Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:55:40.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ministry and Ordination According to Reformed Theology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

J. J. Von Allmen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is no simple matter to deal with this subject. In the first place, it is not a favourite theme of Reformed theology. In addition, there are a thousand variations of the ordination liturgy, whose comparative study is still in its infancy. Finally, a kind of mutation was produced during the eighteenth century which compromised the ‘catholic’ aspect of the Reformed Church and which made of her a Church of ‘protestant’ type (to use a term which must be precisely defined).

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , February 1972 , pp. 75 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 76 note 1 English translation in The Proposed Book of Confessions of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, published by the Office of the General Assembly, Philadelphia, Pa., 1966, ch. XVIII, p. 96.

page 76 note 2 ibid., p. 27.

page 77 note 1 The Proposed Book of Confessions translates presbyteri by ‘elders’, and does so several more times. Elsewhere the same translation renders the Latin seniores as ‘elders’. A more meticulous examination calls for further nuances. The Second Helvetic Confession actually knows nothing of the traditional ‘elders’ of the Presbyterian Churches. By presbyteri it means rather the traditional priests—stripped to be sure, of their sacerdotal role which does not actually correspond to their designation. The seniores it understands in a comparative sense: those who have been in the pastoral ministry for the longest time. We might also recall that Calvin (Institutes IV.3.8) carefully distinguishes presbyteri (which he translates prestrey ‘priests’, those who exercise the pastoral ministry) from seniores (which he translates anciens, ‘elders’, those who constitute the college which assists the pastor in his ministry, especially as regards his responsibility for church discipline). These ‘elders’ seem to be out on the fringe according to the Second Helvetic Confession. They are called iudices sancti, aptly translated by ‘holy judges’ (Proposed Book of Confessions, p. 120).

I have dealt with these terminological questions more fully in my book Le Saint, Ministère selon la conviction et la volonté des Réformés du XVIe siècle (Neuchâtel, 1968), p. 49fGoogle Scholar. This book also contains vast numbers of references which support this present study. I would add that I am in complete agreement with the view of Walker, G. S. M., that ‘Presbyterianism has always tended to be a misleading name for the Reformed Church order’ (‘Scottish Ministerial Order’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 1955, p. 238)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This is also the opinion of R. S. Louden, The True Face of the Kirk, an examination of the ethos and tradition of the Church of Scotland (London, 1963), pp. 37, 40.

page 78 note 1 op. cit., p. 99.

page 78 note 2 cf. the ‘Confession de foy’ of the Reformed Churches of France, 1559, art. 25ff, in Niesel, W., Die Bekenntnisschriften und Kirchenordnungen der nach Gottes Wort reformierten Kirche (Munich, 1938), pp. 72ffGoogle Scholar; or the Ecclesiarum belgicarum confessio of 1561, ch. 27ff, in ibid., p. 130; etc.

page 78 note 3 op. cit., p. 98.

page 79 note 1 It is also clear that the Reformed Churches of the sixteenth century would not have considered investing women with the Church's constitutive ministry, whether episcopal or pastoral. See my book cited above, p. 45f.

page 79 note 2 The Second Helvetic Confession speaks of ministers ‘as the ministers of God, inasmuch as God effects the salvation of men through them’, op. cit., p. 96.

page 79 note 3 op. cit., p. 99.

page 80 note 1 See my book cited above, pp. 47–49.

page 80 note 2 See the excursus on ‘the apostolic succession in Reformed theology’ in my book cited above, pp. 192–212.

page 80 note 3 op. cit., p. 99.

page 80 note 4 ibid., p. 103.

page 81 note 1 ibid., p. 120.

page 81 note 2 See my book cited above, p. 49f.

page 81 note 3 See, e.g., Maresius, S., Collegium theologicum (Geneva, 1666, ed. sexta)Google Scholar; quoted by Heppe, H., Die Dogmatik der evangelisch-reformierten Kirche (Neukirchen, 1935), p. 547.Google Scholar

page 81 note 4 Regarding this messianic vicariate of the minister, note the affirmation of the Second Helvetic Confession: ‘… the minister, because of his office, does that which the Lord has commanded him to do; and the Lord confirms what he does, and wills that what his servant has done will be so regarded and acknowledged, as if he himself had done it’ (op. cit., p. 100). See also in this regard, Wotherspoon, A. J. and Kirkpatrick, J. M., A Manual of Church Doctrine according to the Church of Scotland, 2nd ed., revised and enlarged by T. F. Torrance and R. S. Wright (London, 1960), p. 72f.Google Scholar

page 82 note 1 The Doctrines of Ministerial Order in the Reformed Churches of the 16th and 17th Centuries (Edinburgh, 1940), p. 191.Google Scholar

page 82 note 2 This is one reason why the monachism, which acted as a parasite on the Church of that period, failed to survive the Reformation.

page 82 note 3 op. cit., p. 96.

page 82 note 4 op. cit., p. 100.

page 83 note 1 op. cit., p. 99.

page 84 note 1 Following the decision taken by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.

page 84 note 2 op. cit., p. 99.

page 85 note 1 See particularly ch. III of Lumen Gentium.

page 85 note 2 ad Titus 1.3.

page 85 note 3 The Latin reads presbyteri, and the translation ‘priests’ would better render the meaning of the text.

page 86 note 1 Latin: unus e presbyteris.

page 86 note 2 Latin: presbyteri.

page 86 note 3 Latin: presbyteri.

page 86 note 4 op. cit., p. 1O1. For a thorough examination of the equivocal nature of this reference to St. Jerome, see my book cited above, pp. 74ff.

page 86 note 5 Therefore ministers can possess the various titles of bishop, priest, pastor or doctor.