Scottish Reformation

Some of you already know this church well, especially you Presbyterians listening.

St. Giles is where John Knox, one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Reformation, began preaching back in the 16th century.

Fast forward to August 2026 in a wonderful ecumenical moment.

Susan Sparks, senior pastor of Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City, was invited by St. Giles senior minister and day one preacher, Reverend Dr. Scott Rennie, to preach to that historic congregation.

I'm approaching this episode as though you have not listened to all, or any, of that particular series.

So to start, the Scottish Reformation had created a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and one of the central questions of the 17th century was this: who was actually in charge of the church, the king or the church itself? It sounds like a fairly dry theological argument, but it wasn't, because behind the argument was a much bigger question.

How much authority did the king possess? Could the monarch impose bishops upon the Scottish church? Could the king dictate how worship should be conducted? And perhaps most importantly, could Scots be compelled to accept religious changes they believed were contrary to their faith? In 1638, opposition to Charles I attempts to alter the Scottish church produced the National Covenant.

The covenant was signed at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh on the 28th of February 1638, and it became one of the most defining documents of the Scottish religious and political crisis.

But those articles say this, and we still believe it.

This church adheres to the Scottish Reformation.

It receives the Word of God, which is written in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as its supreme rule of faith and life.

And we avow the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic, the universal faith founded thereupon, And the principal subordinate standard of the church is the Westminster Confession of Faith, approved by the General Assembly of 1647, containing the sum and substance of the Reformed Church.

She lives out her, her life in Reformation-era Scotland.

So in 1560, we have, of course, the Scottish Reformation, where Scotland abandons the old church, the Catholic Church, for really a very extreme and austere form of the new, a particularly Scottish brand of Calvinism.

And this new social, moral, religious order is obsessed with policing people's private lives, their sex lives.

You know, sex outwith marriage is not okay, let alone sex between two Two women or two men.

So I didn't wanna remove God from this, and so it's still very much a, a major part of that, but it's much more, uh, broad and ecumenical in that, in that range.

And then, uh, if you remember this, Outkast, one of the shows that we did recently, not recently, but that we did in the past, we talked about, uh, the Scottish Reformation, and that that was very much a, a guide for the Founding Fathers.

And so right now I'm in the process of reprinting books that the Founding Fathers, uh, themselves, not r- not, not that they wrote, but that they read.

Oh, cool.

Introduction.

The period of the Reformation marks a great change in the general condition of Europe.

It was a change which had been slowly coming, but which then first made itself decidedly and clearly known.

New knowledge had arisen amongst the peoples of Europe, and new ideas had come from different sides.

So too, those who had accepted the new beliefs felt that they must try to spread their own convictions and must try to root out superstition.

Nothing but discord could be the result of these opposite convictions.

The Reformation then introduced division into every state, division which was more or less bitter according as the two parties were more or less equally balanced.

But this was not all.

That same year, John Knox, returned from Geneva with Calvin's doctrines, saw an opening for a national church rooted in Presbyterian governance and rejected the very hierarchy that Beaton had represented.

Knox's preaching in Edinburgh's St. Giles and his collaboration with the Congregation set Scotland on a path toward a parliamental reformation rather than a monastic edict.

By 1560, after years of skirmishes and a French retreat following a Scottish victory at Leith, the Reformation Parliament formally passed acts that removed papal jurisdiction and established the Church of Scotland.

It is tempting to view this as a purely religious shift, but in truth, it was also a political realignment.

Landowners took control of teens, and the crown's role in church affairs shrank dramatically.

The tension reached its apex when James, as King of England after Elizabeth's death in 1603, assumed the role of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a title that further complicated his already fraught relationship with Scottish Presbyterians.

Despite the chaos, these upheavals forged a uniquely Scottish national identity built upon shared protest and an assertive sense of self-rule, elements that later fed into debates over union and independence.

So whether you view it as a theological revolution, a political uprising, or both, the Scottish Reformation reminds us that religion and state are inseparable threads in Britain's fabric, and their unraveling can shape an entire nation for centuries to come.

Think of the Lollards under John Wycliffe who questioned the church's wealth and hierarchy in 15th century England, ideas that seeded early reformist thought.

and the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century forced Edinburgh to pivot from papacy to a national kirk that radically altered its relationship with England and the Crown.

So when we look back at British history, it becomes evident that the Church's power oscillated between coercion and concession, from interdicts to indulgences, from appointment of bishops to confiscation of monasteries.

This dynamic interplay helped shape England's political culture, its legal system and even its sense of identity as a nation.

Introduction.

The period of the Reformation marks a great change in the general condition of Europe.

It was a change which had been slowly coming, but which then first made itself decidedly and clearly known.

New knowledge had arisen amongst the peoples of Europe, and new ideas had come from different sides.

So too, those who had accepted the new beliefs felt that they must try to spread their own convictions and must try to root out superstition.

Nothing but discord could be the result of these opposite convictions.

The Reformation then introduced division into every state, division which was more or less bitter according as the two parties were more or less equally balanced.

But this was not all.