Creeds and Confessions

Resources on Creeds and Confessions

14 resources on Creeds and Confessions, in curated order

1. Topic 5: Reformed Piety

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2019

   Seminar readings open with Calvin on the Christian life (Institutes III.6-10) and the Westminster Larger Catechism (QQ. 91-196) as primary statements of Reformed piety. Barth’s Church Dogmatics IV/4 on baptism as the foundation of the Christian life provides a major twentieth-century counterpoint.

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2. Topic 8: The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2016

   The bibliography grounds the reader in the early Christian creeds through J.N.D. Kelly’s authoritative Early Christian Creeds and Calvin’s account of the Mediator’s work (Institutes II.16). Bullinger’s Decades, Barth’s Credo and Dogmatics in Outline, Emil Brunner’s I Believe in the Living God, and T.F. Torrance’s Trinitarian Faith provide the Reformed confessional and dogmatic context.

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3. Topic 12: Basic Christian Doctrine: The Question of Heresy

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2016

   Primary readings engage Augustine’s Four Anti-Pelagian Writings and Calvin on the Trinity (Institutes I.13) and the two natures of the Mediator (II.14). H.E.W. Turner’s The Pattern of Christian Truth and C. FitzSimons Allison’s The Cruelty of Heresy provide historical and constructive accounts; Leith’s essay on the confession as normative theology grounds the discussion in Presbyterian practice.

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4. Topic 42: The Theological Declaration of Barmen

   PDFBy Richard E. BurnettBibliographies2026

   Primary readings focus on the historical, cultural, political, philosophical, and, above all, theological context of, arguably, the most important theological document of the twentieth century, the Theological Declaration of Barmen of 1934, as well as the writings of its primary author, Karl Barth.

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5. Assembly at Westminster: Reformed Theology in the Making

   BookBy John H. LeithFoundation PublicationsWipf & Stock Publishers2008

   Leith focuses on the background and character of the assembly that wrote the Westminster Confession, examining its major themes: the Bible, the lordship and sovereignty of God, the covenant, and the Christian life.

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6. Peter Martyr Library: The Apostles’ Creed, Theses for Debate, and Schism and the True Church

   BookBy Translated and edited by Mario Di Gangi and Joseph C. McLellandFoundation PublicationsDavenant Press2025

   These works display the heart of Martyr’s theology, both pastoral and moral. Hardback, $40.00. ISBN 9780940474321.

   Publisher

7. Baptism and the Westminster Confession

   PDFBy D. F. WrightJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VIII1996

   Wright examines how the Westminster Assembly treated baptism, surveying the divines’ often heated debates, their continuity with Reformed sacramental theology, and the wider neglect of baptism in modern ecumenical discussion.

   PDF, 15 pp

8. Baptists and the Westminster Confession

   PDFBy Timothy GeorgeJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VIII1996

   George traces the Westminster Confession’s place in Baptist history, weighing three competing accounts of Baptist origins and showing how Baptists adapted, revised, and contested the Confession in their own confessional statements.

   PDF, 8 pp

9. Calvin’s Catechetics

   PDFBy Paul J. AchtemeierJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VI1992

   Achtemeier reflects on Calvin’s catechetical work, drawing on Calvin’s deathbed insistence that the catechism and the discipline must be kept together, and situates the 1545 Geneva Catechism within Calvin’s labors as pastor and teacher.

   PDF, 18 pp

10. The Book of Common Prayer and the Westminster Confession: Parallels

    PDFBy John H. LeithJohn Calvin Studies

    Scholarly paper presented at the John Calvin Studies Colloquium and published in Calvin Studies.

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11. The Westminster Confession in America

    PDFBy James C. Goodloe IVJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VIII1996

    James C. Goodloe IV considers the influence of the Westminster Confession of Faith on American culture, weighing Robert Bork’s lament over cultural decline and asking how heirs of the confession should reckon with both the credit and the burden of that long-standing influence.

    PDF, 16 pp

12. The Westminster Confession in American Presbyterianism

    PDFBy John H. LeithJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VIII1996

    John H. Leith sets the Westminster Confession within its historical, social, and political context, tracing the conflict between Stuart kings and Puritan preachers, the Bishops’ Wars, and the Long Parliament that issued in the Westminster Assembly.

    PDF, 13 pp

13. The Westminster Directory of Worship

    PDFBy David W. HallJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VIII1996

    Stanley R. Hall reads the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God as a classic Reformed formulation that calls heirs of the Assembly to a common worship marked by theological integrity, spiritual depth, and forms that invite participation.

    PDF, 15 pp

14. The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

    RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesDoctrinal Theology, lecture 11982

    Dr. Leith opens this series with a careful account of the Reformed doctrine of Christ: who he is and what he has done for the salvation of the world.

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