Anna Sylvestre sat down with Todd Rester, Associate Professor of Church History, to talk about his academic background and current projects, as well as the importance of creeds.
Anna Sylvestre: Could you start by sharing your focus of study for your doctorate? Why did you choose church history?
Todd Rester: I pursued an MDiv at Reformed Theological Seminary Jackson, and graduated there in 2006. In the course of my studies there, I came to love systematic
theology. But what I was really interested in was studying how those doctrines developed and were articulated over time, and I loved working with the ancient church,
and that got me into an independent study with Dr. Ligon Duncan. I was able to persuade him to take on two MDiv students who wanted to pursue some studies in Latin and patristics. And that was myself and John Tweeddale, who’s now Dean of Reformed Bible College down in Florida. We had a great time doing that.
Due to the influence of Richard Muller’s monumental Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, after graduation from RTS, I was admitted to the doctoral program in
historical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary. I studied historical theology under Muller, as well as his colleague, Lyle Bierma. While at CTS, I also had the privilege to study abroad on a Scaliger doctoral fellowship at Leiden University to further my dissertation research.
When I graduated in 2016, I was recruited to a postdoc at Queens University Belfast, which was a project funded by the European Union. We were comparing and contrasting: how did Reformed and Roman Catholic thinkers understand religious war and resistance during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Our scholarship
in that space produced several texts; my part of the project was published through Routledge and titled Franciscans and Scotists on War: John Duns Scotus’s Theology,
Anti-Judaism, and Holy War in Early Modernity.
AS: You’re currently working on a number of scholarly projects. What are some of those?
TR: Starting when I was at Calvin Seminary, I had the opportunity to work on a translation of William Ames’s A Sketch of the Heidelberg Catechism. And under the
leadership of Dr. R. Scott Clark at Westminster Seminary California, that text became the first volume of the Classic Reformed Theology series at Reformation Heritage
Books. So, I was able to work through an 80,000-word translation over the course of my first semester in the doctoral program. From there, it was my privilege to be
recruited by the Dutch Reformed Translation Society to work on their Petrus van Mastricht translation project, which is a seven-volume work I’m currently involved in.
Volume five is due out this fall, focused primarily on the benefits of Christ’s work, accomplished and applied. Also treated in that volume is the context in which those
benefits are applied, that is, the church. So, there is a really close connection in Mastricht’s thought between the personal application of these benefits and the context
of that application in the church. This month and next month, I’m finishing up the edits on volume six, which is Mastricht’s understanding of the Covenant of Grace. That’s about a 300,000-word volume, perhaps the most extensive in terms of its historical sources because he’s simultaneously providing his understanding of church history from the resurrection of Christ to the end of the age and giving you his eschatology—his doctrine of last things. After that, Lord willing, volume seven will be complete by the end of the year as well. So that will conclude this project. It should be somewhere around a total of 1.6 million to 1.7 million English words. This project started in 2009, and I’m happy to say that it’s going to conclude in 2025, with everything published by the close of 2026.
I’m also working on Mastricht’s Theoretical Practical Syntagma on Saving Faith, written in 1671. This work is not only for ruling elders but also new members. On the one hand, Mastricht was trying to thread the needle on the problem of people who had a lax understanding of admission to membership, and on the other hand, those who had too strict a view. By understanding Mastricht better on this point, not only do we get practical advice on how elders should think about admission to church membership and profession of faith within the visible church, but we also have advice and encouragement on how we as professing members should think about our own faith.
Lastly, there is the Turretin Family Library project, transcribing a catalog of the library, made in the 1700s. This particular family library started in the sixteenth century and was passed down and amplified to about 14,000 books by the time it was catalogued in 1772 for auction. This family library not only gives us insight into generations of pastors and theologians, but it also charts the rise of Protestantism as well as the rise of the Enlightenment. In the preface of the translation of Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology, the editor remarked in the 1990s that it was really difficult to peg down Turretin’s sources. This transcription project not only provides a significant resource for Turretin scholars, but most importantly it also has been a wonderful training ground for several of our students, whether in the doctoral program or MDiv students who want to pursue ThMs and PhDs. Part of the project was actually exploring the family library, much of which is in an archive in Southern France. Some of our students worked alongside me in that archive in France. Two of them have worked on other publishing projects and research fellowships as a result of their training. A project like this is helping to move scholars and students in the Westminster orbit into further opportunities globally. This would not be possible without faithful and targeted project support by interested donors.
I also serve alongside Dr. Stephen Coleman as one of the co-editors on the Westminster Theological Journal. Finally, I serve as the Director of the Craig Center for
Westminster Assembly research. But I have to say that my greatest privilege is working with students and training them up to be ministers of the gospel. It’s wonderful
to work with students and to work with these documents and to work on these sorts of questions that have had and continue to have practical application in the life of
the church.
AS: In light of this issue’s theme, why do we need creeds, and what is the significance of the Nicene Creed in particular?
TR: The first thing I would say is that everybody has a creed. If I drive around my neighborhood, I’ll probably find a sign that says “we believe in science” in the front
yard, or “we believe in”—pick something. It is a list of ideals—their theology and worldview—and how they’ll act in terms of those ideals. And the interesting thing is that they’re making a declaration as a family, right? I’m supposed to understand that this household follows this claim. Even if you say “no creed but the Bible,” you have a creed. If your church was to interview a pastor, you would want to know what he believed, and whether it was in alignment with your community. And whether that is written down or only in the mind of the members, every person and every congregation has a creed.
So, one way to put it is: everyone believes something, but some people write it down for everyone to see. The importance of creeds in general is that when you have a creed, it gives you a basis not only of profession—“Here’s what we mean by saying to the world that we’re Christians”— but it also gives you a basis for fellowship and common labor within the church. When you have different congregations, and you have people that are separated by distance and sometimes by language, having a common creed that functions in both environments publicly communicates a fellowship between churches.
Most of the time when people think of confessions, they’re thinking of those documents that are constitutional for a particular denomination, and most denominations that are organized as an association or a covenanted fellowship among churches over geographic regions have statements according to which they admit and discipline their leadership, officers, and members.
Every Christian has some articulation of what the Christian faith is, no matter how basic or sophisticated it is. The moment that someone does that, there you have a
creed or a confession. Or, for example, the moment you start trying to train children or new believers in that faith, and you start asking them questions, you now have a catechism. Whether you are talking about a creed, a confession, or a catechism, these are summary statements of a particular understanding of the faith. The apostle Paul often exhorted people with respect to the pattern of sound words (2 Tim. 1:13) and a standard of teaching (Rom. 6:13).
Are these creeds and confessions and catechisms authoritative over the Scriptures? The answer is no. They are, rather, summary statements that seek to articulate
what the Scriptures say. Article 9 of the Belgic Confession of Faith is literally a statement on the scriptural witness to the Trinity. So, I’ll just read it because it’s really good:
All this we know, as well from the testimonies of Holy Writ as from their operations, and chiefly by those we feel in ourselves. The testimonies of the Holy Scriptures that teach us to believe this Holy Trinity are written in many places of the Old Testament … In all which places we are fully taught that there are three persons in one only divine essence. And although this doctrine far surpasses all human understanding, nevertheless we now believe it by means of the Word of God, but expect hereafter
to enjoy the perfect knowledge and benefit thereof in heaven. … This doctrine of the Holy Trinity hath always been defended and maintained by the true Church since the times of the apostles to this very day … Therefore, in this point we do willingly receive the three creeds, namely, that of the Apostles, of Nice, and of Athanasius; likewise that which, conformable thereunto, is agreed upon by the ancient fathers.
An important point the Reformed make in their early statements is that the doctrine of the Trinity is to be believed because it’s found in Scripture, but also in the history of that doctrine. It had to be defended, and it had to be articulated. The creeds that were written didn’t invent the biblical content of the doctrine of the Trinity, even though there was a development of terms and articulation. What they did was defend the content of Scripture against certain forms of deficient and false teaching that were arising in some quarters of the church; such false teachings were publicly condemned as heresies.
The Nicene Creed (325 AD) in particular is one that defends the person and work of Christ against the doctrine of Arius, who, as a catechist of new members and children, taught them to say and sing that there was a time when Christ was not. That teaching calls into question whether or not Christ is fully God, consubstantial with God the Father. That’s why church history is a crucial component of our training of ministers, as it resources us to defend the person and work of Christ.
There is a close connection that becomes apparent in the study of the creeds and confessions. It is this: if you don’t understand the character of God, then you won’t
rightly understand salvation. If you don’t understand the Scriptures rightly, you won’t understand the character of God, and you also won’t understand the person and
work of Christ. If we miss out on the message of Scripture, the person and work of Christ, and the character of our God, then we do not enjoy the riches and treasures
of salvation in Christ and God to the extent that we should.
The Nicene Creed is a major landmark in Christian history for both the Western and Eastern churches. There are still longstanding and ancient debates over the receptions of terms and concepts, but the vast majority of Christians in various denominations and traditions uphold the teaching of the Nicene Creed.
AS: Thank you for that rich answer, particularly explaining how important it is that we understand Christ’s divinity rightly—and what’s at stake when we don’t. To change topics a bit, what is the strangest thing you have stumbled across in your church history investigations?
TR: Many things, but I’ll give you one that’s related to an archive holding a portion of the Turretin library. When we were working in southern France, we were examining a collection comprising about 80,000 books, which was gathered by an eighteenth-century marquis and donated to the province. The first librarians of that provincial library were tasked with cataloguing all the books the marquis had donated. During the French Revolution, the librarians did not have or could not afford the card stock necessary to build this catalog. They finally resorted to using playing cards. So, when he made his catalog, he actually built a card catalog using the playing cards.
For example, one number in the top right hand of this card says 28,137. There is actually a slip of paper in a book somewhere in the library that has that number on
it. On this card we have a really tight shorthand in early nineteenth-century French detailing the bibliographic information. And, by the way, it is written over the nine of hearts. I can’t imagine how many decks of cards the librarian used over the course of thirty years. It makes you wonder if they were playing cards while at work.
So one way to describe it is that a historian who works in a space such as the archives in France frequently functions like a prospector panning for gold. You kind of have to know where to dig. Not only do you have to be familiar with the books themselves, but you also have to be quite comfortable reading handwriting from various time periods in various languages. You need to have a functioning skillset that can work with this sort of material “in the field.”
The other thing I would emphasize here too is that while there is a community of scholarship among professors and students, the kind of research that I do would not be possible were it not for the generosity of librarians globally. Archivists and librarians are not only people who know where things are, but they really do have a desire to steward these collections, and they present them to the world. In my experience, if you’re faithful to come in as a good patron and a faithful scholar and do the work well, you’ll always find that these are your allies. It’s just been really fun. Your ability to find sources and resources in a new environment is dependent on other people being willing to help you. It is a tremendous collaboration.
After we were in one archive in Aix for about three or four days, and we were doing consistent work, very respectful of their rules and regulations, and we were bringing to them new things in their own holdings, the directrice kindly opened the archive to us early in order to maximize our research. They literally almost doubled the effectiveness of the trip. That was a cost to that institution in the sense that schedules for some of their librarians were adjusted to accommodate us. It really is a testimony to the kindness and generosity of their librarians and staff. How encouraging it was to the students and myself as well, that they saw the value of what we were doing.
Along the way, we found some really rare works. It’s really exciting when you’re finding an uncatalogued copy of a Calvin work, and there are only five other known copies in the world. But here we are—surprise, a sixth copy! That’s a really fun day. The staff knew they had a national treasure in their midst, but the Turretin family library tells the history of Christianity and religion in France from the late medieval period through the Reformation and the Enlightenment in the holdings of one multi-generational family. Sharing this point with the staff opened up a really nice conversation with folks interested in their own history as a people, but it also opened up a conversation about what the nature of Christianity is and how it has been witnessed to in their own country for so many hundred years.
AS: Based on your knowledge of church history, what would be the one thing you would remind people of in the context of the global church?
TR: I would remind them of the words of Peter to Christ, whenever Christ asks his disciples if they would like to leave him too. And Peter responded, “where shall we go,
for with you are the words of eternal life?” (John 6:68) I think if you really sink that deep into the head, life, and heart of the church, all other aspects of Christian witness,
profession, and belief flow out of it. Because once you get it settled in your heart that the words of Scripture given to us by God are the words of eternal life, and where shall we go but to him, it really frames everything else. Every generation of the church has to make this conviction their own, has to strive with how that happens, and has to bear witness that with Christ alone are the words of eternal life. When do we fail? When we lose that life-altering, mission-framing conviction.
How do you preach from the pulpit if you’re not convinced that these are the words of eternal life? How do you profess your faith if you’re not convinced these are the words of eternal life? How do you live with your neighbors and give counsel to your family if you’re not convinced these are the words of eternal life? How do you raise your children and your grandchildren, and how do you invest in the future if you’re not convinced these are the words of eternal life?
When the church gets distracted from that mission, all sorts of havoc are unleashed, all sorts of schism and persecution and other ills. Now, when people forget that with Christ are the words of eternal life, they give themselves permission to commit all sorts of horrible sins in their own homes and families and in their lives.
So if there’s one thing that people should know about church history, and what I would tell them, it is that church history, if it’s at its best, is tracking how the church understood and how she must live out that mission.
AS: Thank you for that convicting answer. Dr. Rester, it was wonderful to hear your heart for your students and the many projects you are undertaking for Westminster
and the benefit of the church