This thesis is a historical study and evaluation of the form of church government practised by the Particular Baptists of the 17th and 18th centuries, from the years 1650 to 1750. This study is based on confessional statements, the ecclesiological literature, and the extant church books of the Particular Baptists. It is shown that the Particular Baptists practised a definitive form of church government known traditionally as Independency, similar to that expounded by John Owen, minus infant baptism. Under the principle of the autonomy of the church the Particular Baptists practised believer’s baptism, an explicit church membership, and upheld covenant theology. Under the principle of the headship of Christ, they practised the separation of church and state, upheld the divine right of the magistrate, and also believed in the liberty of conscience. Under the principle of rule by elders the majority of the Particular Baptists practised a plurality of elders in which there was a distinction made between the roles of the pastor or minister and the ruling elders, although they occupy the same basic office of rule. However, deviation from a plural eldership took place, leading to the singlepastor- and-multiple-deacons situation, accompanied by the disappearance of ruling elders and the practice of congregational democracy in governance. This arrangement is characteristic of modern Congregationalism. Under the principle of the communion of churches the regional associations of churches accomplished much good, while a number of issues remained unresolved, including open and closed communion, congregational hymn singing, and the training of ministers. In the final chapter, the study attempts to resolve some ecclesiological issues controverted among Reformed Baptists today by applying the lessons learned from the Particular Baptists. To the Particular Baptists, Independency was the jus divinum (divinely ordained) form of church government used by God as the vehicle to carry out the Great Commission with a view to establishing biblically ordered churches, which upheld the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. These three components of church life − mission-mindedness, biblical church order, and the 1689 Confession of Faith − arose from the thorough biblicism of the Particular Baptists. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Church and Dogma History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This research reviewed the neglect of cities in the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa with a special reference to churches of Synod Soutpansberg. The biblical passage, Jeremiah 29:1-14 was used, as a representative of other biblical passages, to shed light on the role of cities in mission work of the church while addressing misconceptions and false theology about the cities and the role they played and still play in the mission work of the church. The same biblical message is confirmed by many missiology literature, including, "Cities, Missions' New Frontier" by R.S. Greenway and T.M. Monsma (1989); "City of God - City of Satan" by R.C. Linthicum(1991) and "Discipling the City" by R.S. Greenway (1992). The biblical message and the missiology literature mentioned above were the basis from which the neglect of the role of the cities in the history of the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa was studied. From these basis, the causes, implementations and effects of such neglect in the mission work of the Soutpansberg churches was studied in Chapter 3. The empirical research was conducted using the interview questionnaire in Chapter 4. The empirical results and findings, which were presented in this research, can direct churches towards a remedy of the neglect of the cities in their mission work as far as the strategies is concerned. The neglect of the cities in the history of the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa was studied with an aim that churches learn from it and hence avoid the past neglect in their present and future mission plans, strategies and programs. In other words, the lesson is important for churches to view the role of the secular cities as important instruments used by God to speed up not only the planting and growing big holy churches from those secular cities outwards, but also the biblical reformation of the rural - orientated theories, strategies and practice! / Thesis (M.A. (Theology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Ba.rtholomew Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, in 1487, but it did not occur to any European nation to make a settlement there until one hundred and sixty.years after that date. On the 6th April, 1652, Jan van Riebeeck founded the earliest settlement at the foot of Tab1e Mountain. Holland was at that time at the height of her political and commercial prosperity. The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, had acquired a practica~ monopoly of the sea-borne traffic with India and the East, and it was in order to provide a port of call for the outgoing and returning vessels of this Company that a tawnship was established and a castle built at the Cape of Good Hope in 1666, under the nsme and title of "the frontier fortress of India".

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:48:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DAVID JUGLIERME ALVES NOGUEIRA.pdf: 1428232 bytes, checksum: 93623afddb177a224c7e12dc0d9a1e1a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-02 / This study aims to elucidate the reformed liturgy in the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPB) between the years from 1964 to 1978, seen by a historical bias, especially from the following documents: Liturgy Principles (PL), Constitution of the IPB, Service Manual, Presbyterian Digest, and other Reformed documents. The target of the research is to present the historical reasons whom the Presbyterian liturgy was changed during the military dictatorship considering the standard established by the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Thus, two questions guided this research: a The Presbyterian liturgy reacted facing the authoritarian of civil-military dictatorship?; b Or the Presbyterian liturgy was adapted due the misfortunes of the military regime? Thus, before the closing of the socio-political and religious structures, spirituality arising from this period was hostage of the military coup. The liturgical expression of IPB was held most of the times in favor of the military regime. Our primary objective is to demonstrate the reasons why the Presbyterian liturgy was transformed considering the standard established by the IPB s tradition. / O presente trabalho visa elucidar a liturgia reformada na Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil (IPB) entre os anos de 1964-1978, vista por um viés histórico, especialmente a partir dos seguintes documentos: Princípios de Liturgia (PL), Constituição da IPB, Manual do Culto, Digesto Presbiteriano, além de outros documentos reformados. O objetivo da pesquisa é apresentar as razões históricas pelas quais a liturgia presbiteriana foi transformada na época da ditadura militar em relação ao padrão estabelecido pela tradição da Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil. Desse modo, duas perguntas nortearam esta pesquisa: a - A liturgia presbiteriana reagiu diante do regime autoritário da ditadura civil-militar?; b - Ou a liturgia presbiteriana foi adaptada diante dos infortúnios do regime militar? Assim, diante do fechamento das estruturas sócio-políticas e religiosas, a espiritualidade oriunda deste período foi refém do golpe militar. A expressão litúrgica da IPB foi realizada na maioria das vezes a favor do regime militar. Nosso objetivo fundamental é demonstrar as razões pelas quais a liturgia presbiteriana foi transformada em relação ao padrão estabelecido pela tradição da IPB.

This thesis examines how biblical typology was used in early modern Scotland. It focuses on the works of the Aberdonian minister and theologian, William Guild (1586–1657), who was one of the most prominent seventeenth-­‐century typological exegetes. His handbook, Moses Unvailed (1620), has been repeatedly noted as one of the key works in the development of Protestant typology. Yet his typological exegesis has not been properly explored. Indeed, detailed analysis of Guild’s life and works has been lacking. This study seeks to address those issues. Chapter One offers an updated biography of Guild, focusing on his intellectual development and religious involvement. Chapter Two provides the first detailed study of the theological influences on, and beliefs undergirding, Moses Unvailed, showing that Guild’s typological exegesis became more Christocentric in the period between 1608 and 1620. Chapters Three and Four explore the varied uses of typology in Guild’s sermons, biblical study aids, polemical works, and political treatises, drawing comparisons with his Scottish contemporaries. Chapter Three examines how typology was used in works addressed to godly audiences, while Chapter Four focuses on how typology was used in works aimed at theological opponents and political authorities. These chapters suggest that typology was consistently used – either directly or indirectly – to edify Reformed Protestants. Chapter Five turns to Guild’s commentaries to consider how typology related to allegorical, moral, and prophetic exegesis. This chapter argues that while typology was rarely Guild’s primary interpretative approach it still served vital functions in allowing him to reinforce, clarify, and expand his expositions. This thesis provides the first study of early modern typology in a Scottish context and also represents the most detailed engagement with Guild’s works to date. It challenges the divisions that have been drawn by scholars between different applications of typology and argues that Guild’s distinction between types and comparisons offers a more helpful way of understanding the varied uses of typology in early modern Scotland. From this analysis a clearer understanding of the functions of typology for early modern exegetes emerges. This thesis argues that while, for Guild and his contemporaries, typology served to demonstrate how the Old Testament reveals Christ, they were frequently drawn to this approach because it also gave them a biblically and providentially grounded means of articulating their vision of Protestant godliness.

This thesis examines the doctrine of happiness within the Jonathan Edwards corpus and seeks to understand its function and significance as it relates to Edwards's broader theological project. A close examination of both the internal development and the Early Modern intellectual context of Edwards's thought reveals that spiritual happiness is of central importance to Edwards's 'end of creation' project. Scholars commonly assume that the burden of Edwards's teleological writings is a theocentric defense and promotion of the glory of God in the face of an increasingly anthropocentric Enlightenment. However, this study demonstrates that, notwithstanding Edwards's adherence to the Reformed tradition's high view of God's glory, the early and enduring concern of Edwards's teleological project is the proof and defense of spiritual happiness as ultimate telos from a Reformed perspective. Edwards's purpose to defend the teleological status of happiness is primarily exposed by the development of Edwards's teleology in his Miscellanies notebook and related theological treatises such as Discourse on the Trinity and End of Creation, especially as Edwards engages rival teleological visions that tend to subordinate happiness. While Edwards's teleological conviction regarding happiness is inspired by his own Puritan and Reformed heritage and his early profound religious experience, he subsequently pursues the proof and defense of his Reformed teleology of happiness in response to the increasing tendency of Reformed and non-Calvinist Enlightenment thinkers to subordinate the teleological status of happiness. During the Early Modern period, Reformed theologians frequently subordinate happiness relative to godliness, and especially the glory of God, and Enlightenment thinkers increasingly make practical virtue and usefulness toward the common good the ultimate telos of human existence at the expense of spiritual happiness, which intellectual trends Edwards engages for the sake of defending his Reformed teleology of happiness. The first stage of the development of Edwards's teleology of happiness is marked by his conversion and subsequent profound experiences of spiritual happiness, and by his efforts that follow during the early 1720s to prove happiness as ultimate telos, primarily on the basis of Edwards's doctrine of divine goodness. During the second stage of development, Edwards works to defend happiness as ultimate telos from a comprehensively biblical and Reformed perspective. Edwards spends the rest of his career developing his doctrines of God and the Trinity, the work of redemption, and the glory of God primarily for the sake of defending his Reformed teleology of happiness, which I suggest, significantly influences and shapes Edwards's theology.

Magister Theologiae - MTh / South Africa

This thesis examines Thomas Goodwin’s (1600–1680) doctrine of union with Christ within his soteriology. It builds upon Michael Lawrence’s historical reassessment which uncovered that, contrary to previous scholarly assumptions, the majority of Goodwin’s treatises were composed during the 1650s and intended to form a grand project defending Reformed soteriology against the new threats of Socinian and radical teachings as well as its traditional opponents, Catholics and Arminians. Goodwin considered this grand project to be his life’s work. It represents the longest exposition of Reformed soteriology composed by an English puritan. However, no modern critical study of the soteriology of his grand project has appeared to date. This thesis, therefore, offers a theological examination in light of his immediate historical context. The study focuses on union with Christ, because Goodwin assumed it occupied a fundamental role in salvation and, therefore, it allows identification of the architectonic structures of his soteriology. The immediate historical context is privileged, because union with Christ (and related loci) was a point of sharp dispute in the 1640s–1650s. By offering a careful examination of this theme in an important individual theologian, this study also aims to make a significant contribution to recent controversy over union with Christ in the post-Reformation period. At stake are two competing visions of the structure of Reformed applied soteriology: some scholars contend that the Reformed tradition granted priority to union with Christ; others contend that priority was granted to justification. The former commonly argue that seventeenth-century divines allowed the priority of union with Christ to be displaced by a causal chain of application; the latter, disputing this claim, argue for continuity within the tradition and that the priority of justification was held alongside broader notions of union with Christ. The main argument of this thesis is a demonstration that Goodwin founded the application of every aspect of salvation upon a ‘real’ union with Christ (i.e., mystical union forged by Christ’s indwelling within the believer) rather than upon a mere ‘relative’ union (i.e., legal union external to the believer). Moreover, Goodwin contended that real union with Christ must involve the indwelling of the uncreated grace of the person of the Holy Spirit. This, he believed, was essential to maintain a trinitarian, federal, high Reformed soteriology in which redemption from the problem of sin is set within a Reformed scheme of christocentric deification. Goodwin’s conception of union with Christ and his high soteriology departed from the views of the conservative majority of seventeenth-century Reformed puritan divines who denied the indwelling of uncreated grace. Instead, his conception often resembled the teachings of antinomians and radicals, though Goodwin remained within the bounds of orthodoxy by repeated application of key theological distinctions. These findings support the view in recent controversy that Reformed applied soteriology was governed by the priority of union with Christ. Yet, neither side accurately construes seventeenth-century views on union with Christ, because disagreement amongst divines over the nature of real union with Christ has not been adequately recognised. Chapter 1 establishes the case for this study from a literature survey. The argument then unfolds in four main chapters. Chapter 2 establishes the nature of real union with Christ embraced by Goodwin. Chapters 3 and 4 demonstrate that Goodwin advocated high doctrines of transformation and forensic justification respectively and determine how each was founded in his conception of real union with Christ. Chapter 5 advances the argument by demonstrating that real union with Christ occupied a fundamental place in his soteriology as a consequence of his conviction that salvation principally consists in participation in Christ and his divine nature. Chapter 6 concludes by assessing the significance of Goodwin’s doctrine of union with Christ in his grand project, in his immediate historical context, and for the recent controversy over union with Christ.

Although the eruption of religious dissent in Germany touched off by Martin Luther in 1517 began as a theological disagreement, the ensuring years would reveal that these religious ideas had important social consequences. They set into motion a process of reordering society and forming of confessional identities that had significant implications for the nuclear family. Reflecting John Calvin's assertion that "every individual Family ought to be a Little Church of Christ," Reformed Protestants sought to transform nuclear families into spiritual communities, creating domestic microcosms of the larger church. This project examines the religious formation of families among the French Reformed (Huguenot) Churches, demonstrating that this was a cultural offensive as much as it was a religious one. Huguenot leaders wanted far more than their congregants to attend church: this programme transformed the roles and responsibilities of family members, shaped the activities and routines of the household, circumscribed and defined the appropriate associations of family members, and reorganized the family schedule. This study illuminates the Huguenots' conception of a "holy household" by analyzing the four primary characteristics of these godly families - ordered, educational, pure, and pious - and describes how they were conceived of and implemented in Reformed communities across early modern France. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the French Reformed family, this dissertation bridges the divide between intellectual history and social history. There was no greater intellectual source for French Protestantism than John Calvin and Geneva: Calvin was one of the primary theologians influencing the development of Protestantism in France, and the Genevan Church served as an advisor and template for many of the Huguenot churches. Accordingly, each chapter examines in depth the theological underpinnings of this effort, analyzing Calvin's sermons, commentaries, Institutes of the Christian Religion, and written correspondence with leaders of the Huguenot churches. This investigation, in turn, provides an understanding of the religious sources for this new emphasis holy family and domestic piety in France, without which it would be impossible to fully appreciate. To balance these prescriptive sources, I analyze descriptive records to understand how the actual reform of the family was carried out on the local level. In particular, my research relies extensively on church discipline records (consistory registers) from churches throughout France: Albenc (1606-1682), Archiac (1600-1637), Blois (1574-1579), Coutras (1582-1584), Die (1639-1686), Le Mans (1560-1561), Mussidan (1593-1599), Nîmes (1561-1564), Pont-de-Camares (1574-1579), Rochechouart (1596-1635), and Saint-Gervais (1564-1568). These records reveal the complex and messy manner of this reform, which was often marked by contestation and negotiation. Throughout, I compare these records to Genevan discipline records to compare and contrast how Calvin's own church instituted this familial reform in the Genevan context. My project, in sum, reveals the heretofore overlooked religious role and significance of the family and home in Reformed churches of early modern France.

The Reformed tradition, following Zwingli and especially Calvin, excluded images from the churches. Calvin rejected the sacred images of his day as idolatrous on the grounds that they were treated as making God present, that the necessary distinction between God and God’s material creation was not maintained, and because an image, which rightly was to be mimetic of visible reality, could not truthfully depict God. Calvin approved the Renaissance notion of visual art as mimetic and he understood that artists’ abilities were gifts of God and were to be used rightly. He also had a very keenly developed visual aesthetic sense in relation to nature as the “mirror” of God’s glory. However, the strong human tendency towards idolatry before images, he believed, meant that it was not expedient to place any pictures in the churches. Reinterpretation of key biblical passages, particularly the first and second commandments (Calvin’s numbering), together with changes in the understanding of what constitutes visual art, of the relationships between words and visual images, and of the processes of interpretation and reception not only of texts but of all perceived reality, lead to a re-thinking of the issues. The biblical narrative with its theological insights can be interpreted into a visual language and used by the church as complementary to, but never replacing, biblical preaching and teaching in words. Attention to the visual aesthetic dimensions of the worship space is important to allow for this space to function as an invitation and call to worship. Its form, colour, light and adorning may give aesthetic delight, which leads to praise and thanksgiving, or it may provoke other response which helps people prepare to offer worship to God. The world and its people depicted in visual art/image may inform the praying of the church and the visual representation of the church (the saints) may provide congregations with an awareness of the breadth of the church at worship in heaven and on earth. In the present diversity of views about visual art and the work of the artist there is freedom for the artist to re-think the question of vocation and artists may find new opportunities for understanding and exercising their vocation not only in secular art establishments and the community but also in relation to the worship of the church.