Westminster Theological Journal: Editorial Aims and Procedures -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 53:1 (Spring 1991)
Article: Westminster Theological Journal: Editorial Aims and Procedures
Author: Anonymous


Westminster Theological Journal:
Editorial Aims and Procedures

I. General

The purpose of WTJ is to advance the cause of biblical and theological scholarship within a Reformed confessional framework. The first issue, published in 1938, stated the character and goals of the journal as follows:

The Journal is founded upon the conviction that the Holy Scriptures are the word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and of practice, and that the system of belief commonly designated the Reformed Faith is the purest and most consistent formulation and expression of the system of truth set forth in the Holy Scriptures….

We stand today in the Christian Church as debtors to nineteen centuries of Christian history, thought, and experience. It would not only be futile but wrong to try to dissociate ourselves from the great stream of Christian tradition….

But while we cling tenaciously to the heritage that comes to us from the past we must ever remember that it is our responsibility to present the Christian faith in the context of the present. The position we maintain, therefore, necessarily involves the bringing of every form of thought that may reasonably come within the purview of a theological Faculty to the touchstone of Holy Scripture and the defining of its relations to our Christian faith.

The initial editors then proceeded to describe the policy of the journal in these terms:

1. To maintain the highest standard of scholarship;

2. To publish contributions which will promote the study of theology and the interests of the Reformed Faith;

3. To publish reviews of current literature of importance to the Christian Church and to theological study.

The faculties of Westminster Theological Seminary and Westminster Theological Seminary in California continue to affirm these principles and to be guided by them in the production of WTJ. Accordingly, in the process of evaluating submissions the editors give preference to articles that

  • show a self-conscious Reformed perspective
  • have a specialist rather than a generalist orientation
  • seek to develop creative ideas rather than to summarize otherwise accessible views
  • are written according to scholarly rather than popular conventions

We recognize that an article need not possess all of these characteristics to be included in WTJ. Occasionally, for example, an essay that would not be regarded as original or specialized may perform a distinctive educational service by synthesizing previous research.

Our theological commitments, moreover, need not preclude the publication of pieces that fail to advance Reformed thought explicitly. We regard all truth as a friend of Calv...

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