5 Essential Books for Studying the Belgic Confession
Ordained Minister, M.Div.
April 22, 2026
3 min read
In 1561, a young Reformed pastor named Guido de Brès wrote the Belgic Confession as an apologia to King Philip II of Spain, seeking to demonstrate that Reformed Christians in the Spanish Netherlands were not seditious radicals but faithful heirs of biblical and apostolic Christianity. De Brès was executed in 1567, but his Confession survived — adopted by the Synod of Dort in 1619 as one of the Three Forms of Unity that define the Reformed tradition.
These five resources will help you encounter the Belgic Confession in all its historical depth and theological richness.
1. Confessing the Faith Today: A Fresh Look at the Belgic Confession — Allan Janssen
Janssen’s commentary is the most accessible modern treatment of the Belgic Confession available. He reads each article with contemporary application in mind, asking not just what de Brès meant but what the Confession demands of the church today. The writing is clear, the theology is sound, and the pastoral sensitivity makes this the ideal starting point for any study.
2. The Belgic Confession: Its History and Sources — Nicolaas H. Gootjes
Gootjes provides the definitive scholarly account of the Belgic Confession’s composition, sources, and early reception. This is primarily a historical work — tracing the Latin and patristic sources that de Brès drew upon and charting the Confession’s adoption and revision over time — but it is essential for anyone who wants to understand the document on its own terms rather than through later interpretive lenses.
3. Early Christian Creeds — J.N.D. Kelly
The Belgic Confession grounds its theology in the three ecumenical creeds, explicitly affirming the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds as faithful summaries of Scripture. Kelly’s landmark historical study of the early creeds provides the patristic foundation that the Belgic Confession assumes — and that every reader of the Confession needs.
4. Historic Creeds and Confessions — Ed. Rick Brannan
The Belgic Confession belongs to the Three Forms of Unity alongside the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort. Reading these documents together reveals the full systematic shape of Dutch Reformed theology. Brannan’s collection places the Belgic Confession within this broader confessional context, along with creeds from across the Christian tradition.
5. The Creeds of Christendom — Philip Schaff
Schaff’s three-volume collection places the Belgic Confession within the full sweep of Reformed confessional history, situating it alongside the other great Protestant confessions of the sixteenth century. Volume 3 contains the Dutch and English texts with scholarly notes — an essential reference for anyone studying the Confession’s language in depth.
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Guido de Brès wrote the Belgic Confession at the cost of his life, convinced that the Reformed faith was worth confessing clearly and publicly in a hostile world. These five books will help you understand what he confessed, why he confessed it, and why the church continues to confess it nearly five centuries later.
