13
October 1873 A.D. (Rev.
Prof.) Louis Berkhof was born. He died on May 18, 1957.
Berkhof, Louis. Systematic
Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977.
First, we
include a brief Wiki-bio. Second, we call
attention to a short bio: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/berkhof . Third,
there is an excellent summary by Banner of Truth’s Mr. (Rev.) Geoff Thomas at: http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/articles/article_detail.php?1389 . We did
not reduplicate that but we do recommend the article. Fourth, we have included an outline of Mr.
Berkhof’s infamous Systematic Theology. (5)
Before the Wiki-bio, this observation:
Aren’t you glad for the Calvinists in Grand Rapids? For Zondervan, Baker Academics, William B.
Eerdmans, Kregel Publishing and more?
Personal
life
About the time he graduated from the
seminary he married Reka Dijkhuis. They had four children before her death in
1928. He then married Dena Heyns-Joldersma who had two daughters.[1]
Education
and career
In 1900, he graduated from Calvin Theological
Seminary in Grand
Rapids after which he was appointed pastor of the First Christian Reformed
Church in Allendale Charter
Township, Michigan. Two years later he attended Princeton
Theological Seminary where he earned his B.D. in two years. He returned to
Grand Rapids to pastor Oakdale Park Church.
In 1906, he joined the faculty of
Calvin Theological Seminary and taught there for almost four decades. For the
first 20 years he taught Biblical Studies until in 1926 he moved into the
systematic theology department. He became president of the seminary in 1931 and
continued in that office until he retired in 1944.[2]
Publications
Berkhof wrote twenty-two books during
his career.[1]
His main works are his Systematic
Theology (1932, revised 1938) which was supplemented with an Introductory
Volume to Systematic Theology (1932, which is included in the 1996
Eerdmans’s edition of Systematic Theology) and a separate volume
entitled History of Christian Doctrines (1937).
He wrote a more concise version of his
Systematic Theology for high
school and college students entitled Manual
of Christian Doctrine, and later wrote the even more concise Summary of
Christian Doctrine.
He also delivered Princeton
Theological Seminary's Stone Lectures in 1951. These were published as The Kingdom of God.
Legacy
Berkhof was not known for being
original or speculative but for being very good at organizing and explaining
basic theological ideas following in the tradition of John
Calvin, Abraham
Kuyper and Herman
Bavinck.
Theologian Wayne
Grudem has called Berkhof's Systematic Theology "a
great treasure-house of information and analysis... probably the most useful
one-volume systematic theology available from any theological
perspective."[3]
Berkhof's writings continue to serve
as systematic presentations of Reformed theology. They are organized for use in
seminaries and religious education as well as individual reference, though his
systematics works are demanding reads.[4]
References
3.
^ Grudem, Systematic Theology, Zondervan,
1994, pg. 1225
External
links
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