The Continuity and Catholicity of the Doctrine of Regeneration

Abstract In 2022, Mark Dever claimed that ‘the East and Rome’ taught regeneration essentially the same as do modern Baptists. This article examines the historical continuity and catholicity of the Christian doctrine of regeneration from the early church through the Reformation and into modern evangelical theology. It challenges the claim that pre-Reformation and Reformed accounts of regeneration represent fundamentally different doctrines by distinguishing between continuity in the confessed reality of regeneration and later disagreements over its means and timing. Surveying patristic, Lutheran, Anabaptist, Reformed, and Congregationalist sources, the study argues that regeneration was consistently understood as a vital transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit, even when closely associated with baptism and left underdeveloped as a distinct subject. The Reformation did not invent the doctrine of regeneration but clarified and foregrounded it, producing significant ecclesiological consequences, especially in Congregational polity. Differences across traditions concern means of receiving regeneration rather than the substance of the new birth itself.