This influential book has merited this beautiful new release. Included now as an extra is Berkhof’s Introductory Volume to Systematic Theology. That’s almost 200 pages of additional material. It’s slightly more academic as it explains Dogmatic Theology including description and methodology. It particularly gives additional insights on the Doctrine of Revelation or Scripture.

The main text gives a treasure trove for students of near 800 pages. He gives what I’ll call the classic reformed position. If you’re trying to get a handle on that view, start here. I like to have systematic theologies from a few perspectives on hand and I want them dogmatically written. My thought is, give me your best shot. From there, I can compare and weigh. Probably systematic theologies are the only category of books I want in that style.

Berkhof won’t fail you on that score. In fact, my only slight criticism of the book is when he goes off on certain personalities and groups. He is not insulting, but he wants you to see them as off the reservation.

Still, the book is an awesome resource. What amazed me is that even though he wrote as a teacher, he was wonderfully clear, engaging, and even lively. In a systematic theology that helps. I read several sections and thought, I’ve got to come back and work through this the next time I’m doing major work on that doctrine.

This is one of the heavy hitters in the systematic theology category. I guarantee you I’ll always be consulting it in the future.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

This book is needed. Or at least I needed it. I always felt books of this nature have so often in my experience been a proponent of one view at the expense of the others. To be sure, there’s a place for a few of those, but I found it helpful to have each of the positions laid out respectfully side by side. Mr. Merkle excelled with that set up. The careful reader can probably find his position, but that it was hard to find is amazing on this subject where everyone likes to be a screaming fan of the team they are on. In other words, this subject with its implications for the big picture of Scripture needed this approach. And Mr. Merkle delivered.

The only negative, and it’s not that huge, is that the terms “discontinuity” and “continuity” are loaded terms in this case. “Discontinuity” is really a negative term and is not a great distance from “chaos”. Clearly those on the side of “continuity” slyly chose these terms. In Mr. Merkle’s defense, he did not create these labels.

It’s also not surprising that this discussion is tricky. Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology have been the big boys at the table for a long time. Both have issues because they, with good intentions I’m sure, tried to make sense of the Bible at large. They both tried to pack in more than the systems could hold resulting in ruptures in places where the excess pops out. There’s as much theological positions from other major issues being crammed in as unadulterated Bible being brought in. No wonder it’s hard to keep straight.

Mr. Merkle was a gentleman in a space where few reside and it paid off. I enjoyed going through his thoughtful, careful presentation of each position. Every position had something to be commended for even though they may have been boxed in at times. You could tell (he listed them in the acknowledgements) that he genuinely interacted with those in each position. That paid off too.

His framework of comparing, a) basic hermeneutic, b) view of the covenants, c) view of Israel and the church, and d) view of the Kingdom of God was well conceived. It didn’t favor any position and got at the real goal of just explaining positions.

I didn’t change my position, but I honed a few important points in my mind. This book helped me and I suspect it could help anyone. It’s a keeper.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

This book sneaks up on you. At first, you will think Mr. Perrin is not coming at his subject head on, but more a coming in from the side. You will be gaining incredibly interesting information as you go, but it may be nearing the end, at least if you are like me, before you realize that he has really delivered on bringing out what precisely is the Kingdom of God. It’s not exactly like other books on the subject I’ve seen, but by the end that’s why it’s good.

He has a lively writing style. He’s a little heavy on pop culture. I mean he named several popular modern musicians that I couldn’t identify in a police lineup, but it’s not really a detriment to the book. He writes in a vein that is happily catching fire in biblical theology these days where the main themes of the Bible are held on to no matter the subject at hand. That’s a richer track to travel in my book.

The beginning is a bit clanky as he discusses scholarly background stuff, but he reaches cruising altitude by the second chapter and maintains it to the end. Only chapter 8 on the signs of the Kingdom had me scratching my head AND never quite putting it together. The fault, though, may be mine. Mostly you get nuggets dug out and laid before you.

My only slight criticism would be occasional exegesis that seemed a little overwrought. He did like sometimes an obscure linguistic choice that you wonder if hardly anyone else would agree and then make it key to interpreting the passage. I’m not saying he was wrong, but you might need more proof to really accept it. Overall, however, the work is provocative in a meaningful way.

This book with its scriptural index is a treasure trove where you go could go seeking specific insights; but more importantly, it really contributes something tangible to the often nebulous topic of the Kingdom of God.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Here is a fascinating look at what the author calls Divine Love Theory. On the one hand, I fully subscribe to this idea as something of the big picture of our faith. I found much here to strengthen my inclinations. On the other hand, this book is something of a technical look (point-counterpoint) at it and particularly the author’s precise theory or presentation of it. It’s still good and it reads with as much a philosophical tone as a theological one.

He will usually interact with other theories or writers to flesh out his ideas, but he is still easy to read compared to what you usually find with that style. I notice that he excels at building his argument, presenting it sequentially, and meeting all objections along the way. This approach will thrill academic types, but those outside that world might prefer something more in the popular vein. I believe Mr. Johnson could write such a work since he succeeded in communicating even in the academic style. Readers should, though, create expectations with this in mind.

Going forward, this will likely be a reference title to me. I underlined a lot of things that I can use if I encounter these issues again. I will be able to expect clear analysis in those cases with this work.

I could even feel comfortable saying the position in this book is now my own; that is, the precision and supporting details matches what I believe implicitly. There’s great competency here!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Here’s another option for a systematic theology. To be honest, I had never heard of Cornelis van der Kooi or Gijsbert van den Brink. Still, I figured it must have some value if it was picked up by Eerdmans since a publisher would have to have some confidence to publish another volume in the crowded systematic theology field.

It turns out that these authors come from the influential Dutch Reformed theology stream. That stream gave us, among others, Bavinck. Be that as it may, this book did not seem like reading Bavinck to me. The writing style was more modern and at times the theology was too.

These authors struck me as mostly true to what I’d expect from a reformed theologian with a few modern concessions. I read some sections carefully because I’d been studying them and had a better basis of comparison. For example, their section on the Holy Spirit was unique. Not exactly how others have tackled the subject even among those on their own team. Not really unorthodox either, just emphasizing on the down beat. Where you’d expect more, you may not find it; where you expect little, you may get a basket full. Again, on the Holy Spirit check out what they had to say on the Spirit and the Word. That’s where I got my basket full while, say, on the deity or filling of the Spirit not so much.

That trend continued as I delved into other sections. Mark this down as good second-level option. It’s never going to knock the big boys off their perch, either for the public at large or for my own shelves, but from its peculiar vantage point it can give new visions of the exquisite portrait of God’s Word. The gallery is not as crowded here so you can take your time and enjoy what most of the crowd never sees. I don’t know about you, but I love to take some moments on this side of the gallery as well.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Why isn’t this book more well known? Rather than saying it fills a niche in the mass of books on the Holy Spirit, I’d say it fills a large hole. It covers many things that my pile of books on the Holy Spirit somehow never gets round to. Even among books specifically on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, it is a book that better stands back and takes in the horizon. It certainly helped me tie up some loose ends in my own thinking.

I can overview the chapters and flow of this book and you will likely go, ho-hum. It seems straightforward, but its value is not in its common layout, but the incredible things it says inside it. Chapter 1 on “spirit” or “ruah” is the best I’ve encountered. It makes sense if the nebulous. Chapters 2-5 lays out in mostly OT order the Holy Spirit in Creation, in God’s people, in leadership, and in prophecy. Most chapters take a big-picture analysis before going through the requisite biblical passages. I love the design. It’s the premise and then the proof beautifully expressed and exquisitely profound.

Chapter 6 gives a few additional insights, but the success of the book is already in your hands by then. I don’t agree with the significance of every ANE connection he finds or every scholarly strand he builds, but the synthesis that the whole of the work gives is extraordinary.

I give this one the highest recommendation!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.