Abstract This article explores John Calvin’s interpretation of “dominion over the earth” in Gen. 1:28 and related scriptures. Calvin’s Christocentric doctrine is set over against Stephen Wolfe’s Case for Christian Nationalism , which urges American evangelicals to seize “dominion” over the political sphere while claiming a Reformed or Calvinist lineage.

Abstract The early modern Dutch Republic had an enormous geographical reach via its East and West Indies Companies. Rural Dutch Reformed churches were, by definition, geographically distanced from their urban counterparts. Geographical distances within New Netherland and between New Netherland and the Dutch Republic impacted the Dutch Reformed experiences in New Netherland. This article explores the ways in which early modern Dutch Reformed churches negotiated both the challenges and opportunities geographical distance presented for Dutch Reformed communities in New Netherland. The particular focus here is on the Dutch Reformed congregation in New Amsterdam, known today as the Collegiate Churches of New York and incorporated as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York in 1696. Using consistory and classis records, the article researches the roles of elders and deacons in the Dutch Reformed church in New Amsterdam. In addition, careful attention will be paid to the ways in which the rural nature of small, fledging New Amsterdam impacted the ways in which the Dutch Reformed church navigated its religious life. How did these pastors, elders, and deacons seek to assert control and establish order in rural contexts? Who were these men elected to serve as elders and deacons? How did geographical distance from other Dutch Reformed congregations in New Netherland and from the classis in Amsterdam impact the role pastors, elders, and deacons played in the life of their congregation? What do we know about how church members in New Amsterdam asserted agency in their religious lives? This article argues that the rural nature of religious life in New Netherland provided unique challenges for the Dutch Reformed congregation in New Amsterdam, as evidenced in the elders and deacons who served. At the same time, their rural context and the geographical distance afforded by their location presented opportunities in New Amsterdam for congregants and religious authorities to navigate their religious lives in unique ways while asserting their religious agency.

Abstract The six essays in this collection explore the range of adaptations, responses, and possibilities for understanding confessional behavior in the small towns and hamlets of Europe and colonial America during the Reformation. The contributors begin with a discussion of the independence of rural communities of faith and the reality that financial support for these churches was often precarious. Congregants also proved adept at composing church orders that established and organized a lasting institutional framework. Books and other printed materials that circulated among the faithful suggest devotional inclinations. Distance between isolated rural churches and the lack of sufficient numbers of trained pastors enhanced the role of the laity who performed some functions previously reserved to the clergy. Finally, small rural congregations found ingenious way to integrate immigrants and newcomers into the assembly of worshipers. Altogether, these essays speak to the advantages and disadvantages of the more remote countryside for communities of belief. Rural isolation, whether in France, Poland, New Netherland, or New England bestowed benefits, all the while presenting challenges.