Book Review: Reformed Confessions Harmonized

With an Annotated Bibliography of Reformed Doctrinal Works, edited by Joel R. Beeke and Sinclair B. Ferguson.

I often use this handy-dandy reference work when putting the Theological Term of the Week posts together, and I know there are some of you reading here who would find this as fun and useful as I do. Included are seven historic reformed confessions—the Belgic Confession of Faith (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Canons of Dort (1618-19), the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47) and the Larger and Shorter Westminster Catechisms (1647)—side by side in seven column format, arranged by subject matter. So when I want a historic quote on a particular theological term, I just find the topic in this book and pick a confession to quote.

Also included are an introduction explaining the historical background of each of the seven confessions and an annotated bibliography. The bibliography is organized by subject, and points us to the best English works up through the twentieth century on the various topics of the confession, giving a short summary of each work. On the doctrine of God, for instance, there are twelve recommended works, from Charnock’s classic, Discourses on the Existence and Attributes of God, to the more recent classic, J. I. Packer’s Knowing God.

This is a large book—8 1/2 x 11 and 288 pages—which helps make the seven columns easy to read for old fogies who have difficulty with fine print. It’s paperback, but with the sort of heavy cover and pages that text books are made of, so I expect it to stand up to repeated use better than most paperback books.

I love charts and comparing things, and that means I love this book for the format alone. I also love history and theology—and historic confessions, especially. You can’t imagine how much I’ve enjoyed comparing the different confessions, seeing where they differ and where they all agree. This kind of book is not for everyone, I know, but I’m pretty sure there are at least a few others who love things like this as much as I do.

Comments

[Kim from Hiraeth]

"there are several readers of this blog who would find it as fun and useful as I do."

Me, me! (Only for a 5 more months I will try to stick to my self imposed 'don't buy any more books until you read some you already have' ban. It WILL go on my "to be read" list with an asterisk!

[rebecca]

You could put it on your Christmas list and then you wouldn't have to wait the whole 5 months.

I guess you read this right after I first posted it and in the middle of my editing process. As it happens, the line you quoted is not longer there, at least not as you quoted it. Sorry about that, but I'm not changing it back. :)