The Westminster Assembly Project
About the Project
The Westminster Assembly (1643-1653) was both the largest parliamentary committee of the English civil war and the last of the great post-Reformation synods. The Assembly is perhaps best known as the creed-making body behind the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, documents which have guided Presbyterian and Reformed churches for centuries.
The Westminster Assembly Project exists to make the writings of the Westminster Assembly and its members available to scholars and to the general public. Since completion of the Minutes and Papers by Dr. Chad Van Dixhoorn, the Westminster Assembly Project has focused on the writings of the Westminster Assembly and its participants. In addition to increasing access to these works, the Project works to promote research into the assembly’s proceedings and is currently editing two series of publications in collaboration with Reformation Heritage Books. These include:
Principal Documents of the Westminster Assembly.
This series will produce seven chief works authored by the Assembly for covenanted uniformity of religion in England. These seven volumes comprise texts not be reproduced in the five volume set of minutes and papers published by Oxford University Press in 2012: the Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism, Shorter Catechism, Directory for Public Worship, Directory for Church Government, a collection of majority and minority reports on church government, and The Psalter. Each volume will contain a historical introduction, a critical text, and multi-column comparisons of original manuscripts and early editions.
Currently the Larger Catechism is available and the Confession of Faith is forthcoming.
Studies of the Westminster Assembly.
The Assembly studies offers new studies on the assembly, as well as select studies that have not been reprinted, providing readers with some of the best existing research on the Assembly and its members
See Publications for a current list of titles in both these series as well as other titles.
We hope that this site, and these books, will prove useful for researchers focusing on Puritanism, the English civil-war, post-Reformation theology, or the history of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism.
Dr. John R. Bower
Dr. Chad B. Van Dixhoorn