Resources On The Doctrine Of The Church (Ecclesiology)

When one talks about the church what is at stake is the way in which the Christian life is organized. I believe that the Bible teaches us that believers should be united to the visible community of the redeemed meeting for worship, instruction, and fellowship in an organized, disciplined, way. If this is  wrong, then millions of dollars and millions of hours and lives are being sadly misspent.

Certainly there are strong individual elements to the Christian faith. No one else can believe for you. God does speak to individual hearts in His Word. He gives new life to individuals. The Bible, however, does not stop there: “it deals with man, not only as a solitary unit in his relation to God, but also as a member of a spiritual society, gathered together in the name of Jesus…not an accidental or voluntary union which has grown up of itself: it is a union designed beforehand, appointed from the beginning by God, and plainly contemplated and required in every page of the New Testament Scriptures.”

One of the strongest themes in Patristic and Medieval theology was the importance of the Church as a visible institution. The original evangelicals, i.e. the confessional Protestants of the sixteenth-century Reformation, were “a people of the book” and also a people of the church. American evangelicalism, however, has a mixed record on the doctrine of the Church. Though the church was still relatively important for most segments of evangelicalism through most of the 19th century, its importance was slipping. By the middle of this century, evangelicalism had virtually lost any notion of the church as a visible institution. It has not always been so. For the better part of Christian history, the doctrine of the Church has been considered a central part of the Christian confession.

The Apostles’ Creed says: “I believe the holy catholic church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins….”

Remember that these clauses in the Creed come under the heading of the Holy Spirit. In the conception of the Creed, the “holy catholic” church is an assembly under the Holy Spirit. A key to a balanced ecclesiology is to keep together the “one,” that is the “church universal” (holy catholic church) and the “many,” that is, church particular or communion of the saints. A well-known 16th century Protestant catechism describes the holy catholicity of the church thus:

That, out of the whole human race, from the beginning to the end of the world, the Son of God, by His Spirit and Word, gathers, defends and preserves for Himself to everlasting life a chosen communion in the unity of the true faith; and that I am and forever shall remain a living member of the same.

It handles the particular under “communion:”

What do you understand by the ‘communion of saints’?

First, that believers, one and all, as members of the Lord Jesus Christ, are partakers with Him in all His treasures and gifts; secondly, that each one must feel himself bound to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the advantage and welfare of other members. Read more»

Below are resources on the importance of the visible church, membership in the visible church, and the standards of membership in the Christ confessing covenant community. They are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name.

Bibliography

  • Bannerman, D. Douglas. The Scripture Doctrine of the Church: Historically and Exegetically Considered. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1887.
  • Bergsma, Derke. “Prophets, Priests and Kings: Biblical Offices,” in John Armstrong, ed., The Compromised Church (Wheaton: Crossways, 1998).
  • Brown, Mark R. Order in the Offices: Essays Defining the Roles of Church Offices. Duncansville, PA: Classic Presbyterian Government Resources, 1993.
  • Clark, R. Scott. Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice. Phillipsburg: P&R Pub., 2008.
  • Clowney, Edmund P. The Church. Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995.
  • Clowney, Edmund P. The Doctrine of the Church. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1969.
  • Coldwell, Chris, ed. Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici or the Divine Right of Church Government. Dallas and Grand Rapids: Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, 2020.
  • Coldwell, Christopher, ed., The Grand Debate: The Reasons Presented by the Dissenting Brethren against Certain Propositions Concerning Presbyterian Government and the Proofs of Them Voted by the Assembly of Divines, Sitting by Authority of Parliament, at Westminster; Together with the Answer of the Assembly of Divines to Those Reasons of Dissent. Dallas: Naphtali Press, 2014.
  • Estelle, Bryan D. The Primary Mission of the Church: Engaging or Transforming the World? Fern, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor, 2022.
  • Ferguson, Sinclair B. Devoted to God’s Church: Core Values for Christian Fellowship. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2020.
  • Gillespie, George. Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, or, the Divine Ordinance of Church Government Vindicated. Harrisonburg, Va.: Sprinkle Publications, 1985.
  • Golden, Ken. Presbytopia: What It Means to Be Presbyterian. Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, Ltd., 2016.
  • Hall, David W. Paradigms in Polity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
  • Hart, D. G. The Lost Soul of American Protestantism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002.
  • Hodge, Charles. Discussions in Church Polity: From the Contributions to the “Princeton Review”. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1878.
  • Horton, Michael S. People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology. 1st ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.
  • Kromminga, John H. All One Body We; the Doctrine of the Church in Ecumenical Perspective. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970.
  • Lucas, Sean Michael. What Is Church Government? Phillipsburg: P&R Pub., 2009.
  • M’Crie, Thomas. The Unity of the Church. Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1821.
  • Mannion, Gerard, and Ed A. J. G. Van der Borght. John Calvin’s Ecclesiology: Ecumenical Perspectives. London: T & T Clark, 2011.
  • Maruyama, Tadataka. Calvin’s Ecclesiology: A Study in the History of Doctrine. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022.
  • McKay, W. D. J. An Ecclesiastical Republic: Church Government in the Writings of George Gillespie. Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Published for Rutherford House by Paternoster Press, 1997.
  • McGoldrick, James Edward, Presbyterian and Reformed Churches: A Global History. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012.
  • Milner, Benjamin Charles. Calvin’s Doctrine of the Church. Leiden: Brill, 1970.
  • Murray, John. “The Nature and Unity of The Church,” The Collected Writings of John Murray 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1976-82), volume 1.
  • Paul, Robert S. The Assembly of the Lord: Politics and Religion in the Westminster Assembly and the ‘Grand Debate’. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1985.
  • Reed, Kevin. Biblical Church Government: An Introduction to Presbyterian Polity. 1st ed. Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage, 1983.
  • Robinson, Stuart. Robinson. The Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel: And the Idea, Structure, and Functions Thereof… Willow Grove, PA: Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, repr. 2009.
  • Schaver, J. L. The Polity of the Churches. Chicago: Church Polity Press, 1947.
  • Strange, Alan D. The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church in the Ecclesiology of Charles Hodge. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P & R Publishing, 2017.
  • Vos, Geerhardus. The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church. New York: American Tract Society, 1903.
  • Wagenman, Michael R. The Power of the Church: The Sacramental Ecclesiology of Abraham Kuyper. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2020.
  • Waters, Guy Prentiss. How Jesus Runs the Church. Phillipsburg: P&R Pub., 2011.
  • Witherow, Thomas. I Will Build My Church: Selected Writings on Church Polity, Baptism and the Sabbath. Edited by Jonathan Gibson. Glenside, Pennsylvania: Westminster Seminary Press, 2021.

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