I am nearly finished reading through Dr. R. Scott Clark's Recovering the Reformed Confession. I have found it to be very insightful and beneficial, and I would heartily commend it to anyone interested in recovering a confessional theology, piety, and practice. Particularly, his discussion that connects Christian liberty with only singing inspired songs in corporate worship was very helpful, and probably my favorite section of the book. It made me long to see confessional Reformed worship recovered in the churches.

Has anyone else read the book? If so, what were your thoughts?

__________________
Taylor W. Otwell, Husband to Abigail
Member, Fellowship Bible Church
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Family Blog

No sounds good though

__________________
Martin - Reformed
Husband to the most godly, honorable and loyal wife Line
Searching for a Church
Webpage www.5solas.dk
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
Soli Deo Gloria

I really enjoyed the book.
I especially liked his fleshing out of the "Illegitimate Quest for Certainty" and the "Illegitimate Quest for Experience" (i think that's what he called it).

Many times we can fall to one of these errors...either seeking certainty where there is none given us by God, or seeking experience apart from the Word which God has given us to experience Him in a deep communion by His Spirit.

__________________
Larry Bray
Elder - Reformed Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, PCA
Boothwyn, PA - http://www.rpcb.org/
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
-----------------------------------------------------
Christian ritual costs nothing and is worth nothing. True Christian religion costs all that we have and is worth everything.

I agree. When I was in college (2004-2008), I found QIRE one of the biggest problems facing the other professing Christian students. The concept of God ordaining specific means of grace (word, sacramant, prayer) was neglected and misunderstood. Instead, the Scriptures were substituted for a so-called "still small voice" in the "heart of hearts". To speak against this method of relating to God is often ridiculed as being "cold and dead". But, in my opinion, true, Biblical sanctification will never occur unless the Reformed understanding of the means of grace are recovered.

Would like to read it but would want to balance it with another book which has support for singing hymns also.

__________________
sarah
WI
OPC
My Pastor's Sermons: Mark Jenkins...he's awesome!!!

I appreciate these thoughts on Recovering the Reformed Confession. I can't wait to dig into the book!

__________________
David Broyles
Greenville Presbyterian Church
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
Upstate SC

"That man hath perfect blessedness;
Who walketh not astray
In counsel of ungodly men
Nor stands in sinners' way."
Psalm 1:1,2 - The Scottish Psalmody

I really want that book! Now all I need is some money.

__________________
Ben Franks

I attend: Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC)
in Purcellville, Virginia
I'm a member of: Heartland Community Church (PCA)
in Wichita, Kansas
I blog here (along with my Dad): http://rrfranks.blogspot.com/
And I'm a student here: www.phc.edu

"Remember the speeches we have spoken so often over our mead, when we raised boast on the bench, heroes in the hall, about hard fighting. Now may the man who is bold prove that he is."-Aelfwine at the Battle of Maldon

I have wanted to purchase this book also but havnt had the money to do so. I do enjoy reading the RSC's posts on the Heidelblog, especially concerning QIRE.

__________________
Josiah Lovett
Member of
Trinity OPC
Bothell WA
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Westminster Standards

Anecdotally, I read Clark's RRC and Hart's Lost Soul of American Protestantism right before I presented a paper at a conference on the nature of religious belief this past April. Before (and esp. after) the conference I realized that these two books go to the heart of who we are as Reformed. You see, we have a fundamentally different way of defining ourselves and thinking about our identity qua-Reformed than most other believers (religious or non-), summed up in the concept of being "confessional." I discussed this to many professors of religion/theology and sociology of religion who do not come from such a tradition, and I found that they simply could not understand such self-identification by reference to a public document of propositional beliefs that has, in most cases, a clear interpretation. My friend (also an OPC member who hold an MDiv from RTS) asked a question about the future of such confessional self-understanding and scholarship in the academic world at this conference, and I said (much to the frustration of many there) that it has a dismal future in many departments because most people have no categories whatsoever to understand such confessional believers, and they must redescribe and ultimately misrepresent believers like me (/us) (in postmodern, narrative, or whatever terminology happens to be popular).

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Patrick
Covenant (OPC), Brighton, MI

Josiah,

As much as I would like you to own the book I would rather have you read it for free than not read it!

You can order a copy for free via inter-library loan from a public or school library. If you are a student in a school you may ask your library to do it or you may go to your local public library and ask them to order it for you. This service (may be reduced because of the financial crisis) is tax-funded and is usually free or inexpensive.

You might also ask your church librarian to order a copy or ask your local library to order and shelve a copy.

Best,

rsc

-----Added 4/20/2009 at 02:52:02 EST-----

Hi Sara,

I understand your reluctance, but what would you say if you learned that the singing of uninspired hymns wasn't a part of the Reformation and that the practice only began when we began to lose our way?

I understand that most people do not now worship in the same way we did from c. 1530-1789 but we should not assume that the way we worship now is necessarily correct or the way it's always been done.

The book isn't really all about what we sing in worship. The book is about how we define the adjective "Reformed." Are there as many definitions as there are definers?

I hope you'll give it a read.

rsc

__________________
R. Scott Clark, D.Phil
Westminster Seminary California
Associate Pastor, Oceanside URC
The Heidelcast Podcast
The Heidelblog
Office Hours Podcast

There's an interesting critique of the book by Paul Manata here at Triablogue.

BTW, when I ponder the title of this book I think of the American Church moving back to the original text of the Westminster and Belgic Confessions.

__________________
Tom Albrecht
Elder, Covenant URCNA, New Holland, PA.

"When I find the time, I'm going to write the social history of bourbon."

Personally, I think this book is one of the most important books to come out in a long time. It should be required reading for every pastor/elder or seminary student.

The current "Reformed" world seems to have a very selective memory of its own history, especially its confessions. I fall into that category as well since I have only recently been convinced of exclusive Psalmody. Dr. Clark was helpful in bringing me over to that position.

Thanks Dr. Clark for your amazing work!!!

__________________
Rev. Mark Koller, (RPCGA), North Little Rock, AR
Assistant Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church (ARP), Heber Springs, AR
Th.M. student, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

If you are interested in an Exclusive Psalmody church plant in the Mid-South, contact me.

www.dailyreformation.wordpress.com

Wow that sounds good. I also think many are seeking to be "right" so they can do it right, and thus miss doing it right, which is in liberty and not by a rule, but by drawing close to the Lord and having the Spirit convict and guide us and give us new desires to please God. forming Christ in us and conforming us to Christ.
Is this addressed at all?

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DonP

I have finally found it at a bookstore on this side on the pond that has it in stock and ordered a copy today. Can't wait for it to arrive.

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Andrea
Presbyterian, attending Baptist church
Perugia, Italy
Owner: federiformata.it

"Quos et vocavit nos non solum ex Iudæis sed etiam ex gentibus" (Rom. 9.24)

I've read it and I agree QIRE and QIRC helped explain a lot of things I've seen in reformed and the larger evangelical culture. I found his arguments on EP to be a bit lacking but that could have been due to the limited amount of space he had to write on it. Overall, it was a good read and something that I would recommend to others in the reformed camp.

__________________
Patricia
Communicant Member
Westminster Presbyterian Church, PCA
College Station, TX

Give yourself to prayer, to reading and meditation on divine truths: strive to penetrate to the bottom of them and never be content with a superficial knowledge.
David Brainerd

I have started it and greatly appreciate it so far.

__________________
Dennis E. McFadden, Ex Mainline Baptist (in Remission)
Atherton Baptist Homes, CEO
First Baptist Church of Alhambra, Member, Transformation Ministries (CA)

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

I welcome any book which encourages folk to take the reformed tradition seriously; but I have grave reservations when I read in this particular book that confessionally reformed teachings are to be regarded as a part of a quest for illegitimate certainty. Such "sociological" terms should be abandoned and the question of biblical warrant for holding these positions should be discussed on its own merits.

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Yours sincerely,


"Illum oportet crescere me autem minui."

Can you clarify or puts some quotes in.

Is he saying the Confession would be an illegitimate way to have certainty of what is right or truth?

I wrote PM him and asked if he addresses strict subscription, he said yes but didn't say which side he fell on. What does he say about this?

Comments from Paul Manata's critique:

Leaving aside the methodological difficulties associated with "biblicism" and "rationalism," the main problem is that Dr. Clark is presenting his own peculiar preferences in the reformed tradition as the reformed tradition itself. The days of creation is a blatant problem. It is there in black and white. This cannot be denied, and therefore the book attempts to explain it away. He makes a passing criticism of the reformation idea of a "standard" translation of the Bible. The concept of "Christendom" is dismissed wholesale as a mistake, even though it is maintained by every reformed confession and by means of it the reformed movement was able to exercise such an influence in society as led to the formation of the great tradition Dr Clark is both recommending and revising. While I sympathise with the book's criticism of revivalism, it is painful to hear that well attested and accepted movements like the Great Awakening is to be condemned as another quest for illegitimate certainty. Revivals are manifestations of religious principles, and should be tested according to the teaching which they promote, not outrightly rejected as if all religious experience is spurious. Lastly, the section on confessional revision is somewhat simplistic in its presentation. It fails to acknowledge that reformation confessions were rewritten specifically to foster broader religious unity. They were not revised for the purpose of validating the latest theological fad, but to form provincial, national, and international ties with brethren of the same mind. But the book has some very strong points as well. Foremost is the reformed view of the church and its worship which is presented in it. At last somebody in the academic establishment is willing to voice concerns over the anarchy which prevails in many denominations springing from the reformed tradition. I pray this concern is fostered and leads to a thorough reformation.

I agree. Too many in the Reformed community have lost their way with regard to confessional fidelity. Even in my seminary days, I remember getting into a heated discussion in the break room one day over how many "exceptions" he was to take to the WCF. And we have a steady stream of works coming from within the Reformed community that are written contra-confessionally. I am only about 1/3 of the way through the book, but it seems to be a good antidote to such drifting away from our Reformed Standards.

__________________
Tim Phillips
Pastor, Midlane Park Presbyterian Church (ARP)
Louisville, KY
Husband of Scottish Lass
My Blog: Gairney Bridge
My Facebook/My Avatar

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

"Wherever the gospel is preached, it is as if God Himself came into the midst of us." ~ John Calvin

Clark ment that people use 6/24 creation as a boundry marker of who is reformed, and not that the belief in 6/24 creation is QIRCy.

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Richard Kairelis
Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCNA (Prarie View, IL)
Chicago, IL

I realize the thread is a few weeks old, but I was able to go through this book again a few days ago; and--while there is certainly room to differ from the author on the application of some of the principles, especially for those coming from a more Scottish Presbyterian background--I can think of few better resources out there for introducing more mainline friends and colleagues to the meaning of Confessionalism. The book is accessible, clear, easy to read and presents well the importance, virtue and benefit of being confessional, along with giving an historical framework in which to understand this topic. I would highly recommend giving this to friends and family who aren't quite sure what you mean when you claim to be "Confessional," especially those who see our worship practices as strange and novel.

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Paul Korte
OPC
Flint, MI

They who perceive in themselves discoveries of the divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines, by which the very grace they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown into the shade. --John Calvin

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In the latest Ordained Servant is a review by Rev. Alan Strange of Mid-America Reformed Seminary:

Ordained Servant

Summary line from the review:

<i>The restoration that we need is not to be had by the sort of blueprint that Clark would impose on the church. </i>

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Mark Van Der Molen
Immanuel URC
DeMotte, Indiana

Thanks to the kind invitation of the editor, a response is forthcoming next month. Let's just say that the author does not recognize his own book in the review.

Recent Reviews of RRC Heidelblog

Shaun Nolan and Matt Bohling give the book a somewhat more positive review on their Ordinary Means podcast this month:
The Books Podcast Ordinary Means

You can see links to other reviews here: (not all the posts under this heading are reviews but many are)

Recovering The Reformed Confession — Blogs, Pictures, and more on WordPress

Just ordered a copy via inner-library loan.

__________________
J. P. Grigoletti II * Lay-man * Église Réformée du Québec
Québec, Québec Canada * Member: Église Reformée St. Marc
http://Grigoletti.blogspot.com - blog
<<There are three things necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily: the first, how great your sins and miseries are; the second, how thou may be delivered from all thy sins and miseries; the third, how thou shall express thy gratitude to God for such deliverance.>>

This review seemed a bit overly negative. I agree with many of the negative points he made, but found quite a few positive points in RRC as well.

I find myself in general agreement with the sentiments expressed by Triablogue, Rev. Strange, and Rev. Winzer. The QIRC and (to a lesser extent) QIRE labels are poor choices. You can't know whether six-day creation is a quest for illegitimate certainty without knowing two things -

1) God's intention in giving Genesis 1
2) a person reached the 6/24 position through an a priori method.

#1 is essentially begging the question, since your perception of what God intended to communicate is determined by your position on the passage. #2 would require knowing that a person reached the 6/24 position through the a priori proposition "Genesis 1 must teach the exact timing of the creation." In reality, every 6/24 I have met holds their position based on a posteriori engagement with the passage. Thus, on both counts, Clark fails to prove a QIRC. Similar issues plague the other examples. I also think his archetypal/ectypal distinction, though true, is overblown in connection to the QIRC. However, that doesn't make his conclusions invalid. I just would have appreciated a more neutral (honest) label, such as "Things that are wrong in Reformed theology."

As far as QIRE goes, I think he has a stronger case for the category, although what he puts in there is open to question.

Overall, I thought the book was helpful to my learning. It certainly helped me think through my confessional identity and theology of worship (I find it interesting that Catholics have an explicit category "liturgical theology" but we don't). It exposed me to a different viewpoint on the American Awakenings and the role of the means of grace. I found it stylistically appropriate, neither condescending nor obscure; it is an engaging read.

__________________
Charlie Johnson
Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, student

I recently ordered my copy of RRC and I cant Waite to read it!

Actually, the review was quite charitable. Note that there was much more critique of Clark's misrepresentation of Edwards that Strange did not lay out due to space limitations. Based on my own reading, I can see it would take quite a few pages to do a detailed unraveling of what was constructed on that topic.

I got mine yesterday!

__________________
Gil Garcia
Rehoboth Reformed Church (RCUS)
La Habra, CA

"Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity." - Calvin's successor


"By the words of the law man is admonished and taught, not what he can do, but what he ought to do. How is it that you theologians are twice as stupid as schoolboys, in that as soon as you get hold of a single imperative verb you infer an indicative meaning...?"
-Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will

Recent Reviews of RRC Heidelblog

Yes, posting Sebastian's reply is self-serving--mea culpa--but he did a better job of responding than I did:

I have reviewed the book here. I don't wish my minor disagreements with Scott to cloud the value of the book, which I think is tremendous. On the issue of a literal 6/24 creation week, I do think there are those who would illegitimately disband people from the church for not believing it. I believe in 6/24 creation week, and do not think that the belief itself is QIRC. But then, I don't think that is what Clark is saying, either. It is not the belief itself that Clark attacks, but a certain way that belief is being (ab)used in the church today. I do think it ought to be listed as an exception to the Westminster Standards, because the standards clearly teach it. I also think Clark may have been a bit harsh on Jonathan Edwards. I don't agree with everything Edwards said, but his treatise on Religious Affections was designed to combat the very tendencies that Clark rails against in QIRE, in my opinion. These two areas should not diminish, however, the great value the book has, especially in clearly setting forth what a confessional church ought to look like.

__________________
Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
http://brahmsgreenglove.blogspot.com
http://accenttranslation.blogspot.com
Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

So, does this mean that review is something that gives him second thoughts about what he has read?

__________________
Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
Board Rules - Signature Rules - Suggestion Box

It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

I'm working on a review documenting the misrepresentations of Edwards, which I hope to complete in the near future. I picked up on what Lane mentioned here, that the Treatise on Religious Affections runs directly contrary to Clark's lumping Edwards into sundry nefarious categories. When I was reading RRC{sic}, I seriously questioned whether Clark had even read the book.

Before you start blasting with all guns Mark, be sure to read Marsden's biography.

-----Added 6/5/2009 at 01:50:51 EST-----

Lane,

Was Hodge "harsh" toward Edwards? He wrote about Edwards:

"according to the theory of continued creation there is and can be no created substance in the universe. God is the only substance in the universe.”45 He concluded, this “doctrine, therefore, in its consequences, is essentially pantheistic.”

I found Iain Murray's biography of Edwards to be much more balanced and one that men like Mark Noll found to be much more "of Edwards" than Marsden's.

__________________
Benjamin P. Glaser, M. Div, Licentiate, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
Member Fairmount ARP Church
Pittsburgh, PA

Deo Vindice

[QUOTE=R. Scott Clark;631185]Before you start blasting with all guns Mark, be sure to read Marsden's biography.[QUOTE]

No guns will be necessary, Scott. Edwards can easily defend himself.

And yes, I have read Marsden's biography, as well as Murray's.

Well, I certainly would not agree with Edwards in his doctrine of continued creation. Hodge was right in saying that Edwards's doctrine was essentially pantheistic in its consequences. I think that is an important modifier, however. Hodge is not claiming that Edwards thought of his own doctrine as pantheistic. Even on Hodge's own reading of Edwards, Edwards thought of God as the only true substance and the world as having a dependent existence (see Hodge, ST II, p. 218). Let me ask you this, though, Scott (and this is a genuine question, not a snarky one): what exactly do you think is the relevance of Edwards's view of continued creation, on the one hand, to the Great Awakening, on the other (and by implication QIRE)? And does Edwards have anything to say about what you call QIRE in his book Religious Affections?

Indeed. While some may accuse Murray's biography of falling into a "Golden Age" representation of persons and events, I found that Marsden often fell off to the other side (which for some reason seems to be more respectable in our circles) of trying to please the academy and standing a little too detached from what should be the acknowledged and impacting reality of Christian truth in a biography that necessarily interacts not just with a man's theology and life on an academic level, but with the reality of his faith in Christ.

It's of the same cloth as McCulloch's work on Cranmer. Measured, informative, but ultimately devoid of any real Christian warmth (at least until McCullochs final chapter). And, no, I don't believe that it is good historical practice to try and separate our Christian faith from our understanding of history; secularists certainly don't chuck their atheism and existentialism/nihilism/etc when composing their own works.

__________________
Adam J. Myer
Slated for the Jan. 10th Chaplains Basic Officer Leadership Course
Estacada Christian Church
Sandy, Oregon

Soli Deo Gloria

Lane,

My point wasn't to set fire to St Jonathan but to call attention to the uncomfortable aspects of his theology and their connection with the 1GA and to the subsequent tradition. The point of that move is to suggest that perhaps (just perhaps!) Edwards is not the paradigm for the way forward.

I tried to point the ontological turn marked by his theology. One way to put it is that it marked a turn from Aristotle (17th-century Reformed orthodoxy) to Plato. As I re-read him, after reading Schleiermacher and others, I found him to anticipate aspects of Romanticism (subjectivism) that have continued to influence Reformed piety in the modern period. This is highly problematic and the neo-Platonic aspects of his thought have been downplayed because it doesn't fit the prevailing myth of Edwards circulated among orthodox Calvinists. The ontological turn is not innocent. In all likelihood it is organically connected to the problems with his doctrine of justification. One cannot utterly divorce Edwards from the more problematic side of his theological/intellectual family tree (New Haven).

We can and must appreciate Edwards but we should read him critically. Typically, in my experience, this is not the way he is read in our circles.

I also wanted to issue an implicit caution about the renewed enthusiasm for all things Edwardsean represented by the Desiring God movement. I'm concerned about the long-term effect of "Christian hedonism." I'm concerned about the effect it will have on ordinary means (i.e. Word and sacrament) ministry. I'm concerned that it moves the Christian life away from dying to self and living to Christ, away from the realism of the Reformed confessions to the idealism of Cambridge Platonism and other pantheizing tendencies. I'm concerned about the quasi-Pentecostal piety I see among those who seem most devoted to Edwards. I'm concerned about an over-realized eschatology. I'm concerned about a theology of glory.

I realize that, for those who are not in touch with the academic literature on Edwards, some of what I wrote might be a little shocking. Before folk fly into a rage over my criticisms of some aspects of the 1GA (which was really the point of the chapter) they ought to read some of the lit for themselves.

The real point of the QIRE chapter is to take issue with the revival paradigm, to challenge the notion that it's possible to separate cleanly revivalism from revival. I worry about folk sitting about praying for revival or worse, for making the next "Great Awakening" the be all and end all of the Christian life instead of getting on with the Christian life in the here and now. I worry about the effect of a mythological, golden-age history of the 18th-century which bears little relation to the history as historians know it.