First Systematic Theology to Begin Studying?

[davidsuggs]

I have mainly listened to a lot of lectures and read various works by Sproul, Piper, Van Til, Schaeffer, etc. But lately I have become very interested in systematic theology. Whose would you recommend beginning with?

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Charles Hodge

 

[greenbaggins]

I would go with a'Brakel's Christian's Reasonable Service, and then after that read Turretin. Hodge is basically Turretin, but you need something to step up to that kind of thinking, and a'Brakel is excellent in that regard.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

I like a'Brakel alot. But I prefer Hodge.

Also, a good "quick" reference book on theology is A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology.

I guess I'm just partial to old Princeton theologs!

 

[cornopean]

I like a'Brakel alot. But I prefer Hodge.

Also, a good "quick" reference book on theology is A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology.

I guess I'm just partial to old Princeton theologs!

I would recommed Louis Berkhof. It is a very skeletal system and very well organized.

 

[timmopussycat]

I like a'Brakel alot. But I prefer Hodge.

Also, a good "quick" reference book on theology is A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology.

I guess I'm just partial to old Princeton theologs!

I would recommed Louis Berkhof. It is a very skeletal system and very well organized.

Likewise. Although maybe I found Berkhof so easy because my first encounter with systematic theology was not a full ST but JI Packer's Knowing God. I recommend that book as an introduction before doing a full ST.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

I like a'Brakel alot. But I prefer Hodge.

Also, a good "quick" reference book on theology is A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology.

I guess I'm just partial to old Princeton theologs!

I would recommed Louis Berkhof. It is a very skeletal system and very well organized.

Likewise. Although maybe I found Berkhof so easy because my first encounter with systematic theology was not a full ST but JI Packer's Knowing God. I recommend that book as an introduction before doing a full ST.

If not Berkhof's full theology, there is always Berkhof's paperback, Summary of Christian Doctrine. This is a good "beginner."

You may find it here:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Summary-Christian-Doctrine-Louis-Berkhof/dp/0802815138"]http://www.amazon.com/Summary-Christian-Doctrine-Louis-Berkhof/dp/0802815138[/ame]

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

I would recommed Louis Berkhof. It is a very skeletal system and very well organized.

Likewise. Although maybe I found Berkhof so easy because my first encounter with systematic theology was not a full ST but JI Packer's Knowing God. I recommend that book as an introduction before doing a full ST.

If not Berkhof's full theology, there is always this as a good "beginner":

You may find it here:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Summary-Christian-Doctrine-Louis-Berkhof/dp/0802815138]Amazon.com: Summary of Christian Doctrine: Louis Berkhof: Books[/ame]

That is online here:

Links and Downloads Manager - Theological Links - Summary of Christian Doctrine -- Louis Berkhof - The PuritanBoard

I rate Berkhof very highly, Turretin and Hodge too, but agree with Lane that a'Brakel is the best place to start.

 

[JohnGill]

I would do...

These four in the following order:

1. a Brakel's - Christian's Reasonable Service
2. Turretin's - Institutes of Elenctic Theology
3. Gill's - Body of Doctrinal & Practical Divinity (o)
4. Bavinck's - Reformed Dogmatics

For just the basics of Systematic Theology I recommend 4 books:

Thomas Watson's - A Body of Divinity, The Lord's Prayer, & The Ten Commandments (o)
The Westminster Larger Catechism. (o)

There is a reading program for selected readings of Watson with the WLC available out on the internet.

Some other good basic books are William Ames' Marrow of Theology and Henry Bullinger's The Decades (o).

Also you might try Concise Theology by J. I. Packer.

Everything with (o) after it is available online at the following sites:

Providence Baptist Ministries Gill
Welcome to the Christian Classics Ethereal Library! | Christian Classics Ethereal Library Watson
www.archive.org Bullinger

Hope these help.

 

[Casey]

You could always go for individual volumes on the different loci of theology, too. Not to detract from the bigger volume series, but this might be a better first step than trying to plod through some several-thousand-page work. You could pick the subject you're most interested in and get your feet wet with that (like eschatology, ecclesiology, Christology, etc.). If you're looking for a good, short, sweet, succinct book on soteriology, I highly recommend John Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. And you could also go ahead and read Calvin's Institutes, too.

 

[DMcFadden]

I would commend Grudem to the person lacking in theological vocabulary. He is up to date, fair, and qualified. Besides, who is easier to read than Grudem? Then go to something more substantial.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

I forgot that Charles Finney also has a Systematic Theology.

There's also, Basic Theology by C. C. Ryrie and, Systematic Theology by A. H. Strong, and we forget shouldn't the valuable contributions by Charles Wesley either.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Seriously though, another good one volume is J. M. Boice's Foundations of the Christian Faith.

 

[JM]

R. L. Dabney

Gill's Archive

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

I think Norm Geisler has a Systematic Theology out. (te he he he)

Might as well get this:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Systematic-Theology-Clarence-Thiessen/dp/0802835295]Amazon.com: Lectures in Systematic Theology: Henry Clarence Thiessen: Books[/ame]

 

[davidsuggs]

Seriously though, another good one volume is J. M. Boice's Foundations of the Christian Faith.

I can't tell if you are still joking or not...

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Seriously though, another good one volume is J. M. Boice's Foundations of the Christian Faith.

I can't tell if you are still joking or not...

No joke! Dr. Boice was a fine preacher and speaker. His book is an excellent one volume study of the doctrines of Scripture in a very readable format with lots of interesting material.

I do like it.

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

Seriously though, another good one volume is J. M. Boice's Foundations of the Christian Faith.

Boice's was the first one I started with. I Liked reading Dabney's because it was set up as lectures. I have read portions of Calvin's Institutes and Hodges.

After I am done reading Covenant Theology from Adam to Christ again, I am going to take a look at John Brown's Systematic Theology. I just got it in the mail the other day.

 

[Jared]

The first and only Systematic Theology that I bought was Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. I read it quite a bit.

I would like to get Calvin's Institutes though.

 

[DMcFadden]

Boice was no slouch. Harvard, Princeton, and Basel and still holding to inerrancy, he was a leading person in the founding of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy as well as a mover with the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals (which includes White Horse Inn). His one volume book is a good lay introduction to theology.

Grudem is often underestimated on the PB (in my opinion), due to his non-cessationist position. But, after completing Harvard, attending Fulller, graduating from Westminster, and getting his PhD at Cambridge, the man is sharp as they come. And, more than a quarter of a million copies of his SysTheo in print is an amazing accomplishment for someone with Calvinist soteriology, a complementarian view of gender relationships, and a strict inerrantist.

 

[bookslover]

I would recommend Robert L. Reymond's A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998). It's excellent; it will give you a thorough grounding in Reformed theology. It is also very well written and easy to read.

 

[Bygracealone]

I'll put my vote in for A'Brakel and Turretin as well...

 

[JM]

No one mentioned Chafer....? [kidding]

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

No one mentioned Chafer....? [kidding]

Thanks for messin' that up!

 

[DMcFadden]

I think Norm Geisler has a Systematic Theology out. (te he he he)

No one mentioned Chafer....? [kidding]

Hey, Chafer was my first Sys Theo. I read the whole thing in 7 weeks during my junior year in high school. I have theologies (entire or parts of them)from Chafer, Geisler, Brunner, Arminius, Barth, Finney, Olson, Pinnock, Duffield (Pentecostal), Hayford, Aquinas, Ryrie, Oden, Jewett, Grenz, and Cottrell (Restorationist Campbellite). Wanna make something of it? Does that make me a heretic, airhead, or just very confused?

(Actually, pride of place in my library goes to Luther, Calvin, Turretin, Owen, Edwards, Gill, a Brakel, Ames, Warfield, Strong, Bavinck, Kuyper, C. Hodge, Dabney, Shedd, Warfield, A.A. Hodge, Van Til, Berkouwer, Berkhof, Boice, Sproul, Bloesch, Frame, Gill, Piper, Schaeffer, Spurgeon, Henry, Reymond, Grudem, Smith, Erickson, etc.)

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Brakel!!!! Brakel!!!! Brakel!!!

Here at RHB for $90.00

 

[Ivan]

...and we forget shouldn't the valuable contributions by Charles Wesley either.

Hmmm...John?

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

Brakel!!!! Brakel!!!! Brakel!!!

Here at RHB for $90.00

Ok,
I just ordered it. I have been hearing about this set for sometime. So I had to indulge.

Thanks.

 

[Jared]

This is kind of an aside, but I am somewhat newly "reformed", but not "truly reformed" and I was wondering why it seems like most of the more popular Calvinistic preachers among younger people mostly talk about Wayne Grudem's systematic theology and they really don't mention any others very often except for occasionally mentioning Calvin's institutes perhaps.

Is it because most of the Calvinistic preachers that are popular among younger people are at least slightly charismatic?

 

[CalvinandHodges]

Hi:

You cannot go wrong with any of the one's suggested above - Chafer and Finney excluded.

You should definately read Calvin's Institutes. The Institutes should be a priority. A'Brackel's Christian Reasonable Service is also a must read. If you are looking for something contemporary than Robert L Reymond's New Systematic Theology is excellent.

Without any further information from you the above three should be your focus. Depending on what you are actually looking for the others: Berkhof, Dabney, Bavinck, Hodge, Gill, Bullinger, Turretin, would also be very good recommendations as well.

You might also try John Brown of Haddington's Systematic Theology as well.

I cannot stress the importance of reading Calvin's Institutes. He teaches the soul and substance of Reformed Theology.

A'Brakel's work is excellent. Not only does he teach the very marrow of Christian doctrine, but he also applies it to the reader - experimental theology at its best.

Reymond's book I only recently picked up, but I am very impressed by the way he packs Scripture into everything he says.

Turretin's Elenctic Theology is instructional not only in the truth, but also in answer to the error. He displays what heretics and Romanists teach concerning a certain area of theology, and then he demonstrates the Truth in answer to them.

I enjoy reading Hodge - sort of an updated Turretin.

Berkhof, Dabney, and Gill* can get very technical. If you are looking for precision, then these men are a good choice. I would recommend reading them after Calvin and a'Brackel.

Bullinger's Decades is systematics worked out through sermons. Thus, it is invaluable for a preacher. Excellent for laymen as well - he preaches right to you.

John Brown of Haddington's work has over 10,000 citations of Scripture in it, and that is the value of the book. However, you can only get it in a reprint of an old edition. Thus, it is a bit difficult to read, and there is a bit of a language difference between Early Modern English and Modern English (after a while you get used to it). I have memorized portions of his work for tests in Systematics, and have gotten "A's" in them! (updated the language of course)

To add one more to the list: Dr. Richard Gamble's Systematic/Biblical Theology which, if all goes well, should be available in September.

Be careful in reading Systematics, though, because too much exercise of the Brain, and not enough exercise of the Heart, can dry out the soul.

Grace and Peace,

-CH

*Exceptions I would make with Gill are his views on Baptism, Church Government, and, later in life, his hypercalvinism.