What does it mean to be confessional?

[ReadBavinck]

Does anyone know of some lectures or literature that answers this question?

I realize that the confessions are, of course the place to start. But I'm looking more for the implications of what it means to be confessional, how old the term and idea 'confessional' is, different theories of subsription, etc.

Here's what I've got so far:
- some posts here on the PB
- The Nicotine Theological Journal (and other D.G. Hart stuff)
- Recovering the Reformed Confession Conference, R. Scott Clark (I haven't listened to this yet.)
- Confessing the Reformed Faith: Our Identity in Unity and Diversity, Richard A. Muller

[Edited on 10-17-2006 by CJ_Chelpka]

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Samuel Miller, The Vows of Teaching and Ruling Elders
http://www.pcahistory.org/documents/subscription/smiller.html

 

[beej6]

I'm slowly working my way through the compilation by David Hall, _The Practice of Confessional Subscription_.

 

[R. Scott Clark]

See these references from this bibliography

D. G. Hart. The Lost Soul of American Protestantism. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

--"J. Gresham Machen: Confessionalism and the History of American Presbyterianism," The Practical Calvinist: An Introduction to the Presbyterian and Reformed Heritage in Honor of Dr. D. Clair Davis, ed. Peter A. Lillback (Ross-Shire, UK: Mentor, 2002).

Morton H. Smith. The Subscription Debate. Greenville, SC: Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, n.d.

Samuel Miller. Doctrinal Integrity: On the Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions and Our Adherence to Doctrinal Standards. Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1989.

David W. Hall. ed. The Practice of Confessional Subscription. Lanham: University Press of America, 1995.

J. Gresham Machen. "Creeds and Doctrinal Advance." in God Transcendent and Other Sermons, ed. N. B. Stonehouse. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949.

John Murray. "Tradition Romish and Protestant," in Collected Writings of John Murray, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976-1982), 4.264-273.

--"A Notable Tercentenary." in Collected Writings of John Murray, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976-1982), 1.312-315.

David F. Coffin, Jr., "The Justification of Confessions and the Logic of Confessional Subscription," The Practical Calvinist: An Introduction to the Presbyterian and Reformed Heritage in Honor of Dr. D. Clair Davis, ed. Peter A. Lillback (Ross-Shire, UK: Mentor, 2002).

In brief, to be confessional is to use the confessions as they were intended to be used, as the public, ecclesiastically sanctioned measure of the boundaries of the Reformed faith. It is a way of thinking. It is the Reformed trivium, i.e., it is the Reformed grammar (the "stuff," building blocks), logic (way of thinking), and rhetoric (way of speaking).

They are not the "be all and end all" of Reformed theology. There is more to be said than is said in them, having digested their way of thinking, reading Scripture, their theology, piety, and praxis, one is on way toward becoming Reformed. Without them, there may be occasional happy intersections with Reformed theology, piety, and practice, but that's all.

rsc

 

[Arch2k]

I would recommend reading [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Recovering-Mother-Kirk-G-Hart/dp/0801026156]Recovering Mother Kirk[/ame] and even more to the point (although more scholarly) [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Soul-American-Protestantism/dp/0742507696]The Lost Soul of American Protestantism[/ame] both by D.G. Hart. Both provide an examination of historic reformed thought in regards to confessionalism vs. great awakening systems.

Also, you might consider What is Meant by Adopting the Westminster Confession? by Charles Hodge.

 

[ReadBavinck]

Originally posted by R. Scott Clark

It is a way of thinking. It is the Reformed trivium, i.e., it is the Reformed grammar (the "stuff," building blocks), logic (way of thinking), and rhetoric (way of speaking).


rsc

Has anyone else spoken of confessionalism this way?

 

[R. Scott Clark]

Not to my knowledge. I suggested it in this essay.

rsc

[Edited on 10-18-2006 by R. Scott Clark]