Reading Reformed Church History

I have recently updated both my Google Reformed Theology Bibliography and my Reformed Church History Bibliography. As I was working on this, I thought how amazing it was that as far as I know (and I have looked), there is no good general history of the Reformed Churches in English. The best you can do is in the general histories of Protestantism and Church history.

What has happened is that each national group has written on the area of Protestantism most affecting them. For example, Émile Léonard in his General History of Protestantism, written originally in French, spends a huge portion of his book discussing the French Reformed. In our mind, this would be totally out of proportion to its importance in the total history of Protestantism. However, we do the same thing. When English people write, they emphasize Britain. When Americans write, they emphasize America. There are groups within each linguistic group that have studied extensively the history of the Reformed Churches who spoke their language. For example, there are tons of materials on Reformed Church history in the Netherlands, but they are mostly in Dutch! There is a four volume biography of the great theologian Voetius in Dutch but not one biography of him in English. There are two biographies in French on Francis Turretin but none in English.

However, if you want to get a good overview of Reformed Church history on the continent, there are books available for that purpose. Beginning with France, there are almost innumerable histories of the Huguenots. One of the best that I have scene is by Guillaume de Felice. The history of the "martyr's Church" is very moving.

Second, James Good is not great but he is good and better than nothing. I really enjoyed reading his Origin of the Reformed Churches of Germany. This book will help you understand the real differences between the Reformed Church and the Lutherans and show how Melanchthon was actually the friend of the Reformed Churches, in spite of his erroneous views on conversion. Good continues the story with his History of the Reformed Churches of Germany 1620-1890.

Third, you have the history of the Swiss Reformed Churches. Because of our connection with Geneva, it's easy to forget how important the German speaking Reformed Churches of Switzerland are and were to the Reformation on the continent. James Good has also written their story in his History of the Swiss Reformed Churches since the Reformation.

Moving then to the Netherlands, there is a good book by Maurice Hanson called The History of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands. As far as I can tell, it is not yet available online. I ordered from a bookstore that did reprints called Good Books, but I cannot find their web site. If anyone reading this blog knows how you can order books from them, please let me know.