When I teach about Reformed theology, I often start by showing a pyramid of three layers. Like that one on the far end of the row of Queens Pyramids at Giza. Just picture the bottom layer a lot thicker.
The big foundation layer is core Christian teachings —
- Things like our understanding of God — the One God is eternally three Persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit.
- Things like our understanding of Jesus as one person with two natures — truly human and truly God.
These are things that Reformed Christians teach, and hopefully believe. They are also taught and believed by the Orthodox, the Catholic, and any other ordinary flavor of Christian.
That is, these things are genuinely Reformed theology, but there is nothing uniquely Reformed about them.
The slightly smaller layer in the middle is the key emphases that emerged in the 16th century Reformation.
- Things like our understanding that salvation, our justification before God, comes in Christ alone, by God’s grace alone, and is received by faith alone.
- Things like our emphasis on grounding doctrinal teaching in Scripture alone.
These too are things that Reformed Christians teach, and hopefully believe. They are also taught by Lutherans and by many other traditions that trace their roots to the Reformation. But in these issues both Reformed and Lutheran Protestants found themselves set apart from the teachings of Roman Catholicism.
These teachings were the markers of the birth of Protestant faith — or of the greatest schism in the Western Church, depending on how you want to think about it.
Anyway, these too, then, are genuinely Reformed theology, but not quite uniquely Reformed. These are specifically Protestant emphases.
Then comes the tippy-top point of the pyramid. These are the issues on which Reformed Christians tend to have really distinct emphases.
- Things like our belief that God chooses us, rather than the other way around — the doctrine of election.
- Things like our understanding of God’s sovereign reign and its influence on everything that happens — the doctrine of providence.
- Things like our understanding of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism — more on these in future posts.
We don’t claim that we are the only ones to teach about these things. But we tend to have views on these things that set us apart from even other Protestants. Our views about these things have actually been quite important to the way we live the faith on a daily basis.
This provides a little context to make sense of the fact that the Heidelberg Catechism, that venerable 1563 summary of Biblical Christianity from a Reformed perspective on which I post so irrepressibly, includes another theological summary that shaped Catholic faith throughout the Middle Ages: The Apostles’ Creed.
23 Q. What are these articles?
A. I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Catechism affirms this text, which has roots all the way back to the early 3rd century, and was used to teach the faith to every Catholic kid coming up for Confirmation for a thousand years, give or take.
It is Catholic theology. It is also Reformed theology. We think of it as an excellent summary of what Scripture teaches about God and how salvation comes to us.
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I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What topics or themes do you think best characterize Reformed theology? And how do those topics or themes influence your Christian faith and life?
I’m going to comment to practice for when class begins next week! 😉
You asked, “And how do those topics or themes influence your Christian faith and life?”
That’s a very good question. I’ll answer in this way:
I’ve never thought about denominationalism as a pyramid. The first layer being what we all have in common, the next layer placing one’s denomination in its ‘family,’ and then the top being one’s particular denomination (in your case, you were discussing Reformed churches). Each of these topics you mentioned come into play a lot in my ministry. I do a lot of ecumenical work in our community, so I always try to be aware of what topics I share with others (the bottom layer of the pyramid), and what topics are on the top of the pyramid. I need to be aware of all levels so that I can both discuss common ground, and articulate how my church may differ from the church of the person with whom I’m speaking.
To play off of your pyramid idea a bit, I think it would be interesting if each denomination built their own pyramid based on what theological topics they believe to be important (and, thus, should be shared among all Christians), versus what topics they believe are less important (and therefore at the top of the pyramid). In this scenario, I’m not sure we all would have common foundations. For example, the Orthodox might place the idea of the One Body in Christ (as lived out through the Eucharist) on the bottom, but because this idea is not universally shared among Christians of other denominations, it may get placed at the top of others pyramids.
This opens up another way of thinking about “core” doctrines.
Just some thoughts…
Thanks Fr. Dustin. (I was thinking of you when I picked an archaeological site for the pic.)
I suppose it is a question of whether one builds the pyramid prescriptively or descriptively.
Your final example sounds more prescriptive: Organic and Eucharistic unity are seen as essential, and therefore ought to be in the foundation.
My post is more descriptive: Trinity and Christology are doctrines actually shared broadly.
Dr. Hansen, the more I study in your class the more I ask myself how many folks who say they know what reformed theology is all about, really knows what it is about. I know personally I seem to be learning each time I open a page…..I feel a call to share this with others in my church, maybe in a sunday school setting, thank you for the pyramid approach, and I agree with the other blogger (dustin), that it would be interesting to see what other faiths’ pyramid’s would look like.