The term ‘Reformed catholicity’ can be misleading. The Apostles’ Creed characterises the Christian Church as catholic, which means that catholicity is not solely attributed to a particular Christian tradition but rather the property of all churches. For this reason, the term ‘Reformed catholicity’ may be called into question: Can the catholic property of the Christian church be epitomised in the Reformed, and does the Reformed fathom the meaning of catholicity? To address the question, we need to begin with the concept of catholicity.

The Dutch Neo-Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) probably presents us with the most thorough definition of catholicity.

As used by the church fathers, the world “catholicity” has three basic meanings. In the first place, they use it to refer to the church as a unified whole in contrast to the dispersed local congregations that make up the whole and are included in it. The local church can, however, legitimately call itself catholic because it attaches itself to the universal church. Secondly, the term expresses the unity of the church as inclusive of all believers from every nation, in all times and places…. And finally, the church is sometimes referred to as catholic because it embraces the whole of human experience. It possesses perfectly all doctrines concerning either invisible and visible things that human beings need to know.

bavinck 1992, 220–221

The three-layered definition opens up a path towards fleshing out the conceptual texture of catholicity. While maintaining the application of catholicity to the Christian church, Bavinck contends that particular churches are also catholic by virtue of their inextricable connection with the universal church. The catholicity of a particular church is determined by the catholic Christian church. As such, “Reformed catholicity” can imply how Reformed churches in particular—which is part of the catholic Church—display ecclesial catholicity in their distinct way and demonstrate the root of their catholicity in the Christian church. It calls forth a sensitivity for how the theological resources of Reformed churches can be used to expand upon the catholicity of the Christian church. As Michael Allen and Scott Swain (2015) suggest, the retrieval of Reformed theological resources can help to pursue catholicity, which leads to intellectual and spiritual renewal.

Bavinck’s three-layered definition not only justifies the validity of Reformed catholicity but also extends the scope of Christian catholicity beyond Christianity. That the church “embraces the whole of human experience” makes it clear that catholicity goes beyond the church itself and extends to the whole of humanity. In other words, this “unveils the responsibility of a visible church to engage with the other spheres of human life” (Xu 2022b, 140). Catholicity implies that the universal church and particular local churches alike should bring Christian doctrines into connection with quotidian human lives and take part in shaping human experience. Hence, the catholic nature of the church carries a contextual connotation—that is, a particular church’s context for the actualisation of catholicity. Following this line of thought, one task that Reformed catholicity needs to accomplish is to retrieve Reformed theological resources to fulfil ecclesial catholicity across contexts.

The present issue is intended to explore the contextual features of ecclesial catholicity with a focus on developing the catholicity of Sino-Reformed theology. Two factors have motivated the exploration of this theme. First, present literature on Reformed catholicity is largely restrained within the confines of the Western Reformed community, without giving due attention to how Reformed theology may conduce to the actualisation of ecclesial catholicity within non-Western contexts.¹ Inquiries into the catholicity of Sino-Reformed theology can prove the efficacy of Reformed theology as an instrument in attaining the catholicity of the universal Christian church. An outgrowth of these inquiries is the recognition of the necessity to contextualise Reformed theology across contexts and communities beyond Western settings. Second, Reformed theology has been developing over the past four decades in mainland China and for even longer among other Chinese communities. However, Reformed theology has not yet figured out how to integrate itself within Chinese contexts and for Chinese churches (Xu 2023, 69–88; 2022a, 163–185; 2021, 145–169). Given that Reformed catholicity is embedded with the capability to transplant Reformed legacies into various contexts so as to reveal the universal Christian church, inquiries into the catholicity of Sino-Reformed theology can help tease out theological principles and themes that facilitate the contextualisation of Reformed theological legacies among Chinese communities, showcasing how Chinese churches as particular catholic churches belong to the universal, catholic Christian church.

The present issue comprises five articles, contributing to the development of the catholicity of Sino-Reformed theology from diverse perspectives. James Eglinton draws on the neo-Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper’s (1837-1920) view of archetypal and ectypal theologies as the underpinning of contextual theology in order to supplement Xu’s (2022a, 163–185) appropriation of Kuyper’s legacies for the development of Sino-Reformed theology. Eglinton’s article arrives at a corollary that Sino-Reformed theology is a pilgrim theology, which is ectypal and mirrors the archetypal theology as the true theology. Heng Li Chiong continues the neo-Calvinist retrieval and concentrates on Geerhardus Vos’ (1862-1949) Reformed biblical theology. His purpose is to contextualise Vos’ view of biblical theology as science for the articulation of Chinese biblical theology in mainland China, displaying the catholic connection between Chinese Reformed churches and the broader Reformed tradition.

Victor Zhu’s article directs our attention to Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), one of the most influential theologians in American history. It examines the catholic nature of Edwards’ Reformed theological system in relation to his view of China as part of God’s redemptive plan, bringing to the foreground how Reformed catholicity can serve as a tool for the development of Sino-Reformed theology as well as cross-cultural dialogue. Following Zhu’s article, Christy Wang turns to the reception of Puritan legacies among Reformed churches in mainland China. Her purpose is to demonstrate how Chinese Reformed churches—particularly Reformed house churches—develop their distinct form of Sino-Reformed catholicity while addressing surrounding social, religious, and political issues.

Luping Huang takes an expansive concept of Reformed catholicity to bring to light how Reformed legacies may indirectly contribute to Chinese theology. She looks into the bearing that the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s (1892-1971) theology of sin has had on the Chinese historian Chang Hao’s (张灏, 1936-2022) understanding of the doctrine of original sin in his conception of “consciousness of darkness,” which emerges through the critique of China’s sociopolitical issues. Huang’s article exemplifies a way in which Reformed legacies can be retrieved for developing Sino-Reformed theology for Chinese communities.

With the five articles, the present issue makes a foray into the exploration of the catholicity of Sino-Reformed theology. We are reminded that Sino-Reformed theology should be catholic in that it is instrumental in demonstrating the catholicity of Chinese Reformed churches that are organically connected with the universal Christian church. This is an important theological task, and Chinese Reformed communities are still a substantial way from its fulfilment.