Document Type:
Article
Author/editor:
Patrizio Foresta
 
Standard: Foresta, Patrizio [Patrizio Foresta]
Title:
Transregional Reformation: Synods and Consensus in the Early Reformed Churches

Standard:

Periodical:
Journal of Early Modern Christianity
Series:
2
Issue:
2
Date of Publication:
2015
Pages:
189-203
Subjects:
Reformed Churches - Synods - Europe - 1500-1700

Summary/Notes:

 This article will explore what might be called the transregional scope and outreach of early modern Reformed synods in a theological as well as ecclesial sense, examining some very few but important moments between the sixteenth and seventeenth century that marked a turning point in the history of the European Reformed Churches and show some particular aspects of the constitutive link between synods and consensus. A transregional level implies a methodological shift towards a more complex and many-sided view of synods, according to which a supposedly unyielding and confessionally adamant institution was affected by the social, geographical, cultural, theological and political stratifications within a wide range of mediating factors and conditions: different local Churches were linked together and crossed the political and ecclesiastical borders through the channels along which persons and ideas passed from region to region, thus creating a mutual exchange through which political, institutional and theological communication took place.