Abstract
The Heidelberg Catechism is among the most important confessional documents to emerge from the Reformation period. Drafted by a team of theologians assembled by Friedrich III of the Palatinate in 1562–63, the catechism was intended as a theological framework for a territorial church that was increasingly oriented towards Reformed theology, but which had to carve out an existence within a political settlement that required non-Catholic churches within the Holy Roman Empire to subscribe to the Augsburg Confession. In this volume, Lyle Bierma works to show that whereas the Heidelberg Catechism has been remembered as a Reformed confessional document, in actuality the Catechism also reflects deep Lutheran roots in its basic structure and content. Bierma demonstrates that the unique situation existing in the Palatinate in the 1560s, along with the ecumenical experiences of Zacharias Ursinus, the document’s chief drafter, precipitated not a Calvinist manifesto but a broad statement of Christian doctrine that stressed what Philippist Lutherans and a broad range of Calvinist thinkers held in common.
Bierma’s grasp of the primary literature around and secondary literature on the Heidelberg Catechism is staggering. Having combed through an impressive collection of Reformation-era Lutheran and Reformed writings, the author is able to point out convincingly that both Lutheran and Reformed sources exerted considerable influence on the Catechism. This supports his main contention that the document is more of a consensus document than a strictly Reformed confession. Additionally, Bierma makes his case in self-conscious dialogue with the many scholars who have studied the Heidelberg Catechism in the past, some of whom were active more than one hundred years ago.
Bierma’s enthusiasm for using the Catechism as a resource within renewed Reformed-Lutheran ecumenical dialogue is clear from his writing, but a Baptist might well ask why this book is relevant to a scholar not within one of these denominational families. Although this is not a text that Baptist seminarians need read as a part of their preparation for ministry, faculty that teach the Reformation as a part of a church history survey, or more especially as a stand-alone course, will find material here that helps shed some light on the meaning of the “Second Reformation” that swept through the Palatinate and some other German states during the mid- to late sixteenth century. Additionally, clergy who may be affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists may find it helpful to learn about some of the deep ecumenical roots that nourish the contemporary United Church of Christ, one of the Alliance’s most important ecumenical partners and one of the churches that still claims the Heidelberg Catechism as one of its confessional standards.