The Westminster Confession: Unfinished business

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Dec 1, 2016
Keywords:
Scotland, Scottish, confession of faith, Westminster Confession, Westminster Assembly, Reformed, Presbyterian, Church of Scotland, General Assembly, Panel on Doctrine, Articles Declaratory

Main Article Content

Finlay A. J. Macdonald
Formerly Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Abstract

In an extended study, Dr Macdonald gives an historical account of the changing status of the Westminster Confession of Faith in the Scottish Reformed churches. He focuses in particular on the debate within the Church of Scotland about what place a seventeenth-century statement of faith should have in a modern church, and whether the Westminster Confession should continue to be considered the Kirk’s ‘principal subordinate standard’ or simply a ‘historic statement of the faith of the Reformed Church’. In examining the issues and the work that went into formulating potential ways forward on this, Dr Macdonald shares useful insights as to the purpose and value of confessions and statements of faith. He concludes by suggesting that the status of the Westminster Confession is an issue the Church of Scotland would do well to return to.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 23 No. 2 (2016)
Section
Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish in the journal grant to Theology in Scotland, St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews (“the Publisher”), the following:

1. An irrevocable non-exclusive right to reproduce, republish, transmit, sell, distribute, and otherwise use the Work in electronic and print editions of the Journal and in derivative works throughout the world, in all languages, and in all media now known or later developed.

2. An irrevocable non-exclusive right to create and store electronic archival copies of the Work, including the right to deposit the Work in open access digital repositories.

3. An irrevocable non-exclusive right to license others to reproduce, republish, transmit, and distribute the Work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial [CC-BY-NC] 4.0 licence.

Copyright in the Work remains with the author and the author retains the right to reuse the article (e.g., in institutional repositories, on their website or published in a book).

Warranties

The Author represents and warrants that the Work is the Author’s original work and that it does not violate or infringe the law or the rights of any third party and, specifically, that the Work contains no matter that is defamatory or that infringes any literary or proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, or any rights of privacy. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission to reproduce copyright-protected material in her/his article.

The Author also warrants that he or she has the full power to make this agreement, and if the Work was prepared jointly, the Author agrees to inform the co-Authors of the terms of this Agreement and to obtain their signature to this Agreement or their written permission to sign on their behalf. The Author indemnifies the Publisher against any losses and other expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees, after final judgment of any claim or action against any or all of these warranties.