About Matthew

Matthew van Maastricht

Pastor. Teacher. Church Historian. Theologian.

Contact Matthew

Matthew van Maastricht is a minister in the Reformed Church in America living in upstate New York. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary where he regularly writes and speaks on Reformed church history, the Reformed confessions, and church polity.

He is also a co-founder of the Society for Protestant Church Polity, as well as a founding co-editor of the Society’s scholarly journal, Church Polity: International Studies in Protestant Church Polity. Matthew is the author of Foundations of Reformed Church Polity: The Rhyme and Reason of the Order (Reformed Church Press, 2022).

Research Interests

  • Reformed church polity
  • Ecumenical church polity
  • Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American church history
  • History of Protestant church polity
  • Transatlantic church polity influences
  • Ecclesiastical assemblies/councils
  • Religion and law/legal history

Publications

Book

Foundations of Reformed Church Polity: The Rhyme and Reason of the Order (Grand Rapids, Mich: Reformed Church Press, 2022)

Books as Editor

Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Essays in Honor of Allan J. Janssen (Grand Rapids, Mich: Reformed Church Press, 2019).

Karl Barth: Theologian in the Tempest of Time. By Karel Blei, translated by Allan J. Janssen (Eugene, Ore: Cascade Books, 2021)

Contributions to Books

“Ecclesiastical Membership of Reformed Church Ministers” in Collecting Chronicles, Maintaining Tradition, and Preserving Acts of Disciples: Essays in Honor of Russell L. Gasero, ed. James Hart Brumm (Grand Rapids: Mich: Reformed Church Press, 2020).

“The Polity Foundations of the Reformed Church in America” in Comparative Reformed Church Polity: Similarities and Differences, eds. Leon van den Broeke and René Pahud de Mortanges (Kampen: Summum Academic, Forthcoming)

Book Reviews

A Hermeneutic of Wisdom by J. de Waal Dryden, Sharing the Practice 43:3 (2020), 18.

Church Polity, Mission & Unity edited by Barry Ensign-George and Hélène Evers, Sharing the Practice 43:3 (2020), 14.

The Bible in a Disenchanted Age by R.W.L. Moberly, Sharing the Practice 42:2 (2019), 17.

The Implicit Theology of the Lord’s Prayer by Jan Mus, translated by Allan Janssen, Sharing the Practice  44:1 (2021), 21.

Bavinck: A Critical Biography by James Eglinton, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 76:2 (2022), 183-184.

Selected Presentations

  • “Demanding a King? An Inquiry into the Permanence of the General Synod.” Inaugural Colloquy as a Fellow of the Reformed Church Center, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, January 2020
  • “‘The Great Lakes Catechism’: A Form Criticism.” Paper presented at “Looking at the Great Lakes Catechism.” Reformed Church Center, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, January 2019
  • “The Synod of Dordt.” Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, Calvin College and Seminary, September 2018 (panelist)
  • “Commissioned Pastors in the RCA: A Historical and Contextual Survey.” Paper presented at “Office in the Church: What it Means, Why it Matters.” Reformed Church Center, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, February 2016.