MA2007 Session 3 - A Holy Church

3 of 4. A Holy Church
See hopc.org sermons link for full outlines

1. Augustine and Pelagius on the Holiness of the Church

2. Medieval Church Discipline
   The Roman penitential system
   Thomas Aquinas and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215)
   Wessel Gansfort: "Therefore every sentence of obligatory punishment after the remission of sins is stupid"

Thomas N. Tentler, Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (Princeton University Press, 1977).

3. The Reformation of Discipline

WCF 15:4-6
IV. As there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great, that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.
V. Men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins, particularly.
VI. As every man is bound to make private confession of his sins to God, praying for the pardon thereof; upon which, and the forsaking of them, he shall find mercy; so, he that scandalizeth his brother, or the church of Christ, ought to be willing, by a private or public confession, and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those that are offended, who are thereupon to be reconciled to him, and in love to receive him.

4. Case Study: Church Discipline in the Reformed Church of Scotland

Michael F. Graham, The Uses of Reform: 'Godly Discipline' and Popular Behavior in Scotland and Beyond (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996).