Reformed Worship
The theology, history, and practice of worship in the Reformed tradition, including ordering of service, sacramental practice, and music.
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Resources on Reformed Worship
20 resources on Reformed Worship, in curated order
Topic 4: How Reformed Theology Shapes Liturgy
The bibliography traces the Reformed liturgical tradition through its primary sources: Farel’s La Maniere et fasson (1524), Zwingli’s Zurich Liturgy (1525), Oecolampadius’s Form and Manner (1525), Calvin’s Form of Church Prayers from Strassburg and Geneva, and à Lasco’s Forma ac Ratio (1550). Elsie Anne McKee’s essay on the Calvinist liturgy provides essential commentary.
Topic 29: The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church
The bibliography centers on Hughes Oliphant Old’s seven-volume The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church. This comprehensive survey traces the history of Christian preaching from the biblical period through the modern era, giving sustained attention to how the Reformed tradition has understood the public reading, exposition, and proclamation of Scripture as the central act of Christian worship.
Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition
A survey of the Reformed tradition in worship from the sixteenth century to the present, focusing on regular Lord’s Day worship, services of preaching and Holy Communion, and the changing balance of evangelistic, educational, and expressive functions in public worship.
The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Volume 7: Our Own Time
The seventh and final installment of Old’s history of preaching, taking the story from the 1960s and the Second Vatican Council through the house churches of China and the preaching of Anglican Archbishop Kivengere in Uganda.
Biblical Wisdom and Reformed Worship
Old argues that biblical wisdom theology decisively shaped Calvin’s understanding of the Lord’s Supper, drawing out a wisdom dimension alongside the covenantal, kerygmatic, and eucharistic strands of Calvin’s sacramental thought.
Calvin and the Psalms
Selderhuis examines Calvin’s theology of the Psalms with particular attention to the hiddenness of God, an aspect of Calvin’s doctrine often overlooked, and shows how it shaped Calvin’s account of faith under trial.
Calvin’s Commentary on the Psalms
Mays approaches Calvin’s commentary on the Psalms through the preface as introduction, reading Calvin as a resource for Psalm interpretation today and noting where his exegesis remains in conversation with modern critical scholarship.
Calvin’s Prophetic Criticism of Worship
Old argues that Calvin’s theology of worship is shaped by the prophets’ insistence on true, obedient, and sincere worship, and that Calvin’s prophetic criticism gave new weight to scriptural passages that earlier Reformers had set aside.
Calvin’s Understanding of Worship
Ross J. Miller defends Calvin’s austere reliance on unaccompanied congregational psalm-singing in the Genevan liturgy, arguing against the caricature drawn by Douen and others that this restraint flowed not from a dour spirit but from Calvin’s settled conviction that vernacular psalmody served as a means of grace.
Music and the Spirit in Reformed Worship
Ross J. Miller examines psalm-singing in Calvin’s Genevan liturgy, arguing that the Reformer included vernacular psalmody both because he believed it was the practice of the apostolic church and because he saw it as a powerful external means by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers.
Presbyterian Worship and the Reformed Tradition
Darryl G. Hart examines the irony of contemporary Presbyterian worship, observing how Praise and Worship movements within evangelicalism celebrate the very anti-creedal, anti-ritualistic impulses that older Reformed worship had set itself against, and asking what this means for confessional identity.
The Book of Common Prayer and the Westminster Confession: Parallels
Scholarly paper presented at the John Calvin Studies Colloquium and published in Calvin Studies.
The Westminster Directory of Worship
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.
Theatrical Trifles and the Reformed Conscience
Richard A. Ray traces Calvin’s critique of theatrical trifles in worship, situating it against the late medieval Devotio Moderna and its mystical authors, then applying it to contemporary liturgical practices such as elaborate baptismal pageantry and Pentecost color displays.
The Freedom of the Word and the Spirit
Dr. Leith reflects on the relationship between Scripture and the Holy Spirit in the Reformed tradition, exploring how the Word comes alive through the Spirit’s work in the community of faith.
Distinctions of Presbyterian Heritage
A lecture on what is distinctive about the Presbyterian and Reformed heritage: theologically, ecclesially, and in its approach to ministry and the Christian life.
Baptism in Reformed Faith and Worship
A course on baptism in Reformed faith and worship: its biblical roots, its evolution in late antiquity, the medieval abuses, and the sixteenth-century reform of the rite, with a view to making the sacrament more meaningful in the congregation today.
The Psalms as Christian Prayer
A course on the Psalms in Christian prayer and worship, tracing their use from the worship of Israel and the New Testament church through the ancient and medieval church to the revival of psalmody in the Reformation and the Protestant psalters that followed.
The Worship of the Ancient Church
A worship course examining the worship of the early church through the Didache, Justin Martyr, the Odes of Solomon, and the prayers of the fourth-century church, with special attention to the sermons of John Chrysostom and Augustine and the hymns of Ambrose and Ephrem.
Worship in the Age of Pietism, Romanticism and the Evangelical Revival
A course on worship in the age of pietism, romanticism, and the evangelical revival: its evangelistic preaching, mystical prayer, lyrical hymnody, and rigorous eucharistic discipline, and the questions it raises for the contemporary recasting of worship.
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