I was excited to read this book. It’s intended to be a ‘front door’ into the world of the reformed church, giving you a basic, beginner’s understanding of what reformed churches look like and believe. But I’m sorry to say I was really disappointed, because this isn’t really what it does at all.
The book starts off by saying that the reformed church stands in contrast with other Christian churches which rely heavily on tradition, and then goes into an in-depth look at a bunch of historic creeds which the reformed church apparently submits to. I didn’t set out to criticise this book, but this seemed to be a bit contradictory – the reformed church doesn’t like tradition but follows specific creeds? Seems to me that Daniel Hyde just likes certain traditions more than others. He seems to like old language so much that at times he quotes from the King James Version for no reason other than he likes the sound.
In fact, he likes the creeds so much that there are quite a lot of points he makes which are made only because the creeds say so – Hyde claims that reformed churches must believe in cessationism, that we are reunited with our earthly bodies when in Paradise, that you can only be baptised by an ordained minister (which he later contradicts by saying that ordination is a Roman Catholic idea), that Christians can be baptised multiple times, and that specific words must be used to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. I’m sure that some reformed Christians would agree with him on these, but they certainly don’t find any backing in the Bible, and Hyde makes no attempt to use the Bible to back up these arguments.
To be honest, my issue with this book isn’t the content, it’s the foundation. If it were called ‘Welcome to the Creeds’, or ‘Welcome to My Church’ that would have been fine, but as a reformed Christian I can say with some confidence that many reformed Christians worldwide would disagree with some of the conclusions he draws.
So if you’re interested in the history of the reformation you might find this book interesting, but if you’re genuinely looking for a beginner’s guide to what a reformed church looks like, I’d look somewhere else.
In return for reviewing this book I’ll be getting it for free from Reformation Trust. I’m not required to give a positive review.
Good review. I will admit that I was drawn to this review because the book itself is about the reformed church. Seeing that there is a tendency to lean away from the scriptures in consideration of the doctrines of the reformed church, I think I’ll pass on the book itself. Its a little ironic that the to my experience the reformed churches I have been associated with are quite proud of being Biblically correct. (though they certainly mention the Calvinist tradition enough) Thanks for the post.