophetic tradition that focused on scriptural interpretation.

3) It argues Calvin believed his prophetic authority was the same as Isaiah and Jeremiah, and suggests that he may have held himself to be infallible in matters related to Christian doctrine.

4) It argues that starting from about 1555, Calvin began to conceive the idea of encouraging one of the French 'lesser magistrates' (the princes of the blood royal) to rise up in armed conflict against the sitting French king with the aim of taking the throne.

5) Thus, it argues that when that did happen in 1562 when Louis of Condé gathered troops in Orléans and declared their intentions to liberate King Charles IX from the evil councillors surrounding him, this had Calvin's fingerprints on it -- Calvin was to a significant degree responsible for this turn of events.

6) Calvin pursued this plan, I argue, as one of a number of approaches to winning France for the gospel. In this way, the volume explores Calvin's sense of vocation and the impact this had on his political thought.

40 essays by Ronnie Hsia, Ulrich Leinsle, Marius Reiser, Thomas Marschler, Trent Pomplun, Jean-Louis Quantin, William O'Brien SJ, Stefania Tutino, Carl Trueman, Andreas Beck, Willem van Asselt, Eric Carlsson, Stephen Hampton, Benjamin Mayes, Robert Kolb, Risto Saarinnen, Ola Tjorholm, Sarah Mortimer, Jeff Bach, Keith Stanglin, Hartmut Lehmann, Jonathan Strom, Craig Atwood, Stephen Burnett, Emanuele Colombo, Aza Goudriaan, Carolina Armenteros, Eric Watkins, Maria Rosa Antognazza, Stephen Gaukroger, Jonathan Israel, John Henry.

To the sacred dead. Florentius made this monument to his worthy son Appronianus, who lived one year, nine months, and five days. Since he was dearly loved by his grandmother, and she saw that he was going to die, she asked from the church that he might depart from the world a believer (Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres [hereafter: ILCV], I:1343, from the third century; edited by E. Diehl (second edition; Berlin, 1961).

The aim of this paper is to investigate how Abraham Kuyper and some late neo-Calvinists have addressed the doctrine of creation in light of the challenges posed by evolutionary scientific theory. I argue that most neo-Calvinists today, particularly scholars from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), continue Kuyper's legacy by holding the core principles of a creationist worldview. Yet, they have taken a new direction by explaining the natural history of the earth in evolutionary terms. In my analysis, Kuyper's heirs at the VU today offer judicious parameters to guide Christians in conversation with evolutionary science, precisely because of their high appreciation of good science and awareness of the non-negotiable elements that make up the orthodox Christian narrative.

Last night I attended a discussion in which the host listed several, more than eleven, different things one needs to be saved. I said to our small group: "Why is baptism not on the list?" A woman next to me said "no church teaches you have to be baptized." I thought, how sad. But the discussion helped me think about verses related to the subject. It has also occurred to me that on reflection, I cannot recall a single instance of Paul. champion of grace, relegating baptism in water to the status of a work of one's merit. Here is a short listing:

The research wants to contribute to the development of a missional ecclesiology for the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa. This was done by answering the following two questions: what does the current context of the DRC look like, and is the missional ecclesiology of the church sufficient to guide the church in being a sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom?  The research was framed by an analysis of philosophical influences on the development of the DRC, as well as the changes in context since the Reformation. A theological framework was developed that describe the contours of a missional ecclesiology. The framework was formed by analysing the broad ecumenical missional literature; the historical and missiological development of the DRC’s theology; and the fresh expressions movement.  This framework was used in evaluating the decisions of the General Synod of the DRC on missional ecclesiology from 1990 until 2013. The research was hermeneutical, correlational, critical and theological, using a literature study as well as a qualitative deductive analysis.
This research contributes to the field of missional ecclesiology by: adding a fifth wave of missionary revival to Saayman’s four waves model; developing a theological framework for a missional ecclesiology; evaluating the fresh expressions movement from a Reformed perspective; evaluating the decisions of the General Synod of the DRC on missional ecclesiology; and lastly, suggesting some contours of a missional ecclesiology for the DRC. Although the research is focused on a missional ecclesiology for the DRC, the results may have broader implications for other denominations as well.

This research assignment is an attempt to engage with the theology of the Framework Document on the Missional Nature and Calling of the Dutch Reformed Church. The document presents itself as a foundational document furthering the missional identity and calling of the Dutch Reformed Church. In this piece the theology of the Missional Framework Document will be critically evaluated by means of selected themes in order to establish its theological depth. Functioning within the current context a South Africa faced with huge challenges stemming from the Apartheid era the Missional Framework Document is challenged on whether or not it accurately portrays a theology capable of engaging its context.

Gereformeerde kerk Francois Lamprecht 16396219 Skripsie ingelewer ter gedeeltelike vervulling van die vereistes vir die graad Magister in Divinitas in die Fakulteit Teologie: Departement Praktiese Teologie aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch Studieleier: Prof. J Cilliers Desember 2013 1 VERKLARING Deur hierdie skripsie elektronies in te lewer, verklaar ek dat die geheel van die werk hierin vervat, my eie, oorspronklike werk is, dat ek die alleenouteur daarvan is, dat reproduksie en publikasie daarvan deur die Universiteit van Stellenbosch nie derdepartyregte sal skend nie en dat ek dit nie vantevore, indien geheel of gedeeltelik, ter verkryging van enige kwalifikasie aangebied het nie. Desember 2013 Kopiereg © 2012 Universiteit van Stellenbosch Alle regte voorbehou ERKENNINGS  Dankie aan God wat my rede is om te sing.  Rolanda, my vrou, wat my gehelp het om te sit en skryf.  My ouers wat geduldig geglo het God sal my eendag op die regte pad kry (en toe betaal het vir al die studies!).  Aan Kenny en Dawfre, my klasmaats sonder wie ek regtig nie

Miroslav Volf is not just a well-recognized author but also a person whose biography is intriguing. He is a Croatian who was raised in Serbia. He experienced both Eastern and Western Europe and he currently lives in the United States. Although he grew up as a son of a minister in the Pentecostal community, he completed his doctorate study under the instruction of Jürgen Moltmann. He has taught theology at Fuller Seminary and is now teaching at Yale, yet continues to visit Croatia to instruct theology at the Evangelical Theological Institute. Through his experience of diverse cultures, he embraces the multiformity in the catholicity of the church and offers profound wisdom to this conversation.
Many have attested to the importance of the catholicity of the church throughout history. Dulles concluded that the catholicity endorses differences rather than exclusion by assuring “the ultimate coherence of the whole ambit of creation and redemption.”  Congar claimed that catholicity expresses the essence of the church.  Barth also emphatically proclaimed, “Catholic, or it is not the church.”  Nissiotis believed that catholicity is the primary question of ecclesiology.  Agreeing with many others before him, Miraslov Volf writes: “the question of the catholicity of the church becomes one of the main questions, if not the main question, of dialogue between congregationalist and episcopal churches.”
The catholicity of the church surely is a crucial topic. How one perceives the catholicity may exclude churches of other traditions or vice versa. Even though most of the Christian churches confess their faith together through the Apostle’s Creed by stating, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy catholic church”, the identity of episcopal churches as well as free churches hangs on how one understands the catholicity. Thus, a careful study on Volf’s perception of the catholicity of the church is necessary to communicate in this post-confessional world with the arising ecumenical movement.
However, those standing on the legacy of the Reformed Tradition need an appropriate method of adopting Volf’s understanding. I, therefore, suggest a critical study on how Volf understands the catholicity of the church by examining his theological developments and their strengths and weaknesses. Then, I would like to identify some precarious overlook that Volf commits in developing the catholicity of the church. Therefore, I would weigh Volf’s strengths and weaknesses by suggesting that his perception on the catholicity of the church is beneficial but requires a comparative study from a sturdy theologian from the Reformed Tradition.

도르트 신조는 아르미니우스의 신학을 따른 항론파의 주장을 반대하고 개혁파의 주요 교리들을 천명했다. 그 교리들은 무조건적 선택, 제한 속죄, 전적 타락, 불가항력적 은혜, 성도의 견인에 대한 가르침이다. 그런데 이 다섯 가지 교리들은 모두 인간론에 대한 다음과 같이 핵심적인 가르침들을 준다.

첫째, 인간의 죄성을 기억해야 한다. 도르트 신조는 “내가 죄인임을 고백하는 것이 하나님께 영광이 된다.”라고 가르친다. 죄론이 바르게 정립될 때 선택론, 구원론, 기독론, 성령론 등 중요한 교리가 제대로 정립될 수 있다.

둘째, 구원은 철저하게 삼위 하나님의 은혜에 근거한 것이다. 신자는 온전히 삼위 하나님의 울타리 안에서 살며 기동하며 호흡한다. 그렇기에 신자는 낙망하지도 교만하지도, 타자에게 위선적이지도 그들을 정죄하지도 않는다.

셋째, 신자는 자기 자신 안에서는 겸손하고, 동료 신자들에 대해서는 관용하며, 불신자들에 대해서는 긍휼히 여기면서 기도해야 한다. 이 부분은 도르트 신조가 가르치는 성도의 삶에 대한 대강령과 같다.

넷째, 신자는 변화된 본성을 가졌기에 성령님께 적극적으로 순종해야 한다. 성령에 대한 강조 때문에 도르트 신조는 개혁파 신자가 아르미니우스파나 로마 가톨릭보다 더욱 선행을 열심히 행할 수 있음을 강조한다.

다섯째, 신자는 영적으로 넘어지더라도 다시금 하나님의 은혜와 도우심을 기억하면서 새롭게 시작해야 한다. 도르트 신조가 매번 끝 항목에서 “오직 하나님께만 영광”이라는 교리를 강조하는 것은 인간을 구원하시는 하나님에 대한 소망이 담긴 찬양을 표현한 것이다.

*Abstract
The Canons of Dort opposed the arguments of the Remonstrants, who followed Arminius’ theology and declared the major Reformed doctrines. The doctrines are about unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints.

All of these five points give essential teachings about anthropology as follows: First, we must remember human sinfulness. The Canons of Dort teach that God is glorified when I confess that I am a sinner. When the doctrine of sin is properly established, important doctrines such as the doctrine of election, soteriology, Christology, and Pneumatology can be properly established.

Second, salvation is thoroughly based on the grace of the Triune God. Christians live, act, and breathe wholly within the fence of the Triune God. Thus, believers are not only discouraged and proud of themselves but also are not hypocritical and critical of others.

Third, believers should pray with humility, be tolerant of fellow believers, and show compassion for unbelievers. This is a great charter for the saints, which the Canons of Dort teach.

Fourth, since believers have a changed nature they must actively obey the Holy Spirit. Based on the emphasis on the Holy Spirit, the Canons of Dort emphasize that Reformed believers can do more good works than Arminians or Roman Catholics.

Fifth and finally, believers should begin their Christian life again, remembering the grace and help of God, even if they fall spiritually. At the end of each article, the Canons of Dort underscore the doctrine of “Glory to God only” to express the praise of hope for God who saves human beings.

도르트 회의(1618-1619)는 최초의 그리고 현재까지 유일한 국제적 개혁파 총회였다. 회의의 참가자들은 항론파의 다섯 가지 요점들에 대하여 오직 성경만으로 반박하고자 했다. 그럼에도 불구하고 도르트 회의의 몇몇 주요 문건 속에서는 아우구스티누스의 작품이 종종 인용되는 것을 볼 수 있다. 이 점은 매우 중요한데 항론파의 이론적 근거를 제공했던 아르미니우스는 아우구스티누스에 의지하여 자신의 주장을 전개하곤 했기 때문이다. 이에 대하여, 하이델베르크의 신학자 파레우스(David Pareus; 1548-1622)가 작성한 “항론파의 다섯 개 요점에 대한 조사(Quinque Articuli Remonstrantium, Cum Examine)”와 영국 특사들이 작성한 “의견서(Iudicium)”에는 아우구스티누스의 작품들을 각각 25회 이상씩 인용하여 항론파의 다섯 가지 요점들을 반박하고 있다. 도르트 회의에서 아우구스티누스의 작품들은 주로 하나님의 예정은 인간의 행위에 근거하지 않는다는 내용, 하나님은 그리스도 안에서 우리를 택하셨다는 내용, 모든 인간의 의지가 타락했음에 대한 내용, 타락한 의지는 은혜로만 변화가능하다는 내용, 하나님의 은혜는 불가항력적이라는 내용, 성도는 끝까지 인내한다는 성도의 견인에 대한 내용을 주장함에 있어서 사용되었음을 알 수 있다. 이처럼 도르트 회의에서 아우구스티누스의 작품들은 반항론파의 견해를 뒷받침하는데 매우 유용하게 사용되었음을 알 수 있다.

키워드
도르트 회의(1618-1619), 아우구스티누스, 아르미니우스, 항론파, 다비트 파레우스(1548-1622), 영국 특사, 반(反)항론파

** Summary **
The Synod of Dort (1618-1619) was the first and, presently, only international Reformed synod. The attendants of the Synod tried to repudiate the five points of the Remonstrants only through scriptural verses. Nevertheless, one can find that the works of Augustine often were cited in several important documents of the Synod of Dort. This fact is meaningful because Arminius, who provided theoretical foundations to the Remonstrants, developed his own view that depended on Augustine. The Heidelberg theologian David Pareus’s (1548-1622) work (Quinque Articuli Remonstrantium, Cum Examine) and the British Delegation’s Report (Iudicium) cited the works of Augustine more than 25 times respectively to refute the five points of the Remonstrants. The works of Augustine in the Synod of Dort were cited to demonstrate: God’s predestination does not depend on human works; God elected believers in Christ; the will of all humanity is corrupt; the corrupt will of humanity can be changed only by grace; the grace of God is irresistible; and, the saints persevere to the end. In sum, the works of Augustine in the Synod of Dort were endorsed usefully to support the views of the Contra-Remonstrants.

Two of the many consequences of the expansion of Europe during the early modern period were the spread of Christianity to areas outside of the Mediterranean world and the large-scale forced migration of enslaved people to work in European colonies. How did the institution of slavery impact on the practice of Christianity in a Protestant colony such as the Cape of Good Hope? This article investigates this question with a study of how the larger context of church practice and dogma influence the reality of a slave-owning society in the district of Stellenbosch during the VOC era. It shows that although a few slave individuals were baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church, only a very small number of them became actual members of the Church. This, it is argued, was related to the inherent contradiction between the requirements of the Church - that its members be knowledgeable and led moral lives - and the reality of a slave's existence - which allowed little opportunity for free time and study and made relationships between men and women technically illegal by not allowing formal marriage. It is for these reasons that so few slaves could be Christians - at least in the eyes of the official Church - in eighteenth-century Stellenbosch.

Abraham Kuypert úgy méltatták 70. születésnapján 1907-ben, hogy a megelőző negyven év holland történelmét nem lehetne úgy megírni, hogy legyen szó akár az állam, a társadalom, a sajtó, az egyház és az oktatásügy kérdéseiről, ne szere-peljen minden lapon az ő neve. Ez a megnyilvánulás is jól példázza azt a kimagasló tevékenységet, amivel Kuyper-becenevén a "csodálatos Ábrahám"-mint lelkész és teológiai tanár, politikus és újságíró, egyház-és egyetemalapító, miniszterelnök és állammi-niszter hozzájárult a modern Hollandia politikai és társadalmi folyamataihoz. A Kuyper által képviselt neokálvinista szellemiség, amely Kálvin írásmagya-rázati hagyományára nem mint teológiai irányzatra, hanem mint világnézetre tekintett, rányomta a bélyegét a 20. század elejének amerikai teológiájára is, mint ahogyan ihlető erővel látta el a Sebestyén Jenő nevével fémjelzett magyar történelmi kálvinizmus irányzatát is. Tanulmányunk célja rövid betekintést adni Abraham Kuyper életébe és munkásságába, neokálvinista nézeteinek alapvonásaiba. A

Philip William Otterbein stands at the head of a German awakening in America, which occurred shortly after the Great Awakening begun by Jonathan Edwards, and slightly prior to the introduction of Methodism to the American Colonies. He and his followers organized the United Brethren in Christ, the first truly American Denomination, and while they arrived at a position nearly identical to the Methodists, they arrived by a different route.
The rich heritage of the United Brethren in Christ implemented the best of four major streams of the protestant reformation: Calvinism, Lutheranism, Anabaptism and Moravianism as well as the later developments of the Pietists. Although he was sometimes given the derogatory label of a “Dutch Methodist” Otterbein actually had a greater influence on the Methodists than vice versa. He had implemented many Methodist practices in the American colonies before they were established in the United States by the Methodists."

This paper will mainly focus on the material culture surrounding the administration of the Lord’s Supper in the Reformed churches of the Dutch Republic. After a brief survey of the ecclesiastical setting for the service and the practical arrangements, it will principally concentrate on communion plate. Whereas the ecclesiastical decrees of the Catholic Church provided detailed stipulations about the appropriate form for liturgical vessels consecrated for the celebration of the mass, for the Reformed such matters were regarded as adiaphora. Nonetheless, communion plate was an important, if not essential, part of the administration of the Lord’s Supper. However, it, generally, tends to be considered only as part of broader studies of early modern silver and pewter ware rather than in its religious context. While Mark Petersen (2001) has drawn attention to the importance and spiritual significance of Puritan silver in New England, there has not been a similar consideration of communion plate in the Reformed Churches in Europe. In the Dutch Republic, silver and pewter beakers were used in a domestic environment as well as being commemorative items, but similar forms were adopted for the administration of the Lord’s Supper. The differences between secular and religious use will be considered, particularly in relation to their decoration and variations in design. Further research might reveal whether these vessels were regarded in a meditative and spiritual form similar to that identified in New England.

The celebration of the Lord's Supper in the Dutch Reformed Church - between tradition and renewal. Part 2.

In this article, part 2 of our series, the historical survey of the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the Reformed tradition is continued. Where the previous article focussed on Europe, especially Calvin and the Netherlands, this article focuses on South Africa and the Reformed World. Firstly the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the history of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa is described. Secondly the influence of the Liturgical Movement as well as the WCC Faith and Order text, Baptism Eucharist Ministry, on the celebration of the Lord's Supper is examined. A third part explores the practices surrounding the Lord’s Supper in the larger Reformed world, specifically in relation to frequency, forms, acts, preparation, ministers and three examples of how the sacrament is currently being celebrated in other Reformed churches. Finally the possibility of the implementation of new ways for celebrating the Lord’s Supper within the liturgy of the Dutch Reformed Church is explored. In Part 3 of our series on the Lord's Supper, we will, building on the first two parts of our series, give practical theological criticism of and suggestions for the current situation regarding the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the DR Church.

This article argues for understanding the nineteenth-century, evangelical DRC as an outward looking church, firmly positioned within the Protestant Atlantic. Not only were DRC ministers and congregations in contact with clergy, missionaries, and converts in Africa, Europe, and North America, but they drew inspiration from events and movements abroad. More specifically, this article focuses on a series of revivals which swept the DRC in 1860, 1874, and 1875, fundamentally transforming Dutch-Afrikaners' religious experience. Although the subject of specifically local forces, this revivalist movement was encouraged by ministers who had witnessed and read about similar revivals abroad. As a result, revivalism offers a way of writing a history of the nineteenth-century DRC which is attentive both to its positions within the Cape Colony as well as the wider Protestant Atlantic. In doing so, this article contributes to a growing body of scholarship which seeks to position Dutch-Afrikaners' social and cultural worlds within wider contexts, working against arguments that the DRC and its membersmost of whom were Dutch-Afrikaansexisted in a state of intellectual isolation.

Rudie van Leeuwen The painting Moses and the Israelites from 1574, which was commissioned by Peeter Panhuys (1529-85) from the Antwerp painter Maerten de Vos (1532-1603), serves as a case study for answering the question how the choice of a subject relates to the faith of the persons portrayed in a biblical portrait historié. Hence the starting point for this contribution is a partly new identification of the sitters and a new assessment of their religious persuasions. Although the persons portrayed have been connected to the 'spiritualistic' movement of the Family of Love in earlier studies, no attempt was made to interpret the painting in the light of this connection. The Family attracted both Protestants and Catholics. The iconography of this portrait historié however, points in the direction of Lutheran interpretation and seems to confirm the (otherwise established) Lutheran sympathies of Peeter Panhuys. Moreover, the specific formulation of the Ten Commandments indicates the consultation of a Lutheran (Bible) translation. This observation seems remarkable since the painting was considered distinctly Calvinist by others. Both passages from Luther's works and the Chronicles of the Family of Love explain the choice of subject of the panel. Notwithstanding evidence for a Familist interpretation, it has become clear that Hooftman and Panhuys were not fanatical Calvinists but rather moderate Lutherans.

The Dutch Reformed Church has been regarded as an apartheid
collaborator due to its close relationship with the National Party, earning
it the label “The National Party at prayer”. This perception is
strengthened by the fact that a number of prominent Afrikaner Nationalist
politicians were former clergymen. One of the most prominent, was
D.F. Malan, the first of the apartheid prime ministers and the only former
Dutch Reformed minister to occupy the position of head of government.
The assumption is easily made that Malan exchanged the pulpit for the
podium in order to preach to the entire volk, thus drawing party and
church closer together. This article examines Malan’s views on church
and state, as well as his relationship with the church after his entry into
politics in 1915. It finds that he supported the separation of the
institutions of church and state, but believed that both institutions were
accountable to God and hence, had to adhere to the same belief-system:
God-given Afrikaner Nationalism. Malan never explained this distinction
in his thinking to his followers. In his political dealings, he refrained
from interfering in church affairs, but vaguely referred to cooperation
between the institutions, although that never took any concrete form.

What is your view after reading this paper? Email your views to [email protected]

THE HEART OF THE MATTER:
The idea that every conceived human being is naturally evil, guilty, a sinner, or sinful, is itself child abuse and a blasphemous charge against God.

Baruch Spinoza's (1632–77) Tractatus theologico-politicus (1669/70) caused outrage across the Dutch Republic, for it obliterated the carefully installed separation between philosophy and theology. The posthumous publication of Spinoza's Ethica, which is contained in his Opera posthuma (1677), caused similar consternation. It was especially the mathematical order in which the Ethica was composed that caused fierce opposition, for its mathematical appearance gave the impression that Spinoza's heretical teachings were established demonstratively. In this essay, I shall document how the Dutch physician, local politician, and amateur mathematician and experimenter Bernard Nieuwentijt (1654–1718) attempted to physico-mathematically and methodologically counter the threats posed by Spinoza's programme. Nieuwentijt tried to defend the authority of the Scriptures in times in which they came under attack by the new philosophy and the emerging sciences that were gradually winning terrain. The crux of his defence consisted in delineating a modest epistemology, a 'learned ignorance', that would cure the followers' of Spinoza of their pansophical aspirations, on the one hand, and remove the conflict between the Bible and reason, on the other. The specific way in which he sought to accomplish this distinguished him from Dutch Reformed thought.

In a qualitative study recently carried out by the author amongst ministers in a Circuit of
Dutch Reformed Congregations in a suburban context in the Western Cape, South Africa,
respondents were asked whether they sensed a ‘shift of view’ concerning the role of leadership
during the past 20 years in their respective congregations. The research results paint a picture
of ‘the end of leadership’ at least in some form. One can also sense a ‘shift of power’ over the
past two decades in these local congregations, indicating the changing dynamics of leadership.
There seems to be a shift of power from the individual leader to the team, the group and the
network. The aim of this paper is, firstly, to present some of the empirical results and then
to reflect on the underlying reasons for this shift of power by giving a description of some
broader philosophical and sociological perspectives influencing this state of affairs. This will
be followed by a description of, and reflection on, theological developments on the Trinity
and power that might help to understand the ‘end of leadership’ in some ways. The paper
concludes with some thoughts on the role of power and leadership processes at work in local
faith communities.