20 - Reformed Catholicity

Summary

In its most basic sense, “Reformed catholicity” involves approaching Reformed theology, in its historic and contemporary forms, as one who belongs to the larger Christian tradition, the “holy, catholic church” confessed by the Apostles’ Creed. While this approach operates from within the Reformed theological tradition, it does so with an attentive ear to the catholic Christian voices from all eras; for those who embrace Reformed catholicity do not approach the Reformed tradition as an end in itself but rather as a way to fruitfully inhabit the larger catholic tradition. In its recent instantiation as a contemporary “sensibility,” “Reformed catholicity” generally means combining a theocentric focus upon theology as knowledge of the Triune God and creation in relation to God. It also involves a commitment to recovering the core catholic trinitarian and christological convictions that provide a framework for a theological journey of faith seeking understanding. Within this context, the task of biblical exegesis is embraced as fundamental to the renewal of a modern theological imagination. These catholic and Reformed convictions can help frame a way for the reception of the Word by the Spirit that moves God’s people away from self-serving and truncated ends and toward the fullness of maturity in Christ in life, worship, and witness.