Reformed confessions of faith

Confessions

Continental Reformed

• Confession of the East Friesland Preachers (1528)
• Tetrapolitan Confession (1530)
• Synodical Declaration of Bern (1532)
• First Confession of Basel (1534)
• First Helvetic Confession/Second Confession of Basel (1536)
• Geneva Confession (1536)
• Altered Augsburg Confession (1540)
• Confession of the English Congregation at Geneva (1556)
• Guanabara Confession of Faith (1558)
  • Authored by Huguenots in South America
• French Confession of Faith (1559)
• Confession of the Christian Faith (1559)
• Belgic Confession (1561)
• Second Helvetic Confession (1562)
• Erlauthal Confession (1562)
• Hungarian Confession (1562)
• Confession of Nassau (1578)
• Bremen Consensus (1595)
• Sigismund Confession (1614)
• Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934)
• Belhar Confession (1986)
  • First adopted in South Africa and since adopted by many mainline Reformed churches.

Presbyterian

• Scots Confession (1560)
• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
• Confession of Faith Ratification Act (1690)
• Confession of 1967
• Brief Statement of Faith (1991)

Congregationalist

The presbyterians' Westminster was formed by an assembly of ministers called by parliament for use in the established churches of England and Scotland. For congregationalists, this was not the case. The difference in application of the congregationalists' primary confession*, Savoy*, is that it was written as a declaration of consensus, and as such it was not treated as morally binding upon church officers like Westminster for presbyterians (called subscriptionism).

Local congregational churches are historically formed around covenants (e.g. the Dedham Covenant), often unique to that church, another kind of confession.

• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
  • Though not produced by congregationalists, the Synod of Cambridge (1648) adopted the WCF without revision, only referring to their own Cambridge Platform regarding church government (ch. XXV., XXX., and XXXI)
• Savoy Declaration (1658)
  • Adopted in America as the Saybrook (1708)
• The Declaration of 1833
• Declaration of Faith (1865)

Baptist

Baptist confessions, like the Congregationalists, are statements of agreement rather than enforceable rules. They "have never been held as tests of orthodoxy, as of any authoritative or binding force; they merely reflect the existing harmony of views and the scriptural interpretations of the churches assenting to them."

Only confessional Particular Baptists regard themselves to be "Reformed", since orthodox and historic Reformed theology is inherently paedobaptistic. Part of the Baptist movement finds its origin in the nonconformist movement in England, observing Calvinistic theology with the Presbyterians and Congregationalists. Baptists subscribing to Calvinist soteriology are called Particular Baptists or Reformed Baptist. There are further subdivisions of Particular Baptists, such as Regular and Primitive.

Baptist churches, like the Congregationalists with whom they share views of polity, compose church covenants for the local congregation.

• First London Baptist Confession (1644)
• The Confession of Somerset (1656)
• Second London Baptist Confession (1689)
  • Adopted in America as the Philadelphia Confession (1742)
• New Hampshire Confession (1833 or 1844)
• Baptist Affirmation of Faith 1966

Anglican

Anglican churches are not confessional in the same strict sense as in Lutheran churches. Anglican doctrine is most defined by Lex orandi, lex credendi ("the law of praying [is] the law of believing").

• Forty-two Articles (1553)
• Thirty-Nine Articles (1562/63)

Methodist

• Calvinistic Methodist Confession of Faith (1823)

Catechisms

Continental

• Genevan Catechism (1541)
• Emden Catechism (1554)
• Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
• Wittenberg Catechism (1571)

Presbyterian

• Westminster Shorter Catechism (1649)
• Westminster Larger Catechism (1649)

Congregationalist

• Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes (1656)

Baptist

• Keach's Catechism (1677)

Anglican

• Anglican Catechism (1549)
  • Found within the Book of Common Prayer

Constitutions, ordinals, and platforms of church order

Continental

• Church Order of Dort (1618)
• Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1641)

Presbyterian

• Form of Presbyterial Church Government (1645)

Congregationalist

• Cambridge Platform (1648)
• Platform of Discipline of the Savoy Declaration (1658)
  • Full title: Of the Institution of Churches, and the Order appointed in them by Jesus Christ
• Fifteen Articles of the Saybrook Platform (1708)
• Boston Platform (1865)

Occasional documents

• Zwingli's Sixty-Seven Articles (1523)
• Ten Theses of Berne (1528)
• Lausanne Articles (1536)
• Zurich Consensus (1549)
• Sendomir Consensus (1570)
• Harmony of the Confessions of Faith (1581), a response to the Lutheran Formula of Concord.
• Canons of Dort (1619)
• Helvetic Consensus (1675)
• Conclusions of Utrecht (1905)

References

References

1. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library".
2. Rohls, Jan. (1998). "Theologie reformierter Bekenntnisschriften". Westminster John Knox Press.
3. "Creeds of Christendom, Volume I.".
4. Carson, D. A. (27 January 2015). ''Themelios, Volume 36, Issue 2''. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 313. {{ISBN. 978-1-62564-954-6.
5. Scots Confession (1560). Confession of Faith Ratification Act (1560), (Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1560/1.
6. "Confession of Faith: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church".
7. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). (2004). "Book of Confessions, Confession of 1967". The Office of the General Assembly.
8. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). (2004). "Book of Confessions". The Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
9. Davies, Horton. (1948). "The worship of the English Puritans". Westminster [London] : Dacre Press.
10. "The Confessional Subscription Debate at Westminster Theological Seminary in California".
11. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library".
12. Bremer, Francis J.; Webster, Tom, ''Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia, Volume 1'', ABC-CLIO, USA, 2006, p. 354.
13. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library".
14. "Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library".
15. Gribben, Crawford. ''The Puritan Millennium: Literature and Theology, 1550–1682 (Revised Edition)'', Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2008, p. 252.
16. ''The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith'', Documents, Reformed.
17. Turnbull, Richard. (15 July 2010). "Anglican and Evangelical?". Bloomsbury Publishing.
18. Avis, Paul. (2013). "The Anglican Understanding of the Church: An introduction". SPCK.
19. Earey, Mark. (2013). "Beyond Common Worship: Anglican Identity and Liturgical Diversity". SCM Press.
20. (2012). "Comfortable Words: Polity, Piety and the Book of Common Prayer". Hymns Ancient and Modern.
21. "Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 2, 1552–1566".
22. Muller, Richard A.. (2004). "The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology". Cambridge University Press.
23. "Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 1, 1523–1552".
24. (1977). "Calvin: theological treatises". Philadelphia : Westminster Press.
25. [[Cambridge Platform#CITEREFWalker1894. Walker 1894]], pp. 114, 221.
26. Cochrane, Arthur C.. (2003). "Reformed Confessions of the Sixteenth Century". Westminster John Knox Press.
27. "Confession of Faith of the Calvinistic Methodists or the Presbyterians of Wales".