Canadian Calvinists Help to Overcome Intolerance against Muslims: Dutch Reformed Theology behind a Pluralist Worldview

This paper presents a case study of the dialogue groups organized by the members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) to hold dialogue with Muslims in Canada. Being profoundly influenced by Dutch neo-Calvinist theology, members of CRCNA promote an idea of confessional plurality, which has resulted in building relationships with Muslim communities. This study is based on fifteen interviews with participants of several Reformed Christian-Muslim groups, a content analysis of mass and social media and a variety of theological documents. Our findings show that these interfaith meetings help develop cohesive neighbourhoods and communities which facilitate new Muslim immigrants’ settlement and adjustment in Canada. This paper also points out the opportunities for further fruitful interfaith cooperation, both in the social and political spheres. However, some of the research participants are challenged with distinguishing missionary work and dialogue, which might undermine the work of the community in building bridges between Reformed Christians and Muslims.

“Let the little children come”: Liturgical Revision and Paedocommunion in the Christian Reformed Church

This article examines the Lord’s Supper liturgies of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) and inquires into a possible relationship between liturgical changes and the admission of children to the Lord’s Supper. The stern warnings and emphasis on communicants’ understanding of the sacrament in the CRC’s oldest liturgies necessarily excluded children from participating in the sacrament. The 1968 Order for Communion was a milestone in the denomination’s liturgical growth. The absence of a preparatory exhortation and lengthy exposition provide a liturgy which can imagine children participating in the Lord’s Supper. An increasing emphasis on communicants’ communion with one another, evident in the 1981 Service of Word and Sacrament and the formularies adopted by Synods 1994 and 2016 may have helped facilitate the denomination’s acceptance of paedocommunion.

Infant Baptism: God’s Promise or Ours?

This article examines the baptism liturgies of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). It argues that parental promises eclipse the promise of God in the practice of baptism in the CRC. A discernible shift from an emphasis on God’s promise in the CRC’s oldest liturgy to an increasing emphasis on parental promises in the new liturgies adopted by Synods 1976 and 1994 is observed. Ambiguity about the meaning of baptism is evident in the CRC’s newest baptism liturgies, adopted by Synods 2013 and 2016. This article concludes that the denomination should adopt a new baptism liturgy in which parental promises are made only after the administration of their child’s baptism.

The The Church as diaconia. One view of the Reformed understanding of diaconia

The Church of John Calvin in Geneva is nowadays known as the beginning of the Reformed Church tradition. When we strive a general description of the central elements of the reformed view of deacons and their tasks of today (diaconia), which is the goal of this article, we have it difficult to define an adequate source for this information. In this article, we analyze the way of diaconal thinking, presented in the modern documents of one very mainstream Church in USA and Canada: The Christian Reformed Church in North America. As a result, we see how the Calvinistic way of understanding the Gospel lead to an understanding of the Church as Diaconia. However, there is some dogmatical tension, too.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION DURING THE FIRST CYCLE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN SERBIA

Religious education as part of the modern society in Serbia is a subject of numerous interdisciplinary scientific studies. Modern education systems in countries where major socio-economic and political changes take place are undergoing major transformations and reforms. Their goal is to make changes to the education process and integrate it into the developmental trends of society, as well as to succeed in the affirmation of cultural and national values. Therefore, the relationship between religion and education, as a form of human consciousness and the need for a successful and fulfilled life in a given society, is very important. Transition processes in Europe have actualized the issue of religion and religious education as an integral part of the teaching process, and have contributed to a more intensive study of these topics. Christianity is the predominant religion in Serbia, or Orthodoxy, to be more accurate. However, there are other religious communities as well, such as: Islamic, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc. In primary and secondary schools in Serbia, religious education is being taught as an optional subject (students are given a choice between civic education and religious education), which is assessed descriptively and not included in the final grade. During the first cycle of primary education, subjects that teach about a particular religion are the following: Orthodox catechism (religious education), Islamic religious education, Catholic religious education, Evangelical Lutheran religious education of the Slovak Evangelical Church, Religious Education of the Christian Reformed Church, Jewish religious education. In addition to religious education, subjects containing religious topics are also: Serbian language, Nature and Society, Music Education, Visual Arts, Folk Tradition. The correlation and the link among the above-mentioned objects will make religious education more meaningful and more interesting for children. The main goal of teaching religion as an integral part of school subjects during the first cycle of primary education in Serbia is the preservation of religion. Religion is a very old social phenomenon which has not lost its significance and topicality to this day; on the contrary, it is becoming more and more present in people’s lives, and it represents a system of ideas, beliefs and practices, a specific type of behavior towards the world, society, man, nature. As such, it is equally significant as art, science, philosophy, etc. Besides the preservation of religion, another goal of religious education is to familiarize children with a certain religion, to teach them the basic characteristics of that religion, to teach them prayers, the significance of liturgy, and the customs of the religion children are learning about. It is important to emphasize that religious teaching should be in a form of an open and tolerant dialogue, while respecting other people’s religious beliefs, in order for it to be meaningful and worthwhile.

Tugwaardige sondes in drie gereformeerde kerkordes

Sin which should be disciplined according to three church orders. The orders of three reformed churches, namely those of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Christian Reformed Church in North America and the Reformed Churches in South Africa have consensus about the need for an officially punishable sin to be of a public and offensive nature. The reason is that a sin must be openly against the Word of God and the confessions of the church. The approach of the church as an institution of faith carrying the love and righteousness of God, should be to maintain the spiritual nature of church discipline and to aim for the spiritual purpose of its discipline. Church discipline should be aimed at convincing the sinner and assuring church members of its desire to keep the demands of the Word and justice in tact.

Worship Wars, Gospel Hymns, and Cultural Engagement in American Evangelicalism, 1890–1940

This article argues that gospel hymnody was integral to the construction of modern evangelicalism. Through an analysis of the debate over worship music in three denominations, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Reformed Church in America, from 1890–1940, I reveal how worship music was essential to the negotiation between churchly tradition and practical faith, between institutional authority and popular choice that characterized the twentieth-century “liberal/conservative” divide. While seemingly innocuous, debates over the legitimacy of gospel hymns in congregational worship were a significant aspect of the increasing theological, social, and cultural divisions within denominations as well as between evangelicals more broadly. Gospel hymnody became representative of a newly respectable, nonsectarian, and populist evangelicalism that stressed individualized salvation and personal choice, often putting it at odds with doctrinal orthodoxy and church tradition. These songs fostered an imagined community of conservative evangelicals, one whose formation rested on personal choice and whose authority revolved around a network of nondenominational organizations rather than an institutional body. At the same time, denominational debates about gospel hymnody reveal the fluid nature of the conservative/liberal binary and the complicated relationship between evangelicalism and modernism generally. While characterizations of “liberal” and “conservative” tend to emphasize biblical interpretation, the inclusion of worship music and style complicates this narrow focus. As is evident through the case studies, denominations typically categorized as theologically liberal or conservative also incorporated both traditional and modern elements of worship.