Always Reforming is Now! The Church must reform again

The Church is in desperate need of Reform. Which direction should we go? Rediscovering doctrines of the past? Reforming our doctrines for a new era? There is a lot of disagreement about what is needed. I argue that we must do both.  

The motto of the Presbyterian Church USA is "Ecclesia Reformata Semper Reformanda" which is Latin for "The Church reformed, always reforming." Which has been quoted in different forms and cherished by Reformed Christians since the Dutch theologian Jodocus van Lodenstein wrote it in the 1670s. Swiss theologian Karl Barth revived and popularized the term in 1947 harkening back to St. Augustine. But that's where the agreement ends. 

Conservative Presbyterians see it as reexamining and seeking doctrinal purity, confirming the long-held myth that the Reformation was primarily about recapturing a long-lost purity in the church that  Catholics had corrupted. 

Conversely, most PCUSA people see it as a natural part of the ongoing revelation of the church and that God brings us to new understandings of the Gospel. This is most clearly exhibited in the nearly 300-year gap between the Westminster Standards of 1649 and the 20th-century confessions. I ask what happened in that 300 years? And why were attempts for a new confession rejected? I describe why this is particularly important now. The last century from the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the wholehearted evangelical Christian embrace of right-wing nationalism in our era shows that the church is in desperate need of reform again. 

#refomed #reformation #semperreformanda #karlbarth #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa