Customer Reviews

Institutes of Elenctic Theology Vol. 2

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Francis Turretin (1623-1687) was a pastor, and taught at the Academy of Geneva. This is the second volume of his spirited and exhaustive defense of Reformed Theology. Samuel Alexander called Turretin "the best expounder of the doctrine of the Reformed Church" (high praise when you remember that John Calvin did a little exposition of Reformed dogmatics himself). This volume covers: the Law of God, the Covenant of Grace, The person and state of Christ, the mediatorial office of Christ, calling and faith, justification, and sanctification and good works. The section on God's law (which has a wonderful exposition of the 10 commandments) is worth the price of the book alone. This volume and its companions are a must in any serious theological library.

Francois Turtetin's _Institutes of Elenctic Theology_ is arguably the most systematic and nuanced works of High Calvinist Scholasticism. A copy should grace every serious historical (and systematic) theologian's bookshelf no matter what the theological tradition. (Personal disclosure: I am an "orthodox" Thomist and a Catholic priest.) Easy 5 stars.
That said, this translation needs revision and a new edition. G. M. Giger (Prof. of Classics at Princeton Univ.) whipped off this translation at the request of Charles Hodge in the 1850s. It was kept hidden behind the charge desk at Princeton Seminary so that Hodge's Latin-defective students could consult it when they tried to puzzle through the Latin original. Although some corrections and enendations have been made, this translation bears the marks of its hasty origins and is mostly a typescript of Giger's hand-written manuscript.
While the editors are to be commended for tracking down the citations to Church Fathers and a handful of famous writers, for whom they usually also include indication of modern translations, little has been done to identify Turretin's citations the the hundreds of contemporary authors (Catholic and protestant). These authors' names are left in their Latin dress: "Toletanus" "Bannes" "Sixtus Sennensis" etc. The editors needed a copy of Huerter's _Nomenclator_ and so does the user. A shame because Turretin's wide and ecumenical reading is one of the strong points of his work.
One would hope that a future edition will track down who the all the authors cited and add indication of their books and the pages in point. Knock off two stars (sorry).

Turretin has, arguably, the best systematic understanding of scripture ever. He draws on the foundations that Calvin built and makes irrefutable arguments. Baptists should take note of his arguments for baptizing infants. He makes an argument unlike any other I have seen. If you read Turretin honestly, you will see the genius of this man's mind in his 3 volumes.

His elenctic approach means that he sets out to refute his opponents in order to prove his own position. I think the modern reader may find some of his wording cumbersome, but, like Owen, he is worth plowing through.

He unifies his systematic theology by the use of theology proper. Inman (Westminster PhD) has done a good service of bringing out the rich covenantal strain in Turretin's works.