Book Review: Corrective Church Discipline

I read Don Galardi's Corrective Church Discipline for a number of reasons. First of all, as a fellow pastor in my presbytery, Don is a colleague, mentor and friend. Beyond this though, I have been looking for the opportunity to go deeper in my biblical understanding of the topic of church discipline. This book, which was originally a doctoral thesis, provided me with the just that opportunity.

Galardi spends the first major section of the book looking at the various biblical texts that address the topic of church discipline. He then goes on to give an overview of how these texts have been applied throughout the reformed tradition, specifically by Calvin, Knox and the Westminster Divines. Finally he concludes with a call for greater emphasis on this much neglected pillar of the church.

The subtitle of the book is A Study in Scripture, the Reformed Heritage, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Galardi covers these topics well. Some may be put off by the fact that the EPC is so much in view, both in its current practices as well as suggestions as to what it might do better, but I feel that mutatis mutandis, the lessons of this work are very applicable to other church traditions as well.