Robert Duncan Culver - Systematic Theology

[Jesus is my friend]

This seems like a great read and is on it's way from my bookseller,I am very excited for this primarily as a reference,the topic was posted 6 years ago with no comments,but Systematic's have been growing in publication since and I thought it would be helpful to gain some insight on this absolutely massive book.-Thanks for your help!

Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical: Culver Robert Duncan: 9781845500498: Amazon.com: Books

an interview from the publisher from 2012 (at 95yrs old-still sharp!)


Author Interview - Robert Duncan Culver | Christian Focus Booknotes


and lastly a more personal interview from Desiring God this week

The Old Man and His Big*Book - Desiring God

 

[RamistThomist]

that personal interview was really encouraging.

 

[Marrow Man]

He's still alive? That's great! I had his son (Douglas) as a Hebrew and OT professor in seminary. Even have an award in Hebrew named for my prof's mother (RDC's wife) still on my wall. His son was a good and godly man who died suddenly of a heart attack about 6 or 7 years ago. But good to see the father is still around.

 

[Pilgrim]

Excellent. One of the best published in recent years. It's very useful for reference purposes since he gets into historical theology and doctrinal development as well. Whether one agrees more with one or the other, in most places he is much more thorough and detailed than Grudem, for example. Occasionally he writes things that are laugh out loud funny. In that sense it's perhaps more like a ST lecture than most conventional ST's. Of all of the recent ST's published in recent years that are in the Reformed tradition, broadly speaking, Horton's is the only one that rivals it in terms of size and material.

To be sure he isn't confessional, but he's Calvinistic and also isn't a conventional dispensationalist. At best by the standards of this board he could maybe be considered to be progressive dispensational (in the sense that he's not covenantal) but he rejects both terms. It's possible that that's because he came to his views about 30 years or more before PD was hashed out by men who in some cases were probably 25-40 years his junior. He takes no position on the timing of the rapture but seems to lean against pre-trib.

Not only is the book large but the print is small. It probably would have been better for it to have been a 2 vol. work. That would have given him more space to delve deeper on certain issues. But the decision had been made for it to be one vol. which is probably also why the print is small. My eyes aren't what they used to be but I still find it readable.

 

[Pilgrim]

He's still alive? That's great! I had his son (Douglas) as a Hebrew and OT professor in seminary. Even have an award in Hebrew named for my prof's mother (RDC's wife) still on my wall. His son was a good and godly man who died suddenly of a heart attack about 6 or 7 years ago. But good to see the father is still around.

He still preaches too and reportedly was working his farm until just a few years ago.

 

[Marrow Man]

Wow! Those hearty Nordic types put folks like me to shame. And I grew up on a farm!

 

[Jesus is my friend]

Thanks so much for the helpful replies,I so admire the saints that have walked with Jesus for so many years and all the experiences the have to teach us.

I enjoy the seeming conversational style of this book,very engaging!

 

[lynnie]

Hi- I started reading Culver's ST about a year and a half ago during one of the worst times in my life. Our daughter's birth mom had appeared in Romania and made brief contact, after years of my daughter struggling with having been abandoned, and it threw her into an identity crisis and emotional chaos like nothing I had ever seen, with accompanying behaviors that blew me away. I should mention that a year ago she surrendered her life to the Lord, and the change is astonishing. I would never have believed in one year that someone her age could change to so much desire to live for the Lord. Glory to God alone.


I started with the Christology and would read a chapter and then go back and reread parts. It was like a lifeline to calm during those dark days. All the focus on Jesus- while in this constant fight- was just wonderful. What a great book.

I later read the chapters about God and now I am reading through the part on the church. I took a long break for Bavinck, but he is so detailed and into explaining so much error, and it was almost too hard to read, that I gave up and went back to Culver. I love it, especially all the history he works in. I did read a lot of Grudem and recommend it, but Culver is far better I think for people who like to read.

Enjoy your book!