Much of what passes as Reformed among our churches is not. As a class of churches that profess allegiance to Reformed theology, practice, and piety, we have drifted from our moorings. This book is written to facilitate change, specifically reformation according to God's Word as summarized in the Reformed confessions.
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About the Author
R. Scott Clark, D.Phil., (University of Oxford) is Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary California, where he has taught since 1997. He is the author of Caspar Olevian and the Substance of the Covenant: The Double Benefit of Christ (2005), editor of and contributor to Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California (2007), and co-editor of and contributor to Protestant Scholasticism: Essays in Reassessment (1999). He is Associate Pastor of Oceanside United Reformed Church
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fog Horn for Reformed and Presbyterian Churches,
By
This review is from: Recovering the Reformed Confession (Paperback)
What is a confessional Reformed/Presbyterian church? What is Reformed theology? Piety? Practice? In a clear, concise, and cogent manner, Scott Clark answers these questions in Recovering the Reformed Confession. The book is valuable because in it, Clark demonstrates the qualities of a good historian and a good theologian: he calls a thing what it is. He has done his homework in patristics, medieval theology, reformation theology, post-reformation orthodoxy, the rise of pietism, and the present day Christian church landscape in the U.S. Using these insights, Clark explains some of the main points of what it means - and what it does not mean - to be confessional today.
The book is sort of like a fog-horn. It is the loud noise that cuts through the fog that has settled on many Reformed/Presbyterian churches in the last 50-100 years. Because it does cut, some may not like this book as Clark evaluates the contemporary church situation using a historical/theological Reformed lens. One may also compare this book to a doctor's office: Clark sets today's Reformed/Presbyterian church on the table, tests it, prods it, pokes it, and makes a diagnosis. Not only does he give a diagnosis (the first half of the book), he also gives a prescription (in the second half of the book). Or, in his own terms, the book is structured in a law/gospel fashion - itself a clue that Clark is working with classic Reformed distinctions. More specifically, the first half of the book is called "The Crisis." In it (pages 39-116), Clark diagnosis the two main problems in today's Reformed/Presbyterian churches: the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Certainty (the quest to know God in ways he has not revealed and to achieve epistemic and moral certainty on questions where this certainty is neither possible nor desirable - p. 39) and the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Experience (modern day pietism mixed with mysticism, religious experience, introspection, subjectivism, and the longing to experience God on higher levels than ever before - p 73-5). The second half of the book is called "The Recovery" (pages 119-342). In this section, he sets out the traditional Reformed theological distinctions of analogical/ectypal knowledge of God, the finite cannot comprehend/contain the infinite, the distinction between Creator/creature, the covenants (redemption, works, and grace), confessional subscription, and so forth. Clark also writes about the joy of being confessional, how it is biblical, catholic (universal), vital, evangelical (in the Reformation sense of the term), and churchly. The last few chapters are those which may cause some readers to pause because he dives into the topic that always brings out the boxing gloves: worship. Here Clark talks about the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW) - its history, confessional status, and modern day revisions of it. He talks about singing inspired songs and psalms; he discusses liturgy, the second service on the Lord's Day, and of course the means of grace. I'm almost certain that some will react very negatively to this book because of Clark's appraisal (the prodding/poking language above) and prescription for Reformed/Presbyterian churches, specifically in the area of worship. Yet I encourage the reader not to miss the forest for the trees: Clark is an accurate historian and theologian, and his discussions of church history and theology cannot be dismissed without dismissing what our Reformed/Presbyterian forefathers taught and preached. He basically and in a systematic fashion says: this is what the historic Reformed church taught as they exegeted Scripture and here's how it applies today. If you want to dig deeply into confessional reformation orthodoxy and worship, you'll want this book on your shelves, even if it prods you and pokes you as you read it!
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eat This Book,
This review is from: Recovering the Reformed Confession (Paperback)
For those of us evangelical-exiles who may have come to the Reformation with nothing but the shirt on our backs and a few bucks to spare, it is hard to know where to begin when considering R. Scott Clark's most recent publication, Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice.
It might help to start at the beginning of Part 1. I can recall years ago getting an odd sense in my newfound Reformed environs that something was not quite right. I was intuiting that as I had come in the front door that plenty were smuggling their way out the back, down the street to the Evangelical fiesta I just come from and returning with their plunder (some never even returning) only to present it as Reformed. But I had seen that plunder before and it was precisely what I didn't want, no matter how re-packaged in the term "Reformed" it came. So ever since I heard Clark characterize Reformed narcissism ("I am Reformed; I think/say/do x; therefore x is Reformed") I knew he was on to something. It turned out that Reformed narcissism is really a subset of a larger diagnosis, what Clark describes as the QIRC (quest for illegitimate certainty) and the QIRE (quest for illegitimate experience). On these two laws hang all the law and prophets of modernity. Everything that ails the contemporary scene flows out from there. And lest we Reformed think we are magically hedged in from the laws of modernity and fall prey to the siren song of Reformed narcissism, Clarks book serves as a sober reminder that, like sin itself, these things are equal opportunity afflictions and absolutely nobody is immune. While plenty can be and is said about it, the three most visible manifestations of QIRC are 6/24 creation as a boundary marker, theonomy/reconstructionism and covenant moralism (AKA the Federal Vision). To the extent that these characterize much of the wrangling in Reformed and Presbyterian enclaves it points up not only how much of the narcissism abides but, just as much, how the touchstone of the Reformed confessions. Clark may not gain many friends with his critique of the greatest theologian American ever produced. But the fact that he has the grit to raise his hand in Jonathon Edwards' classroom and ask what some have been thinking about the First Great Awakening, but have been too timid to pipe up, it may go further to influence people and for the better. This is perhaps the bravest and riskiest part of the book, and I think it pays off. There may be some odd comfort in knowing that Reformed theology, piety and practice didn't just recently fall on hard times but began being assaulted ever since Whitefield landed and Edwards "...gave himself the nearly impossible task of trying to delineate proper religious experience from improper religious experience." Whatever might lost by suggesting at least some of the beginnings of the QIRE with Edwards is made up for by then delineating just what a truer Reformed devotion is; despite the oxymoronic charges of "dead orthodoxy" (how can truth die?), there is indeed a piety resident within confessional orthodoxy. Like the gospel itself, though, it just doesn't look the way we'd expect. If diagnosing the problem comes easy then prescriptions for recovery can show us what we're really made of. And, as Clark shows, this has a lot to do with worship. Worship, after all, is both the expression and perpetuation of a theology. Its genius is in its inclusively: learned and unlearned can, may and should participate. Calvin himself placed the reformation of worship ahead of certain doctrinal formulation. As a good Reformed confessionalist, Clark gets that. Most may take exception, for example, to his exclusive psalmody, but his arguments leave little room for hedging. And the case for the second service won't fare much better and is sure to cause some grumblings. But something tells me that is part of the point. Nevertheless, as compelling as they are, it would be a mistake to get too distracted with these arguments since the greater balance of Part 2 (the Recovery) takes up more broadly what it should look like amongst those convinced of the preceding case. If it is cliché to suggest that any particular book is "one of the most important books to read" for any who would that the Reformed tradition be recovered in our time then I have never been so satisfied to be this pat. It remains to be seen what impact voices like Clark's will have on the broader Reformed community. But whether you are a Reformed pastor, elder or interested layman, buy this book and eat it.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Antidote to Non-Denominational Pop Calvinism,
By Reader (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Recovering the Reformed Confession (Paperback)
The "New Calvinists" need to read this book. I was recently reading a reaction to Time magazine's discussion of the "New Calvinism" by one of its darlings, Mark Driscoll, whom so many of the Reformed stars seem to have embraced so warmly and wholeheartedly (one wonders if he were an inerrantist Arminian who held to male headship if he would be given such a pass. He argues, among other things, that "New Calvinism" = Charismatic Calvinism. The New Calvinists need to read this book. It will challenge them to think in holistic terms of faith and practice. The emerging church embraces postmodern faith and practice, the New Calvinists embrace Reformed faith but postmodern practice. This book boldly calls us to be full-bodied in our Reformed identity. It calls people away from a divided field of knowledge in which one can have our correct, Reformed systematic theology straight but ignore Reformed practice that is a natural outgrowth of Reformed faith. May there be more young Calvinists who will embrace the Clark's truly post-modern approach, which provides an alternative to the modernity-saturated practice of the New Calvinists.
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