An Old Question⤒🔗

Can we speak of unity of faith when there is not a unity of confessional documents? It is a question that just does not seem to want to go away even though the Canadian Reformed churches have established ecclesiastical fellowship with churches using confessions different than the Three Forms of Unity. Mentioning this is not stirring up the pot but stating a reality.

This simmering issue came to mind recently when reviewing the plurality of confessions that sprung up during the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. This plurality of confessions came about not simply because the Protestant Reformation developed into three main traditions, namely, Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed, but also because there was a multitude of confessions within each of these three traditions.

The main period of Protestant confessional writings extends from approximately the 1520s till the mid-1560s. After this foundational phase, further confessions were written but they often reflected developments that arose after the Reformed faith had begun to take root. One could say that Protestant confessional writing came to an end with the Westminster Standards, produced in the late 1640s. These Standards moreover reflected developments that happened over two generations. Already in the middle of the foundational phase, as well as at the end of that phase, the question arose about unity in this diversity of confessional documents. It is instructive to see what was said.

Old Answers←⤒🔗

First, John Calvin addressed the matter in the Dedication which precedes the Catechism he composed for the Church of Geneva. His Dedication was directed to “the Ministers of Christ throughout East Friesland,” that is, in modern northern Germany, definitely some distance away from Geneva. In the first paragraph he wrote that “it were to be wished, not only that a perpetual consent in the doctrine of piety should appear among all, but also that one Catechism were common to all the Churches.” He immediately continued,

But as, from many causes, it will scarcely ever obtain otherwise than that each Church shall have its own Catechism, we should not strive too keenly to prevent this; provided, however, that the variety in the mode of teaching is such, that we are all directed to one Christ, in whose truth being united together, we may grow up into one body and one spirit, and with the same mouth also proclaim whatever belongs to the sum of faith. ¹

For Calvin, one Catechism for all would be desirable but not essential. The key point was that “we are all directed to one Christ.” Calvin was concerned about the substance, not the form.

A second example is what took place at the Synod of Emden held in 1571. This was a Synod of the Reformed churches in The Netherlands but it was held outside The Netherlands because of persecution. At this Synod, the brothers present decided that they would subscribe not only to the Belgic Confession but also to the Gallican (French) Confession. In this way, they would show their allegiance and connection with the French churches.²

A third and very instructive example comes from a publication that appeared in Geneva in 1581. It appeared in an English translation in 1586 with the title, “A Harmony of the Confessions of the Faith of the Christian and Reformed Churches which purely profess the holy doctrine of the Gospel, in all the chief kingdoms, nations, and provinces of Europe &c.” The title actually continues with these words,

There are added in the end very short Notes which both the obscure things are made plain, and the things which may in shew seem to be contrary to each other, are plainly and very modestly reconciled; and if any points do as yet hang in doubt, they are sincerely pointed at. All which things, in the names of the Churches of France and Belgia, are submitted to the free and discreet judgment of all other Churches....³

This publication came about in response to suggestions that it would be helpful to formulate one confession to serve as a statement of unity. Upon the suggestion of people from Geneva and Zurich, however, it was decided to make a compilation of the various confessions. In the preface there is interaction with the accusation that the churches which revolted from the Catholic Church “neither agree with ourselves … but that there are as many religions among us, as there are Confessions of Faith.”⁴ In response it is said that “this conference of Confessions will pluck every vizard from their faces, when as it shall plainly appear that all the opinions in these Confessions of Faith were in other sundry words so laid down, that yet the same truth always abideth, and there is none at all, or very little, difference in the things themselves.”

Also, it can be seen that “with common consent they renounce the abuses and errors of the Romish Church... They also who accuse us of sedition, shall perceive how reverently we think of the dignity of kings and the Magistrate’s authority.”⁵

What is striking in this Harmony is that it includes confessions from all three branches growing out the Reformation, namely, Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed. The difference with respect to the Lord’s Supper was not ignored. In one brief sentence, however, we see a succinct summation of similarities and differences as it is written, “In like sort we all believe the true communication of the true body and true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; the controversy standeth in the manner of communicating.” ⁶To be sure, Lutherans were not quite as agreeable as is evident when you study their Book of Concord, published in 1580, as well as a document called the Saxon Visitation Articles. ⁷ The Reformed believers, however, saw the fundamental unity despite the different confessional documents and even a difference on the matter of the Lord’s Supper.

This unity in substance also comes out when one compares the basic structure especially of the confessions that developed in the Anglican and Reformed churches. Generally, they begin by dealing with God and his Word, followed by man’s creation and corruption. This is followed in turn by a section dealing with God’s work of salvation in Christ and finally a section on the fruit of Christ’s work in this world as he gathers his church (Theology; Anthropology; Christology; Ecclesiology).

A final example that can be mentioned is the variety of international delegates that were invited to the Synod of Dort. Among those present were representatives from the Church of England. This example is helpful in how it shows that even some fifty years after the conclusion of the foundational period of Confessional writings, there was still a sense of unity in the substance of the Reformed faith even if it was not expressed in exactly the same form.

Not Normative but Still Informative←⤒🔗

It is to be recognized, of course, that history is not normative. Only Scripture is. At the same time, a look in history is informative for it enables us to see how previous generations looked at matters. We might discover that we handle confessions in a way they never would have done. When it comes to the diversity of confessions, we can see that there was a catholic vision that did not get stuck on form but looked at substance. To be sure, they did not gloss over the fact that there were differences.

At the same time, as Calvin wrote, the key thing was “that we are all directed to one Christ, in whose truth being united together, we may grow up into one body and one spirit, and with the same mouth also proclaim whatever belongs to the sum of faith.” It is Christ who is the unity in the diversity.