Classic and New Systematic Theologies on the Rise

Systematic theology is a systematic, logical, and topical approach to organizing our knowledge about God and His works in creation. As such, there’s no such thing as doing apologetics before doing systematics since apologists defend not just a few facts, but the Christian worldview – the gospel – as a whole system. Thus, all apologists are by necessity, and to some degree, systematic theologians (but not all systematic theologians are necessarily apologists).

2009 is coming to a close, and God’s people have some big projects ahead of them. But before looking at the new wave of systematic theologies, it might be useful to create a concise chronological list of some of the best (most accurate and useful) systematic theologies since the time of the late Reformation, complete with links and dates of composition.

Late Reformation Period (1500-1650)

• John Calvin’s The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559)
• Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elentic Theology (1685)

Modernism

• Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology (1873)
• Robert L. Dabney’s Systematic Theology (1878)
• Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics (1895)
• Herman Bavinck’s Our Reasonable Faith (1909)

Post-Modernism

• Cornelius Van Til’s Introduction to Systematic Theology (penned in 1936, revised until 1974)
• John Frame’s A Theology of Lordship (1989-2008)
• Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (1995)
• Robert Reymond’s Systematic Theology (1998)
• J. Van Genderen’s Concise Reformed Dogmatics (2008)

Forthcoming! (or in progress)

• Douglas Kelley’s Systematic Theology
• Michael Horton’s The Christian Faith
• Richard Gamble’s The Whole Counsel of God

Notes:

• Louis Berkhof’s systematics is a rip-off of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, even to the point of plagiarizing entire sentences.
• On Post-modern period: J. Oliver Buswell’s systematics is very useful, but needs serious work on the prolegomena and epistemological issues.
• William Ames The Marrow of Theology , anyone?
• Bavinck’s Our Reasonable Faith is his own condensed version (about 1/4 the size) of his Reformed Dogmatics.