Through an examination of Dutch Reformed church records and theological texts, Kyle Dieleman explores the local dynamics of religious life in the early modern Dutch Republic. The book argues that within the religiously plural setting of the Dutch Republic church officials used a variety of means to establish a Reformed identity in their communities. As such, the book explores the topics of church orders, elders and deacons, intra-confessional and inter-confessional conflicts, and Sabbath observance as local means by which small, rural communities negotiated and experienced their religious lives. In exploring rural Dutch Reformed congregations, the book examines the complicated relationships between theology and practice and ‘lay’ and ‘elite’ religion and highlights challenges rural churches faced. As they faced these issues, Dieleman demonstrates that local congregations exercised agency within their lived religious experiences as they sought unique ways to navigate their own Reformed identity within their small, rural communities.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Lived Religious Experience, Sources, and Methodology
- Religious Identity, Confessionalization, and Tolerance
- Rural vs. Urban and Rural Religion
- Research Questions and Argument
- 1 Establishing Order via National, Provincial, and Local Church Orders: “Let All Things Be Done with Decency and Order”
- Reformed, Theological Understandings of Order
- National Church Orders
- Provincial Church Orders
- Church Order in Wemeldinge
- Accepting Church Orders in Arnemuiden
- Conclusions
- 2 Establishing Authority: Electing Elders and Deacons
- Introduction
- Theology of Elders and Deacons
- Church Orders for Electing Elders and Deacons
- Consistorial Elections: Elders and Deacons
- Complications: Necessities, Adaptations, and Conflicts
- Ecclesiastical Offices beyond Elders and Deacons
- Conclusions
- 3 Establishing Confessional Identity: An “Honest Citizen, Even Though a Catholic”
- Introduction
- Case Studies in Arnemuiden
- Case Studies in Sluis
- Themes
- Conclusions
- 4 Navigating Intra-Confessional Conflict: “Live at Peace with Everyone”?
- Conflict and Consistory Members
- Conflict and Schoolmasters
- Conflicts and Pastoral Vacancies
- Church Order Accommodations
- Conclusions
- 5 Establishing Belief and Practice: Rural Approaches to Sabbath Observance
- Expositions of the Sabbath: Catechetical Commentaries
- Practicing and Disciplining Sabbath Observance
- Prevalence of Sabbath Offenses
- Conclusions
- Conclusion: Establishing and Navigating Reformed Identity in the Rural Low Countries
- Lay Religious Experience
- Rural Religious Experience
- Religious Identity
- Research Limitations and Trajectories
- Bibliography
- Index
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