Herman Bavinck's four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is one of the most important theological works of the twentieth century. The recently completed English translation has received wide acclaim. Now John Bolt, one of the world's leading experts on Bavinck and editor of Bavinck's four-volume set, has abridged the work in one volume, offering students, pastors, and lay readers an accessible summary o…
Some books are easiest to describe by saying what they are not. This is not a collection of devotions or meditations, not a “feel-good” journal about walking with God, and not a guide for self-improvement or personal spiritual growth. It is, very simply, a book about discipleship–about following Christ humbly, obediently, and with an open heart. And it is written by a man whose message ca…
A helpful guide to the writings of perhaps the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. Healy shows how for Balthasar the ultimate form of 'the end' is given in Christ's eucharistic and pneumatic gift of himself - a gift that simultaneously lays bare the mystery of God's trinitarian life and enables Christ to return to the Father in communion with the whole of creation.
From 1962 to 1965, in perhaps the most important religious event of the twentieth century, the Second Vatican Council met to plot a course for the future of the Roman Catholic Church. After thousands of speeches, resolutions, and votes, the Council issued sixteen official documents on topics ranging from divine revelation to relations with non-Christians. In many ways, though, the real challeng…
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, commonly referred to as “the Doctor,” had a successful career in medicine before abandoning it all to become a preacher in London. His sermons—displaying the life-changing power of biblical truth—diagnosed the spiritual condition of his congregation and prescribed the gospel remedy. This study of Lloyd-Jones’s life will encourage and exhort readers to consider t…
This comprehensive systematic theology by respected theologian Robert Letham covers the whole field of Reformed Christian doctrine from biblical, historical, and theological angles. Letham begins with God’s ultimate selfrevelation as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in indivisible union, continuing on with the works of God in creation, providence, and grace. He draws deeply from Sc…
Outline: Surveying the barriers that contemporary thinking has erected between the natural and the supernatural, between earth and heaven, Hans Boersma issues a wake-up call for Western Christianity. Both Catholics and evangelicals, he says, have moved too far away from a sacramental mindset, focusing more on the "here-and-now" than on the "then-and-there." Yet, as Boersma point out, the teachi…
Outline: Geerhardus Vos devotes this work to a discussion of Jesus' greatest focus in ministry - the "kingdom of God" (and the "kingdom of heaven," which Vos interprets to be refershing the same thing.) Vos begins by connecting Christ's teaching on the kingdom to the Old Testament and its concepts of a Messianic king. Then he moves into the conception of the kingdom during the New Testament wit…
Outline: Few teachings of the Puritans have provoked such strong reactions and conflicting interpretations as their views on preparing for saving faith. Many twentieth-century scholars dismissed preparation as a prime example of regression from the Reformed doctrine og frace for a mancentered legalism. In Prepared by Grace, for Grace, Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley make careful analysis of the Pur…
Outline : What is evangelical theology today? In response to increasing evangelical fragmentation, Kevin Vanhoozer and Daniel Treier offer a clarion call to reconceive to reconceive evangelical theology theologically by reflecting on the God of the gospel as mirrored in Scripture. Such "mere" evangelical theology will be an exercise in Christian wisdom for the purpose of building up the fellows…
Outline: As a response to the unique challenges facing the tweinty-first-century American church, church planting has become a popular topic. But at a time when churches that spread the seed of the Word through preaching, the sacraments, when churches that spread the seed of the Word through preaching, the sacraments, and prayer are greatly needed, much of the focus has been on planting churche…
Outline : "Men despite religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true," declared Pascal in his Pensees. "The cure for this," he explained, "is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is." Motivated by the seventeenth-century view of the supremacy of human rea…
Outline : William Placher looks at "classical" Christian theology (Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Martin Luther) and contrasts it with the Christian discourse about God that evolved in the seventeenth century. In particular, he deals with the notion of transcendence that gained prominence in this era and its impact on modern theology and modern thinking today. He persuasively argues that useful l…
Outline: Speaking the Truth in Love : The Theology of John M. Frame, is a festschrift honoring Professor Frame'a career in seminary teaching and publishing. Unlike many festschrifts, this book does not merely collect essays on subjects of interest to the honoree. Rather, it analyzes Frame's own work in the fields of theology, apologetics, ethics, worship, the church, and other areas. Containing…
Outline: The subject of Christ and Culture has occupied the church since its inception. Some emphasize the reality of redemption and the imperative of cultural transformation; others critize this approach because of the transient nature of this current life and the specific function of "kingdom" activity. This project focuses on the two competing compositions rooted in the Reformed tradition; n…
Outline: The Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference (EDC) takes place every second year. The Rutherford Centre for Reformed Theology, which runs the conference, has a present interest in studying the doctrine of the church (ecclesiology). After two years of pandemic, when most churches began to take new forms or develop new ways of meeting, many questions are being asked: What is the church, and what i…
Outline: A key refrain in Reformed theology is that God's Spirit trumpets the message of salvation through Jesus Christ into every book and cranny of the universe - but now? And in what way does this cosmic truth touch and shape the mundane reality of our lives and our world? In this distillation of his Warfield Lectures, delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in spring 2014, leading Refor…
Outline: Theodore Beza's A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord's Supper (1559) advances a tireless defense of the Reformed perspective on the Lord's Supper, responding chapter by chapter to specific arguments raised against John Calvin by his Lutheran opponent Joachim Westphal. Beza makes great use of the concept of metonymy, or a figure of speech, in his interpretation of the words of instit…
Outline: Richard Gamble's three-volume Whole Counsel of God explores the relationships between exegesis and hermeneutics, and between biblical, systematic, and historical theology. "He bridges the gap so many have identified between traditional systematic theology and biblical theology," Richard Pratt writes; not only that, he "penetrates beyond scholarly concerns to life issues that every beli…
Outline: In this collection of forty-six letters and writings of John Calvin, newly translated into English, the reformer gives advice to individuals and groups about theology, ethics, worship, politics, economics, and church practices. Topics discussed include dogmatics and polemics, changes (and the need for changes) in religion, the worship of images, ecclesiastical discipline, marriage, and…
Outline: In the biblical drama of the living God's works in creation and redemption, no theme is more lustrous than that of God's gracious intention to enjoy communion with humans who bear his image and whose lives have been broken through sin. Cornelis Venema summarizes and defends a broad consensus view of the doctrine of the covenants in the history of Reformed theology, clarifying areas of …
Outline: The Larger Catechism stands as one of the three major doctrinal standards produced by the Westminster Assembly. Ofter overshadowed by the Shorter Catechism and the Confession of Faith, the Larger Catechism exhibits the Assembly's most mature theological reflection and insight. In this remarkable volume, John Bower provides extensive historical background for the making of this colossal…
Outline: The Reformation was a time of tremendous upheaval, renewal, and vitality in the life of church. The challenge to maintain and develop faithful Christian belief and practice in the midst of great disruption was reflected in the theology of the sixteenth century. In this volume, which serves as a companion to IVP Academic's Reformation Commentary on Scripture series, theologian and churc…
Outline: Nineteen biblical scholars and theologians in this volume explore the notions of union and participation within Pauline theology, teasing out the complex web of meaning conveyed through Paul's theological vision of being "in Christ." With essays that investigate Pauline theology and exegesis, examine highlights from reception history, and offer deep theological reflection, this exempla…
Outline: This ecclesiological study argues that Reformed ecclesiology cannot be separated from Reformed Christology. The christological foundation of Reformed doctrine of the church will be examined as Reformed theology portrays the important ecclesiological topics in the light of its christological thoughts. This book offers potential for the future of the church with her pastoral concern. It …
Outlne: Not since the sixteenth century has the doctrine of justification stood so clearly "at the center of theological debate as it has in the last thirty years. This often polemical dialogue has been fueled particularly by discussions on the "New Perspective on Paul." In this important collection, Bruce McCormack draws together diverse voices, committed to an irenic engagement, to expolore t…
Outline: In the mid-seventeenth century, persons on both sides of the Atlantic wishing to join a Puritan church had to appear before all of its members and tell the story of their religious conversion - in effect, to give convincing verbal evidence that their souls were saved. New England's Puritans widely adopted this practice, and in this book Patricia Caldwell attempts to unravel the mystery…
Outline: French Jesuit Henri de Lubac (1896 - 1991) was arguably the most revolutionary yet underacknowledged theologian of the twentieth century. He proposed that Western theology since the early modern period has lost sight of the key to intergrating faith and reason -- namely, the truth that all human beings are naturally oriented toward the supernatural. Originally published in 2005, The S…
Overview: A fresh, inviting text on the content of Christian faith in our contemporary context, this one- volume systematic theology offers a splendid, orthodox explication of the Christian faith for students, teachers, pastors, and serious lay readers alike. The autors not only cover all the traditional themes -- God, creation, sin, Jesus Christ, Scripture and so on -- but also relate those cl…
Outline: The author, a leader in the New Atheism movement and best-selling author, is one of the foremost proponents of a gene-centered approach to evolutionary science. Not only does he claim that materialism offers a satisfying purpose for life, but he has trenchantly critized those who accept the existence of a supernatural creator. The author has had a great impact on perceptions of scienc…
Outline: The Larger Catechism, so rich in biblical teaching, has been long neglected, even by conservative Prebyterians who embrace it as one of their three standards. This commentary, written in the mid-twentieth century, is being published in book-form for the first time, to encourage the catechism's increased use and study. Because the Larger Catechism supplements the Shorter Catechism on…
Outline: The author is well known for his incisive views on the intersection of culture and Christianity and for his efforts to make the thought of major Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper accessible to average Christians. In this volume the author provides the scholarly "backstory" to his popular books as the interprets, applies, expands on - and at times even corrects - Kuyper's remarkable visi…
Outline: Throughout history Christian thinkers have attempted to come to terms with the validity of views of scholars committed to non-Christian views of reality. This book gives twelve case studies of how important Christian thinkers in ancient, medieval and modern times have led the way in relating to non-Christian wisdom. The reader is given a sympathetic insight into the personal struggl…
Outline: This four-volume work combines rigorous historical and theological scholarship with application and practically - characterized by an accessible, Reformed, and experiental approach. In this volume, the authors explore the first two of eight central themes of theology: revelation and God.
Outline: The church in America has been willingly taken captive. The captors are American culture and ideals: consumerism, pragmatism, self-sufficiency, individualism, positive thinking, personal prosperity, and nationalism. These are antithetical to the gospel, but we have neverthelss made them part and parcel with it. We are well on our way to a Christless Christianity. The result? The f…
Outline: In ordinary conversation, including among the "educated," the word "sin" rarely gets mentioned except when one is trying to be coy or facetious. As Thomas Mann once said, "sin" is nowadays "an amusing word used only when one is trying to get a laugh." But this small work will interpret sin in its true - that is, serious - meaning. What will emerge from its analysis is the discovery…
Overview: This book collects the paper presentations and seminar reports by these prominent international Calvin scholars: Heiko A. Oberman, James A. De Jong, James B. Torrance, Wilhelm H. Neuser, Paul E. Rorem, Richard C. Gamble, Richard Horcsik, Cornelis Augustijn, Luke Anderson, Erik A. de Boer, I. John Hesselink, Francis M. Higman, Nobuo Watanabe, Irene Backus, Adrianus D. Pont, Mitsuru Shi…