"Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? ed. by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis

Abstract

Reviewed by: "Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? ed. by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis Thomas R. Farmer "Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? Edited by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021. 480 pp. The Reformation was a stimulus to ecclesiology, forcing theologians to articulate their definitions more precisely in the face of competing confessional claims. Theologians and historians continue to ponder the resulting controversies. This book, containing the proceedings of the Sixth Annual Reformation Research Consortium Conference (held May 26–28, 2016, in Copenhagen), provides scholars with a selection of the fruits of these studies. Collections of essays can sometimes be incoherent, with strong individual essays that do not form an integrated whole. That is not the case here. The wide variety of perspectives in this collection enables readers to approach the topic of ecclesiology in the Reformation from many angles. The book is divided into four parts: "'Church' at the Time of the Reformation" (six essays), "Church and Art" (five), "Church and Ecclesiology" (eight), and "Church and Unity" (six). Thirteen essays deal with Reformed churches, while five essays discuss Lutheran ecclesiology. In addition, five essays examining Eastern Europe, a region often ignored in Reformation studies, are welcome inclusions. This review focuses on two essays of particular interest. Frank Ewerszumrode (249–55) compares Calvin's ecclesiology with that which the Second Vatican Council articulated in Lumen Gentium. The latter specifically describes the Church as "like a sacrament," which might strike some Protestants as claiming that the Church can "do what God alone is capable of doing" (250). But Ewerszumrode notes that Calvin, in his Institutes, refers to the Church as a "tool," which Calvin also uses of the sacraments. Ewerszumrode argues that [End Page 365] for Calvin, the Church functions as an external means to create faith, in a manner similar to the sacraments. The author then points out that Lumen Gentium holds that the Church is an instrument of salvation, not the source thereof. Ewerszumrode thus concludes that Protestants ought not to be unduly suspicious of Lumen Gentium's use of the word "sacrament" to describe the Church, because it uses that term to mean that the Church is an instrument—as Calvin did in the Institutes. Although Calvinist and Roman Catholic theology are usually thought of as being distant, Ewerszumrode's essay suggests that they are not so very far apart. For this reviewer, the most impressive essay was "Does Calvin's Church Have a History?" by Michelle C. Sanchez (440–60). Her goal is much larger than simply describing "the structure and operations of the church in sixteenth-century Geneva" (440); rather, she wants to read Calvin as a theorist and explore how his theory of the Church can subvert arbitrary distinctions between theology and history. Sanchez notes Calvin's claim that the marks of the true Church are the right preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the sacraments; if one accepts this, she argues, then it follows that the history of Calvin's church extends much earlier than sixteenth-century Geneva, thus making the boundary between the medieval and the modern less secure than one usually assumes and demonstrating the potential of theology to offer historians new insights. Readers will value Sanchez's insightful and thought-provoking essay. Singling out these two essays, does not imply that the others are lacking. On the contrary, scholars (particularly theologians) will find these essays relevant and useful. This book will be a worthwhile addition to seminary and research libraries. [End Page 366] Thomas R. Farmer Belmont Abbey College Belmont, North Carolina Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.