The Reformation

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Calvin: A Biography, by Bernard Cottret, translated by M. Wallace McDonald, Eerdmans, 2000. Reviewed by RPTS student Ricky Kortyna.

Cottret and McDonald are both to be credited for a wonderfully written biography of Calvin. Cottret is an outstanding writer, capable of distilling complicated information in a lucid sentence or two. The text of this book is factual, is far more readable than most academic works, and displays some well-placed humor.

The book is divided into three sections: The first deals with the birth and youth of Calvin; the second with the maturation of Calvin and his thinking; and the third with the major beliefs of Calvin. Cottret explores Calvin as a complex, evolving person; not just a theologian, polemicist, preacher, and writer, but also a person influenced by the social, political, and theological movements of his time. Calvin was not merely the author of Institutes of the Christian Religion. By his willingness to consider Calvin a person, Cottret allows us to accept Calvin’s weaknesses, his insulting rhetoric, his ill health, his stubbornness.

Other theologians—Bucer, Beza, Servetus, Bolsec, and Castellio—are all skillfully interwoven into this biography, but there is never a doubt that they are truly secondary in importance. Cottret does not place Calvin on a pedestal, yet in spite of his weaknesses, Calvin does end up on a pedestal for his genius for interpreting Scripture.

This book is a well-balanced look at one of the great men of theology and should be read by seminary students, their professors, and any layperson who wants a better grasp of John Calvin. It is a great read.

The Puritans

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Who Are the Puritans? And What do They Teach? by Erroll House, Evangelical Press, 2000. Paperback, 220 pp., $14.99. Reviewed by David Whitla.

The writings of the 17th-Century English Puritans were largely neglected for much of the 20th Century. Extensive republishing of Puritan material has made these mighty works widely available once more. This book will urge many to delve into this wealth of material.

The title sums up the entire book. Divided neatly into three parts, the first two answer the question, “Who are the Puritans?” and the third, “What do they teach?” The book is attractively presented. Written in a very readable style, it should appeal to a broad readership.

The author expresses his aim to “create enthusiasm for the Puritans in order to profit from their practical example and benefit from their unique balance of doctrine, experience, and practice…Teaching which engenders holy living and stability is vastly needed. Historically, the Puritan epoch is best able to supply this need, for they were strongest where the churches in general are weakest today.” Hulse persuasively argues that the Puritans’ writings are ideally suited to addressing the present-day trends in the church.

Part one is entitled “The Story of the Puritans,” and provides an overview of the history of the Puritan movement. Helpful timelines and illustrations guide us through this period.

Part two focuses on the lives of 24 Puritans. Some are familiar names to many of us—John Owen, John Bunyan, and Richard Baxter. Other are less well known, such as the Baptists Knollys and Jessey. Each biography is brief and contains a portrait and a bibliography of their books that are currently in print.

Part three is perhaps the most important section of the book. Entitled “Help From the Puritans,” it makes up one half of the book and supplies many quotations from the Puritans on various subjects of particular importance in our day. The mini-essays provide a wealth of helpful material.

Finally, there are six interesting appendices on related topical and historical subjects, such as, “Were the Puritans Narrow-minded Bigots?” and “The Ongoing Influence of the Puritans.” An extensive bibliography is provided for further research.

I would particularly recommend this book to teens and to homeschooling parents as a useful history textbook covering the Puritan period from the Reformation to the Restoration. It is for any reader who would like an introduction to this important period and her uniquely gifted preachers.

The Irish Puritans: James Ussher and the Reformation of the Church, by Crawford Gribben, Evangelical Press, 2003. Paperback, 160 pp., $14.99. Reviewed by David Whitla.

Readers familiar with the history of the Reformation in England and Scotland will know the stories of such heroes of the faith as Knox in Scotland and Cranmer in England, but they may be less familiar with the story of James Ussher and the attempted reformation of the church in Ireland—the subject of this fascinating little book.

It is a story full of lessons for the church today—particularly for the church in Ireland, but applicable to believers everywhere. Dr. Gribben has successfully culled some fascinating vignettes from a familiar period in an unfamiliar setting, and applied their lessons with pointed (and sometimes uncomfortable) precision in today’s church.

Ussher is best known for calculating the date of Creation at 4004 B.C., but the author reveals him as having had a far greater impact on the church as a scholar and church leader than as a chronologist. Here was a man who had a great vision for the evangelization of an entire nation by a united front of believers of differing theological persuasions around a common Reformed confessional standard (the “Irish Articles,” which are included in an appendix).

This goal was never attained. Gribben’s thesis contends that if the Puritans, Covenanters, Baptists, and other evangelical groups of the time had not bickered over what he considers “details” (church government, baptistic viewpoints, eschatology, church-state relations, etc.), then this vision, by God’s grace, might have become reality. While not all readers will agree with all the details of the argument, the author presses it home convincingly to the contemporary church, which may be guilty of the same attitudes that divided the church in the 17th Century.

The Irish Puritans is a popular history that fills a large gap on the shelves of readers of church history. But more than that, its compelling message could have a transforming effect on the evangelistic preferences and goals of today’s bitterly divided evangelicals.

Commentaries

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THE COMING OF THE WARRIOR-KING: Zephaniah Simply Explained, by Daniel Webber, Evangelical Press, 2004. Paperback, 190 pp. $14.99. Reviewed by David Whitla.

The growing series of Welwyn commentaries produced by Evangelical Press in Great Britain present an excellent blend of scholarship, pastoral warmth, and practical application. They are useful to pastors for sermon preparation yet accessible to laymen for personal Bible study. This latest offering in the series on the book of Zephaniah is one of the finest yet published.

The author is Daniel Webber, a veteran pastor, Puritan scholar, and director of European Missionary Fellowship (EMF). Writing in a pastoral and readable style, Webber deftly handles the prophet’s often complex, interwoven themes of judgment and restoration, not softening the thrust of the warnings, and applying them with precision to our current day. Each of the 10 chapters subdivides nicely into bite-sized chunks for daily devotions and ends with points to ponder. The commentary is based on the NIV, though it substitutes many preferred readings throughout, and there are sufficient footnotes to encourage deeper study. Of particular help is Webber’s treatment of the nature of Scripture and biblical prophecy in the introduction. In a day when there is much confusion in this realm, the author’s sane explanation of the layers of prophecy within Scripture’s covenantal structure is most welcome.

Ministering during the dark final days of Judah’s kingdom, Zephaniah brought the message of impending judgment at the hand of Jehovah, the “Warrior-king.” Although the message is sobering in its import for the prophet’s day and our own, Zephaniah also contains some of the Old Testament’s most beautiful words of promise and restoration. Webber’s commentary reinforces the startling, up-to-date relevance of God’s Word in the often-overlooked minor prophets. Serious scholars will want to look elsewhere for meatier textual studies, but this book is an excellent place to begin for those who want something more in-depth than daily reading notes.

Reprints of Note

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Reprints of Interest. Reviewed by Tom Reid.

Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company (P&R) has republished J. G. Vos’s Westminster Larger Catechism (2002), which originally appeared in the pages of the Blue Banner Faith and Life journal from 1946 to 1949. Vos was an RPCNA minister, author, and professor. All of his writings are clear and helpful. Few writers have tackled the complexities of the Larger Catechism, so this republication in book form is welcome.

P&R has also published a new edition of G. I. Williamson’s justly famous work on the Westminster Confession of Faith (2002). Williamson’s volume is particularly useful for study classes, with questions at the end of each chapter.

Reformed Free Publishing Association has increased its publishing output in recent years. Two new editions they have produced are particularly noteworthy. Herman Hanko’s We and Our Children is a critique of David Kingdon’s Children of Abraham, one of the most important Reformed Baptist polemics against infant baptism. When Hanko’s first edition was used in a group study at Covenant Fellowship (Pittsburgh, Pa.) RPC more than two decades ago, it was found informative and convincing, even though nobody in the group had read Kingdon’s volume.

Also republished, but with fewer changes, is Herman Hoeksema’s important Reformed Dogmatics, now in two volumes. Hoeksema was famous for his opposition to “common grace” and the “free offer of the gospel,” but Dogmatics shows his wide interest in subjects across the six traditional theological foci. Particularly useful are his extended expositions of certain key passages. It is always revealing to watch a master theologian exegete the basic material of systematics.