Understanding the Catholicity of Sino-Reformed Theology in Wider Traditions
Reformed Theology and Receptive Ecumenism
Prof. David Fergusson, Regius Profesor of Divinity, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
Abstract: The essay explores the original animating impulses towards church unity in the 16th-century Reformed tradition. Despite a history of schism, the leaders and theologians of the Reformed churches were deeply involved in the later 20th-century ecumenical movement. This then raises the question of why the movement has faltered and how Reformed theologians should seek to re-engage at a time of ‘receptive ecumenism’ and ‘post denominationalism.’ Attention is also given to the ways in which the churches of the Reformation have recently been able to experiment and innovate in ways that may eventually prove of wider benefit to the ecumenical church.
The Foundational Role of Apostolicity in Augustine’s Understanding of Catholicity
Dr Jenny Yan Yang, Adjunct Professor, Columbia International University
Abstract: This article examines the foundational role of apostolicity in Augustine’s understanding of catholicity. While early Christian discussions often highlighted the Church’s universality, Augustine consistently insisted that doctrinal completeness – another dimension of catholicity – is inseparable from continuity with the apostles. Through a study of his anti-Manichaean, anti-Donatist, and anti-Pelagian writings, this article demonstrates how Augustine grounded catholic doctrine in apostolic Scripture and, increasingly, in apostolic tradition as preserved in the universal Church and the apostolic sees. Augustine used apostolicity to expose the pseudo-catholic claims of heretical groups and to defend the Church’s authoritative teaching, creed, custom, and interpretation of Scripture. His integrative account suggests that true catholicity entails both geographical extension and fidelity to apostolic tradition. The article concludes by considering the implications of Augustine’s framework for contemporary Sino-Reformed ecclesiology, arguing that catholicity must be understood as inseparably linked to apostolicity, that is, to faithful continuity with the apostolic teaching and tradition in the early Church.
Neo-Calvinist Protocols for Principled Contextualization and Chinese-Indonesian Reformed Theology as a Test-Case: Confessional Catholicity and Subversive Fulfillment
Dr Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary Washington
Abstract: I explore two concrete protocols for contextualization from the neo-Calvinist tradition: (1) that of creedal and confessional unity that takes into consideration the distinction between situated conditions and perennial conclusions and (2) of subversive fulfillment. Along the way, I shall also offer reflections that critically apply or extend these neo-Calvinist insights for the Chinese-Indonesian context. These two protocols help show how a particular indigenous context might simultaneously retrieve and develop the Reformed tradition, in service of its own churches, without endorsing either mechanical imposition or syncretism.
Beauty as Glory and Unity in Diversity: A Bavinckian Retrieval of Reformed Catholicity and Theological Aesthetics for Sino-Reformed Theology
Dr Sheng-Yu Peng, Professor of Theology, Taiwan Baptist Christian Seminary
Abstract: Reformed theology in China faces twin risks: sectarian confessionalism and culturally thin transplantation. This article argues that Sino-Reformed doctrinal development requires retrieving Reformed catholicity and cultivating a Reformed theological aesthetics. Drawing primarily on Herman Bavinck’s account of catholicity as unity-in-diversity and of beauty as divine glory, and secondarily on John W. Nevin and Abraham Kuyper, I propose a “retrieval-for-construction” method: Scripture remains the supreme norm, while consensual tradition serves as a subordinate guide for reception and contextual articulation. Three case studies – Chinese Trinitarian terminology (sanwei yiti 三位一體), Chinese hymnody and word-centered visual motifs (Canaan Hymns and calligraphic Scripture), and the rendering of Logos as dao (道) in the Chinese Union Version – show how catholic retrieval and aesthetic attentiveness can deepen confession, shape ecclesial imagination, and support culturally resonant worship without surrendering Reformed distinctives. I conclude with criteria for discerning contextual innovation and indicate how Chinese retrieval can enrich Reformed catholicity.