Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice

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Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice

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Much of what passes as Reformed among our churches is not. As a class of churches that profess allegiance to Reformed theology, practice, and piety, we have drifted from our moorings. This book is written to facilitate change, specifically reformation according to God's Word as summarized in the Reformed confessions.

Paperback, 362 pages

Published October 1st 2008 by P & R Publishing

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Dec 02, 2008 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-theology, confessionalism, church-history

RECOVER

1. an act of recovering.

2. the regaining of or possibility of regaining something lost or taken away.

3. restoration or return to health from sickness.

4. restoration or return to any former and better state or condition.

5. something that is gained in recovering.

Though all the above definitions would fit quite nicely with what R. Scott Clark is attempting to do in his latest book, Recovering the Reformed Confessions (available here), it seems he specifically means ‘recovery’ as something li...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Erik Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is coming from a convinced confessionalist.

There are hoards of churches claiming themselves to be Reformed, catching the tide of the YRR (young restless and reformed) rhetoric largely embodied in the disciples of Piper, Keller, and to a broader degree, the Gospel Coalition.

To understand why such youthful enthusiasm can quickly dissipate and lose meaning, read this volume in conjunction with Carl Trueman's The Creedal Imperative and The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. The problem is...more This is coming from a convinced confessionalist.

There are hoards of churches claiming themselves to be Reformed, catching the tide of the YRR (young restless and reformed) rhetoric largely embodied in the disciples of Piper, Keller, and to a broader degree, the Gospel Coalition.

To understand why such youthful enthusiasm can quickly dissipate and lose meaning, read this volume in conjunction with Carl Trueman's The Creedal Imperative and The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. The problem is not that these organizations exist, but that movements such as Acts 29 or the Gospel Coalition tend to dull their distinguishing marks for the sake of creating a network. To the non-Americans, this movement seems no different than a denomination. For example, Keller and Piper disagree on baptism. By allowing church leaders from various denominational backgrounds to join in and as a result, create a far stronger entity than an ecclesiastical bond, those outside the "coalition" can't but see this as a theologically broad, murky territory. Furthermore, back to the issue of baptism, the centuries of debate behind those two positions, wider implications notwithstanding, become a mere hurdle for the members of override by creating a generic statement of faith.

Surely, the movement has expanded the heritage of Reformed theology, but exactly what defines Reformed?

Some have attacked this volume (and I suppose, its author) of safeguarding something that need not be safeguarded. But as Machen would say, this "Reformed" community many speak of today is a "voluntary organization," and thus members dissatisfied with such boundaries are free to leave. Hence, his departure from the liberalizing PCUSA. But I digress.

For Clark, the timely argument hinges on what defines Reformed theology. As the title indications, they are summarized by the major confessions. Combating the contemporary evangelical elasticity, Clark defends the view that Reformed theology is fundamentally one that is confessional in nature. This volume is not necessarily out to attack rock-jamming and arms-extending styles of worship. This book does exactly what it says it does: define the contours of what constitutes Reformed theology. If you disagree with the author's view on Reformed theology, and you yourself are a proponent of such tradition of Christianity, you better be armed with a substantial historical and exegetical ammunition to battle his arguments.

Enjoy reading!(less)

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Feb 01, 2012 Chris Hansen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

R. Scott Clark contends that there is much more to being Reformed than the petals on TULIP and encourages Christians to rediscover the authentic theology, piety, and practice of the Reformation. He writes mainly for those that call themselves Reformed, but his book is challenging and thought provoking for Christians of any stripe.

Clark identifies two "quests" that drive believers away from the Reformed (biblical) faith: the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Certainty (QIRC) and the Quest for Ille...more R. Scott Clark contends that there is much more to being Reformed than the petals on TULIP and encourages Christians to rediscover the authentic theology, piety, and practice of the Reformation. He writes mainly for those that call themselves Reformed, but his book is challenging and thought provoking for Christians of any stripe.

Clark identifies two "quests" that drive believers away from the Reformed (biblical) faith: the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Certainty (QIRC) and the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Experience (QIRE). The QIRC stems from seeking certainty on things not revealed--especially making the Bible a guidebook for matters it never intends to address. This also includes rationalistic attempts to flatten out tensions that exist in Scripture, such as that between the "already" and the "not yet" in eschatology. His main examples in these section that he spends some time with are those that make 24 hr/6 day creationism a boundary marker for orthodoxy, theonomists (those that treat the Bible as a political handbook, even advocating a return to Mosaic civil law), and covenant moralists (who deny the traditional view of justification by faith alone, such as federal visionists or N.T. Wright disciples). I found this section useful, especially the emphasis on the creator/creature distinction and archetypal/ectypal knowledge. He leaves a lot of open questions in the creationism section, perhaps intentionally, and tries to avoid actually taking a position on doctrine. I suppose that this is his point--that we should allow some Christian liberty here. I do think it would have been useful for him to articulate that, even if the length of the days is a matter of liberty, the whole debate over creationism is not. His advocacy for strict confessional subscription suggests a stand must be taken somewhere here since the confessions do have relevant sections.

The QIRE section was excellent. It's central thesis is that God has revealed himself in certain ways (objective divine promises, especially in Word and Sacrament) and that we should not seek to experience him in other ways. The contention isn't so much that God isn't ever experienced subjectively in some sense, but that God has promised to work through certain means (again, the preaching of the Word and administration of sacraments). Those means then should be the emphasis of our piety and practice and we should not have an expectation that God will work otherwise than he has promised. We should have an extrospective faith, focused on the objective revelation of God, rather and introspective one that is focused on the subjective experience. Clark then chronicles the turn to subjectivism and mysticalism via the pietist movement and revivalism.

Finally, he spends the remainder of the book describing how we can turn from these errors and embrace the authentic sola scriptura of the Reformed tradition in piety and practice. He has chapters on the advantages of the Reformed faith (via broad evangelicalism or Romanism/Orthodoxy) the need for confessions and strict ("quia") subscriptionism to those confessions, the importance of the traditional practice of the Christian (Sunday) Sabbath, an exposition of the Regulative Principle of Worship (contending for exclusively a cappella singing of inspired songs), and the need for being faithful to the second, or vespers, service in our churches.

All in all, very thought provoking and highly recommended. In some details I'm not entirely convinced, but I was challenged to spend more time in thought and study in many of these areas. (less)

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Mar 18, 2012 Eric Chappell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Introduction:
What does it mean to be 'Reformed?' Clark makes case that word denotes a confession, a theology, piety, and practice that are well known and well defined and summarized in ecclesiastically sanctioned and binding documents (3). Clark's thesis: "It is the argument of this book that the Reformed confession is the only reasonable basis for a stable definition of the Reformed theology, piety, and practice (4).

Schaff said Rationalism and Sectarism plagued American church. Clark thinks ra...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Aaron Lord rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dude is a militant anti-instrumentalist, which he justifies via the Regulative Principle. However, the Psalms, which he thinks Christians ought to sing (and sing them only) were written for musical accompaniment. You can't sing "Praise Him with the cittern" with a straight face if stringed instruments are forbidden in your religion. Other than that, it's great!

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Feb 11, 2013 Wyatt Houtz rated it 1 of 5 stars

Pedantic argument for psalm singing only, and no mics.

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