My dissertation research project focuses on the doctrinal and practical importance of Sunday observance, also known as Sabbath observance, in the sixteenth-and-seventeenth-century Reformed communities in the Low Countries. My project investigates the theological import of the Sabbath and its practical applications. In tracing the development of the Sabbath in the Dutch Reformation, the first step is to focus on how Dutch Reformed theologians conceived of the Sabbath. When studying theologians important for the Dutch Reformed tradition the importance of the Sabbath cannot be ignored, but it is also evident that the theological issues regarding the Sabbath were complex and hotly contested. The theology of the Sabbath, I will argue, moves over time from an emphasis on spiritual rest to participating in the ministries of the church to a strict rest from all work and recreation.
Having examined the theological understanding of the Sabbath in the Dutch Reformed tradition, the next step is to explore congregants’ actual Sunday practices. By attending to church governance records at the national, regional, and local levels the importance of proper Sabbath observance quickly becomes clear. The provicinal synod records, classes’ records, and consistory records indicate that church authorities in the Dutch Republic were adamant that church members faithfully attend sermon and catechism services, refrain from sinful practices, and abstain from recreational activities. Equally as telling as the observance demanded of church members is how church authorities responded. The church records portray the church authorities as fretting over the disordered and unregulated nature of improper Sabbath observance. Furthermore, the church authorities frequently place the issue of Sabbath observance in the context of difficulties with other confessional groups.
Having established the importance of the Sabbath in Dutch Reformed theology and lived piety, I argue the emphasis on Sunday observance is best understood as resulting from two main factors. First, the emphasis on the Sabbath took place within a religiously plural situation where the Dutch Reformed Church was seeking to distinguish itself from Catholics, Anabaptists, and Remonstrants. In other words, my thesis is that emphasis on proper Sunday observance is a result of the Reformed church authorities attempting to maintain the pious reputation of the Reformed faith and establish the identity of the Reformed Church in the midst of multiple other confessional identities. Second, proper observance of the Sabbath was important because it was a way to ensure order within the church and society more broadly. Sunday observance was part of the religious authorities’ desire to maintain religious and moral order within the church and broader society.
My project leads to several conclusions. First, the theological issues regarding the Sabbath were not straight-forward in the Dutch Reformed tradition and received nuanced and varied treatment from different theologians. Second, strict Sabbath observance in the Dutch Reformed churches was not primarily the result of the influence of the English Purtians. Instead, the strict demands for Sunday observance were inherent within the Dutch Reformation. Finally, the interplay between church authorities and lay members regarding Sunday observance was complicated and contested. Lay members were quite willing to attend morning sermon services and, generally, abstain from work. However, they were much less willing to refrain from recreational activities, attend afternoon catechism services, and cease questionable, if not sinful, behaviors. The Dutch Reformation, then, was not simply handed down from above but was negotiated between church authorities and institutions and the lay members of the churches and the broader society.