The Westminster Confession: Unfinished business

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.