Prof. Scott Clark: "If Only Someone Would Translate These"

"The Heidelblog is devoted to recovering the Reformed confession. In this context the word confession has two senses. In the first sense it refers to the official, ecclesiastical, public, constitutional documents to which ministers and elders subscribe and to which members of Reformed churches assent, e.g., the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Standards. These are what we might call the Six-Forms of Unity. They summarize the theology, piety, and practice of the believing, confessing Reformed churches across the globe. There is a second sense of the word confession, however. It refers to the tradition within which these documents arose, from which the framers drew, and in which they must be interpreted. The confessional documents themselves are widely and easily available. The primary sources, however, are another matter. When I began to investigate the Reformed tradition c. 1980 the only way I knew to access the Reformed tradition was to read Calvin, Berkhof, Hodge, and Van Til. In seminary I got a copy of Ursinus’ lectures on the catechism (thanks to the Den Dulk Foundation) and we had access to bits and pieces of Turretin and a few others but by and large the texts of the Classic Reformed period (16th and 17th centuries) were locked away from most students.


"In recent years that has been changing. Today we have a growing number of translations available through the Classic Reformed Theology series (here and here) published by Reformation Heritage Books. That series has produced two works with two more important texts in the pipeline. Stay tuned! Today we have access to a translations of Turretin, Witsius, a Brakel, Ames, and others. Now there is a new project in the works which, should it come to fruition, will be immensely significant."


For the rest, see:
http://heidelblog.net/2014/02/if-only-someone-would-translate-these/