Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 82:1 (Spring 2020)
Article: Reformed And Catholic? Assessing Nevin And Bavinck As Resources For Reformed Catholicity
Author: C. Ryan Fields

WTJ 82:1 (Spring 2020) p. 77

Reformed And Catholic?
Assessing Nevin And Bavinck As Resources For
Reformed Catholicity

C. Ryan Fields

C. Ryan Fields is a PhD candidate in theological studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, is ordained in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), and aspires to serve the church as a pastor-theologian.

Allen and Swain have made a somewhat eyebrow-raising proposal in their book Reformed Catholicity (2015): to be Reformed and catholic is not a contradiction in terms. Indeed, they insist that the Reformed tradition has always understood itself as a particular tradition within, rather than antithetical to or strictly identical with, the broader catholic church. It is thus particularly suited to forward the recent ressourcement trend in theology and deliver on the “promise of retrieval” for the sake of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. But, as they acknowledge, there’s a fly in the ointment of the American Reformed heritage in this regard: their nearest theological forebears, the Old Princetonians of Hodge and Warfield, were, at best, ambivalent about catholicity and tradition and, at worst, strongly opposed to these for fear they will trump biblical authority or distort its message. If Allen and Swain’s claim that catholicity is consistent with the best of the Reformed heritage is to be substantiated, other theologians than the Princetonians will need to be brought forth as evidence. This article argues that John Williamson Nevin (1803–1886) and Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) represent potentially fruitful resources for just such an enterprise. Though operating in distinct contexts and exhibiting differing theological impulses, both nineteenth-century theologians demonstrate a doctrine of catholicity and a catholicity of doctrine and practice that could inform a “Reformed catholicity” of the kind Allen and Swain promote. While both theologians are worthwhile to retrieve, after examining their historical and theological contexts and assessing their doctrine of catholicity and their catholicity of doctrine and practice I argue that Bavinck ultimately provides the superior resource in light of his more consistent identification with the Reformed tradition and his ecclesiological convictions (and their attendant notions of catholicity) that better align with the Reformed heritage.

WTJ 82:1 (Spring 2020) p. 78

Michael Allen and Scott Swain have made a modest proposal: to be Reformed and catholic1 is not a contradiction in terms. In their Reformed Catholicity (2015) they insist that the Reformed tradition has much to commend it as one which has always understood itself as a particular tradition within, rather than antithetical to o...