Synopsis of a Purer Theology (2 Volumes)

Over the past decade, the project of Protestant resourcement has exploded, giving pastors, scholars, and lay-people access to the great thinkers who shaped their tradition. Despite this great progress, many treasures of Reformed theology remain obscured from the lay-person, confined to academics with a working knowledge of Latin and Biblical languages–or, if translated, affordable only by libraries with large budgets.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, otherwise known as “the Leiden Synopsis,” is one such work. Collecting theological disputations delivered at the University of Leiden in the early 1600s, it is one of the most historically important and theologically comprehensive handbooks of Reformed theology, being a key influence for many Reformed theologians including Herman Bavinck, Abraham Kuyper, Karl Barth, Louis Berkhof, and Richard Muller. And yet, it has remained largely forgotten and left to a handful of Latin-reading scholars.

Now for the first time, the Davenant Press has published this significant work in a full English-only translation, in an affordable and concise two-volume set that includes introductory material to orient the reader to the text.

The Synopsis offers both a snapshot of the state of confessional theology in the 17th-century Dutch Reformed tradition, and also an enduring example of how the project of systematizing doctrine can serve the church. The Leiden professors modeled thoroughness and clarity of thought in the face of confusion, and a vision of irenic Christian unity over brittle doctrinal uniformity.

As Protestants endeavor both to recover their forgotten heritage and to pass it down to the next generation, we need examples of how this has been done before us. The Synopsis of a Purer Theology will serve to bring such illumination and perspective to a generation desperately in need of its boldness, clarity, and wisdom.

408 + 448 Pages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME I

Acknowledgements

Introduction
William den Boer & Riemer A. Faber

Preface
Synopsis of a Purer Theology 1625

DISPUTATIONS

1. Concerning the Most Sacred Theology
2. On the Necessity and Authority of Scripture
3. Concerning the Canonical and Apocryphal Books
4. On the Perfection of Scripture, and the Futility of Adding
5. About the Perspicuity and the Interpretation of Holy Scripture
6. About the Nature of God and his Divine Attributes
7. On the Holy Trinity
8. Concerning the Person of the Father and of the Son
9. On the Person of the Holy Spirit
10. Concerning the Creation of the World
11. On the Providence of God
12. Concerning the Good and Bad Angels
13. About Man Created in the Image of God
14. On the Fall of Adam
15. On Original Sin
16. On Actual Sin
17. On Free Choice
18. Concerning the Law of God
19. On Idolatry
20. Concerning the Oath
21. On the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day
22. On the Gospel
23. On the Old and the New Testament
24. On Divine Predestination
25. On the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Personal Union of the Two Natures in Christ
26. On the Office of Christ
27. On Christ in his State of Humiliation
28. On Jesus Christ in his State of Exaltation
29. On the Satisfaction by Jesus Christ
30. On the Calling of People to Salvation
31. On Faith and the Perseverance of the Saints

VOLUME II

Acknowledgements

DISPUTATIONS

32. On Repentance
33. On the Justification of Man in the Sight of God
34. On Good Works
35. On Christian Freedom
36. On the Religious Practice of Invocation
37. On Almsgiving and Fasting
38. On Vows
39. On Purgatory and Indulgences
40. On the Church
41. On Christ as Head of the Church, and on the Antichrist
42. On the Calling of Those Who Minister to the Church,
43. On the Sacraments in General
44. On the Sacrament of Baptism
45. On the Lord’s Supper
46. On the Sacrifice of the Mass and Its Abuses
47. On the Five False Sacraments of the Papists
48. On Church Discipline
49. On Ecclesiastical Councils or Meetings
50. On the Civil Magistrate
51. On the Resurrection of the Body and the Last Judgment
52. On Life and Death Everlasting and on the End of the World

END MATTER

Bibliography

Index