The Teaching Office in the Reformed Tradition: A History of the Doctoral Ministry

by Robert W. Henderson

Overview

This is a study of the church's formulation of its teaching ministry in periods preceding our own, particularly in the Reformation era. The author finds that the office of "doctor" or teacher, like the offices of pastor, elder, and deacon, was postulated by Calvin as an integral part of the "public ministry."

In a preliminary historical review Dr. Henderson surveys the conditions obtaining in northern Europe during the Renaissance as a background to understanding the situation that Calvin found in Geneva. He then studies the doctoral office as it existed in sixteenth-century Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Scotland, through which Continental Calvinism was transmitted to the British Isles.

In turning to the English Puritan understanding of the doctoral office, Dr. Henderson examines the Tudor university ''reform," Martin Bucer's ideas regarding the reformation of all English education, the experiences of the Marian exiles in the practice of the Reformed church life, and the attempts under Elizabeth and James I to presbyterize the Church of England. The study reaches its climax with the account of the debates of the Westminster Assembly between the thirteenth and the twenty-first of November, 1643, wherein it developed that there were three British groups holding different views of the doctoral office: the Presbyterian Puritans, the Church of Scotland commissioners, and the Independents.

Finally, Dr. Henderson deals with the understanding of the doctoral ministry after the time of Westminster, particularly with the developments that occurred in the Church of Scotland, in American Presbyterianism, and in American Congregationalism. He believes that a continuing discussion of this office is a prerequisite to understanding the church's ministry as a whole.

The book represents the only piece of original research ever done on the subject.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625645814
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	01/17/2014
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Robert W.Henderson, an ordained Presbyterian minister, was born in Evanston, Illinois. He received his degrees from Princeton University, McCormick Theological Seminary, and Harvard University. Throughout World War II he saw active duty with the United States Field Artillery. For seven years Dr. Henderson served as pastor of the First Church (Congregational), East Derry, New Hampshire. Since 1958 he has been Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Tulsa.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Frequently Used Abbreviations 3

I Introduction 5

II Historical and Theoretical Background for a Teaching Office in the Church 15

The Teaching Office at the Daybreak of the Reformation

Calvin's Estimate of the Theological Foundation of the Church's Teaching Office

III The Genevan Reform in School and Church 32

The Influence of Strasbourg on Calvin

The Educational Situation in Geneva

The Reformed Collége de Rive

The Academy and Church of the Pays du Vaud

The Doctorate in the Genevan Academy

IV The Huguenot Church and the Doctoral Office 72

The Role of the Doctor Reflected in Synodical Records

Doctors of the Huguenot Church

V Prophesying, Prophets, Doctors, and the Dutch 99

À Lasco and Poullain

The Church Orders

Summary

VI The Doctor in the Church of Scotland 127

The Practice of the Doctoral Office in the Kirk, 1560-1578

The Second Book of Discipline and the Doctoral Office, 1578-1592

The Scottish Doctorate, Waning Presbytery, and Jacobean Episcopacy, 1592-1606

VII The "Doctor-Teacher" in English Puritanism 156

Reform of Schools

The Marian Exiles

The Attempt to Presbyterianize the Church of England

The " Lecturer " as a Puritan Office

VIII The Westminster Assembly and "Whether the Doctor Be a Distinct Officer" 195

IX The Doctoral Ministry in Later Reformed and Presbyterian Polity 214

X Conclusion 239

Bibliography 248

Index 269