The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline

by Geerhardus Vos

Publisher:

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company

, 1886

Overview

Delivered in May, 1894, as his inaugural address as professor of biblical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, this groundbreaking work has seen republication several times since, growing in popularity and referenced as often as any of Vos’ other works. Here he discusses the fundamental idea behind the pursuit of biblical theology, and the very nature of biblical theology itself.

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Interested in more? Be sure to check out the Select Works of Geerhardus Vos (14 vols.)

Key Features

• Presents Geerhardus Vos’ inaugural address at Princeton Theological Seminary
• Discusses the idea behind the pursuit of biblical theology
• Explores the very nature of biblical theology

Product Details

• Title: The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline
• Author: Geerhardus J. Vos
• Publisher: Anson D. F. Randolph & Son
• Publication Date: 1886
• Pages: 78
• Christian Group: Reformed
• Resource Type: Sermons
• Topic: Biblical Theology

About Geerhardus J. Vos

Geerhardus J. Vos was a Dutch-American theologian. He was the first alumnus of Calvin College (then Theological School) to earn a doctoral degree. Vos studied Old Testament at Princeton Seminary and graduated with honors and accepted an invitation to hold Princeton’s new chair of biblical theology in 1892. He held the chair until his retirement in 1932. During his time at Princeton, he taught some of the great Reformed minds of the twentieth century, including John Gresham Machen and Ned Bernard Stonehouse. Vos was also an essential catalyst in the establishment of Biblical Theology as a discipline and represented the early theological thought as one of the premier Reformed thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, his Reformed Dogmatics is an important piece of Reformed theology. He passed away in 1949. Vos’ thinking and scholarship in theology has influenced Cornelius Van Til, John Murray, Richard B. Gaffin Jr., and Herman Ridderbos.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Strictly speaking, therefore, we should say that not God in and for Himself, but God in so far as He has revealed Himself, is the object of Theology.” (Page 6)

“The first feature characteristic of supernatural revelation is its historical progress.” (Page 10)

“In all the other sciences man is the one who of himself takes the first step in approaching the objective world, in subjecting it to his scrutiny, in compelling it to submit to his experiments—in a word, man is the one who proceeds actively to make nature reveal her facts and her laws. In Theology this relation between the subject and object is reversed. Here it is God who takes the first step to approach man for the purpose of disclosing His nature, nay, who creates man in order that He may have a finite mind able to receive the knowledge of His infinite perfections.” (Page 6)

“In general, then, Biblical Theology is that part of Exegetical Theology which deals with the revelation of God” (Page 9)

“In the third place, Biblical Theology should plant itself squarely upon the truthfulness of the Scriptures as a whole” (Page 32)

Product Details

• Title: The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline
• Author: Geerhardus Vos
• Series: Princeton Theological Seminary
• Publisher: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company
• Print Publication Date: 1886
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible › Theology
• Resource ID: LLS:IDEABBLCLTHEOVOS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T03:58:51Z

About Geerhardus Vos

Geerhardus Vos (1862–1949), a Reformed theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology, he is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical Theology. He earned degrees from Calvin Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the University of Strasbourg (PhD in Arabic). In 1894 he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the USA. Before beginning a thirty-nine-year tenure on Princeton’s faculty, he was professor of systematic and exegetical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary.