Nothing in My Hand I Bring: Reformed Ecclesiology in a Secular Age

Abstract

Reformed Protestantism is variously critiqued in a secular age. On the one hand, Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics represent Protestantism as individualistic, opposed to tradition and liturgy, and tending toward a world-denying spirituality. They see Protestantism as participating in modernity’s worst tendencies. On the other hand, missional churches tend to see Magisterial Protestantism as inflexible and overly traditional, being unable to relate to a modern, secular context. I seek to retrieve the often unrecognised missional potential of a robust Reformed ecclesiology for a secular age. I retrieve an account of Reformed ecclesiology in dialogue with Calvin and some key modern voices.