I have been collecting Reformed Systematic theologies for 6 years now and I think I've looked through or read most of all that I could find in English (plus Calvin in French). I've come to a strong conviction that Louis Berkhof's ST is the best ST (1 vol or multi) available in the English language. I'm going to make a bullet points of why in a second, but I would like your feedback and try to convince me otherwise.
1. It is afordable and compact.
2. Thought he writing style isn't very glamorous, clearly it isn't as bad as many try to make it out to be and he has the remarkable ability to compact so much into such little space using very few words.
3. It is free of unique tendancies that have plagued modern reformed ST's (Frame's biblicism; Grudem's baptistic-charismatic beliefs; Reymond's Bizzare understanding of Nicene theology; Horton's over emphasis on covenant & Lutheran sounding-kindest way to phrase it-of justification.
4. It is far more up to date and doesn't get too philosophical like Hodge or even Bavinck.
5. Berkhof relied heavily on Bavinck AND Vos, thus his work strongly reflects this.
6. His knowledge of post-ref debates was quite impressive and doesn't waste time talking about them. He alludes to them, while giving his opinion.
7. His opinions on pretty much everything, as far as I can tell, reflect mainstream calvinism in it's majority positions.
That being said, I'd like to see a new edition with the bible verses written out as foot notes-even if it's small print. It would be very useful. Also changing the index from roman numerals to arabic numerals would be nice. Another nice thing would be to attach at the end his ''History of Christian doctrines'' volume. It goes along superbly with his ST and his Intro (which was supposed to be printed with the original edition).
1. It is afordable and compact.
2. Thought he writing style isn't very glamorous, clearly it isn't as bad as many try to make it out to be and he has the remarkable ability to compact so much into such little space using very few words.
3. It is free of unique tendancies that have plagued modern reformed ST's (Frame's biblicism; Grudem's baptistic-charismatic beliefs; Reymond's Bizzare understanding of Nicene theology; Horton's over emphasis on covenant & Lutheran sounding-kindest way to phrase it-of justification.
4. It is far more up to date and doesn't get too philosophical like Hodge or even Bavinck.
5. Berkhof relied heavily on Bavinck AND Vos, thus his work strongly reflects this.
6. His knowledge of post-ref debates was quite impressive and doesn't waste time talking about them. He alludes to them, while giving his opinion.
7. His opinions on pretty much everything, as far as I can tell, reflect mainstream calvinism in it's majority positions.
That being said, I'd like to see a new edition with the bible verses written out as foot notes-even if it's small print. It would be very useful. Also changing the index from roman numerals to arabic numerals would be nice. Another nice thing would be to attach at the end his ''History of Christian doctrines'' volume. It goes along superbly with his ST and his Intro (which was supposed to be printed with the original edition).