The Calvinist International
We continue our series on Zacharias Ursinus’s explanation of the doctrine of the God (see part 1 for more), looking now at His explanation of the Trinity. The following comes from his Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, eighth Lord’s Day section 3, pg. 129-132 of the P&R edition. Readers will notice a strongly “traditional” explanation, […]
In his Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus gives several defenses of infant baptism over and against the common objections of the anabaptists. Ursinus’ defenses are particularly interesting in that they demonstrate certain theological categories which he employed to defend the notion of infant faith and even infant regeneration, both of which partially justified the […]
In his Heidelberg Catechism lectures, Zacharias Ursinus lists 17 “theses” on baptism. These form a section of their own, and they appear after his commentary and exposition of Heidelberg Lord’s Day 27. For those who have the hard-cover version of the P&R reprint titled Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, the theses begin on pg. 371. We have […]
Explaining the theology behind Q&A 25 of the Heidelberg Commentary, Zacharias Ursinus has a lengthy discussion of Trinitarian theology, covering the basic theological affirmations and denials, but also parsing out the more difficult aspects of the logic and language. The balance between pastoral language and intent in the Catechism and then scholastic detail in the […]
In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus has a section entitled “From What Does It Appear That There Is A God?” where he lists 11 arguments for God’s existence. Many of these are familiar, the argument from creation, rational causality, and morality, but the 8th argument stands out as delightful. We might call […]
Having now given a rather critical picture of the modern liturgical movement and the state of our actual knowledge regarding the “catholic tradition” and the worship of the early church, the question could be asked about what rule we now have left. Are we supposed to simply go back to the, now itself old-fashioned, evangelical […]
Explaining how a principled Reformed person ought to think about the question of formal liturgy, Carl Trueman says: The difference is not between churches who have liturgies and churches who do not; it is between churches who have intelligent ones that are theologically informed, which they acknowledge and upon which they reflect, and those who […]
The Heidelberg Catechism rather famously includes Christian education under the duties required by the 4th Commandment: Question 103. What doth God require in the fourth command ? Answer. First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained In Ursinus’s commentary, we are given this explanation: The maintenance of schools may be embraced […]
From Ursinus’s Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, a collection of his teaching notes compiled principally by David Paraeus, we have this explanation of religious “ceremonies” and their permissibility in worship. This is included under the discussion of the Fourth Commandment: III. HOW MANY KINDS OF CEREMONIES ARE THERE? There are two kinds of ceremonies some […]
David Pareus was the successor to Zacharias Ursinus. Pareus taught at the University of Heidelberg in the early 17th century and labored particularly towards Protestant ecumenism. He was able to reduce the disagreement in doctrine between the Reformed and Lutheran to one point: Building directly on the precedent established at the colloquy of Marburg in 1529, […]