Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Establishing Order via National, Provincial, and Local Church Orders: “Let All Things Be Done with Decency and Order”
- 2 Establishing Authority: Electing Elders and Deacons
- 3 Establishing Confessional Identity : An “Honest Citizen, Even Though a Catholic”
- 4 Navigating Intra-Confessional Conflict: “Live at Peace with Everyone”?
- 5 Establishing Belief and Practice: Rural Approaches to Sabbath Observance
- Conclusion : Establishing and Navigating Reformed Identity in the Rural Low Countries
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Establishing Order via National, Provincial, and Local Church Orders: “Let All Things Be Done with Decency and Order”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Establishing Order via National, Provincial, and Local Church Orders: “Let All Things Be Done with Decency and Order”
- 2 Establishing Authority: Electing Elders and Deacons
- 3 Establishing Confessional Identity : An “Honest Citizen, Even Though a Catholic”
- 4 Navigating Intra-Confessional Conflict: “Live at Peace with Everyone”?
- 5 Establishing Belief and Practice: Rural Approaches to Sabbath Observance
- Conclusion : Establishing and Navigating Reformed Identity in the Rural Low Countries
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
The chapter argues for the theological importance of order within the Reformed tradition. The argument includes discussions of order in the writings of John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Andreas Hyperius, and the Leiden professors’ Synopsis Purioris Theologiae. The chapter also explores the role of national and provincial church orders in the life of Dutch Reformed churches. While these church orders were operative in Dutch Reformed churches, churches, especially rural churches, were selective about which church orders they adopted and followed and thus demonstrated agency in how they conducted religious life in their communities. As one example, the chapter includes a discussion of a local church order that a Reformed consistory in rural Wemeldinge produced for their congregation; this church order further demonstrates the above points.
Keywords: Order; Theology; Synods; Church Orders; Consistories
On the cover page of the 1619 church book of Wijdenesse lies a reference to verse forty of the fourteenth chapter of book of 1 Corinthians in the Bible. Should that reference fail to call the biblical words to the reader's mind, the verse is given directly underneath the passage reference: “Let all things be done with decency and order.” In the second volume of the Wijdenesse church book (1639), the same reference is included, and the verse is, again, written out in its entirety. Other Dutch church books contain similar slogans. The first church book of Spanbroek (Spanbroeck in the records) and Opmeer, for example, includes, “Psalm CXXIV:8” and the text of the verse, which reads, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Enkhuizen's first church book contains no such inscription, but the second church book has a variety of Latin phrases.
These phrases essentially serve as epigraphs for the various church books and thus provide insights into how the churches compiling them conceived of their work. The church in Spanbroek and Opmeer, for example, clearly saw the church book as a testament to the help that the Lord had provided to them. Similarly, Enkhuizen's chosen phrases demonstrate the importance of patience and endurance across the suffering that they had endured. The epigraphs most applicable for this chapter are the ones found in the two church books of the congregation in Wijdenesse.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Navigating Reformed Identity in the Rural Dutch RepublicCommunities, Belief, and Piety, pp. 57 - 90Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023