Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

Posts Tagged ‘Heidelberg Catechism’

One question our Synod has fielded in the past is “Why the Heidelberg Catechism?”.

As our Synodical work progresses, we will be issuing a revision of the Heidelberg Catechism adapted for our own use. But why not begin de novo?

Hopefully our introduction we provide to a work on the Heidelberg helps answer that question.

The Heidelberg Catechism reflects the fruit not only of that generation but represents a crystallization of thought within the Western Christian tradition itself. It stands as witness to the “Catholicity” of the doctrine of Justification by Faith available to all those who find their hope in Jesus Christ alone through faith alone. In our day of increasingly “churchless” Christianity, the Catechism also bears witness to a paradigm for the Christian life that emerges from the Baptismal Covenant.

With Baptism as the starting point, our faith resides in the objective promise of God through the Church (the Body of Christ in its witness). The other alternative is that we are left disastrously to the subjective experience of the autonomous individual who considers himself free to interpret the Bible however he may will and yet claim to be a “Christian”. In other words, the Heidelberg stands as document that connects the primitive catholic tradition with the challenges of our own day.

For these reasons, our Synod builds upon this classic symbol of the faithful and hopes with it to forge a new Reformed and Evangelical consensus. We pray that such a consensus results in a vibrant contemporary mission and ministry for this day and age.

John Nevin’s History and Genius of the Heidelberg Catechism is a short yet powerful work that introduces the Heidelberg Catechism in its original German context.

In the American experience, the Heidelberg Catechism is normally interpreted in correlation with other confessions. In the German Reformed setting in America, it stood alone as the sole confession of that church. That was a unique situation. In Hungary, the Heidelberg Catechism is held in conjunction with the 2nd Helvetic Confession and in churches descended from Holland, that catechism is juxtaposed with the Belgic Confession and the Canons of the Synod of Dordt. American Presbyterians while holding to the Westminster standards often esteemed the Heidelberg catechism highly alongside those documents.

In the original context of the Palatinate, the Heidelberg can be said to be held in conjunction with the prevailing Protestant confession of that day – Melancthon’s Augsburg Confession! When the catechism was tested for it’s orthodoxy, it was by Melancthon’s document that the catechism was judged.

As the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America continues to form, we will adopt a modern language version of the Heidelberg and it will be held in conjunction not only with the historic creeds but also with our own Articles of Religion. These articles are based on the 39 Articles of the Anglican church with our own concerns thoroughly expressed.

Our intention in following this pattern is to create a synod where the Heidelberg Catechism can be lived out in a context very similar to that which formulated the document – a churchly body committed to the historic faith of the church across the ages and renewed in the age of Reformation.

For us, the History and Genius of the Heidelberg Catechism are too wonderful to be left in the past. They must be fleshed out in contemporary mission!

+Chuck Huckaby
Bishop
Reformed Evangelical Synod of America