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Looking to read both the classics and the newer stuff...Any suggestions would be great!
Calvin's Institutes
Luther Bondage of the Will
Francis Turretin's Institutes
Works of Thomas Brooks
Ames - Marrow of Theology
Works of John Owen
Anything by Jonathan Edwards
a Brakel's The Christian's Reasonable Service
See also:
http://reformedforum.org/resources/readinglist/
Of course, the WCF is a must read: Westminster Confession of Faith
You might also want to review the statements and other resources of the conservative Reformed Presbyterian churches: Member Churches - NAPARC
Finally, see also this thread:
http://www.christianforums.com/t7398432/
There is nothing better than reading the old dead guys, other than the Bible, of course!
Too many today suffer from chonological snobbery, thinking that we know better than those that have come before us that were illuminated by the same Spirit of Truth. Today the best we can do is stand atop the shoulders of others from the past.
When I read these old saints their Scripture-soaked and Christ-drenched thoughts often drive me to my knees. May it be the will of God to bless you with insight and wisdom in your forthcoming readings.
Calvin's Institutes is important even to liberal Presbyterians.
I would also suggest some history. Perhaps McGrath: Reformation Thought for the 16th Cent and something by R C Sproul on the Puritans.
Since the OP has expressed some interest elsewhere in mainline Reformed thought, Ill try to add something about that. its a bit early to declare classics. But pretty much everyone agrees that Barth is a key 20th Cent classic. Church Dogmatics is probably more than you want to read, but there are several single-volume extracts. For the earlier tradition some would suggest Schliermachers Christian Faith, but I suggest Walter Rauschenbusch, A Social Gospel. It has set the mainline agenda for a century. It is probably not what most people would expect. Its more about theology than social action.
But most mainline Reformed theology and Biblical exegesis is ecumenical. There are a number of introductions to contemporary theology. I dont have a special recommendation.
Current theology also tends to take account of current historical Jesus work. However at this point you risk being overly affected by my own biases. I want to base theology upon Jesus' actual teaching. That tends to tie my theology to historical Jesus research. If you don't know anything about it, one brief introduction is The Meaning of Jesus (Plus) by N T Wright and Borg. That gives the conservative and liberal ends of mainline Jesus scholarship. However there is a great concern about building faith upon this week's scholarly consensus about the Gospels. And in fact Wright may not be so popular with actual theologians of the PCUSA. (I can't speak for the other mainline Reformed church.) Thus as a guide to the way that leaders of my church actually think, in some ways the best introduction is probably something like Gerrish, Saving and Secular Faith. Gerrish is one of the most influential theologians in the PCUSA today.
Looking to read both the classics and the newer stuff...Any suggestions would be great!
Anything by Calvin
A.W. Pink ("The Sovereignty of God" is a modern classic, another to look for "The Attributes of God", and honestly most everything else he wrote, despite the fact he was more of a Calvinistic Baptist than Presbyterian/Reformed, despite the fact he was a dispensationalist. Pink is always worth reading when it comes to soteriology.)
Pink later abandoned dispensationalism and repudiated his earlier dispensationalist works. While Pink often makes for profitable reading, if the OP is already a Presbyterian or is looking to only read Presbyterian and (paedobaptist) Reformed authors, sticking to the kind of things that AMR posted (all Presbys I think except for the congregationalist Owen) is better, especially with regard to where to start first.
With regard to what separates liberal and conservative Presbyterians (and Protestants in general), J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism is a must read.
Pink later abandoned dispensationalism and repudiated his earlier dispensationalist works. While Pink often makes for profitable reading, if the OP is already a Presbyterian or is looking to only read Presbyterian and (paedobaptist) Reformed authors, sticking to the kind of things that AMR posted (all Presbys I think except for the congregationalist Owen) is better, especially with regard to where to start first.
With regard to what separates liberal and conservative Presbyterians (and Protestants in general), J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism is a must read.
I hope this isn't Machen's best work. It attacks a type of liberalism that certainly does exist, but which I've seldom seen in actual PCUSA churches. By his own definition I'm not a liberal, and I'm theologically (although not politically) to the left of most of our members. The tendency does exist, and mainline theologians need to face it. But if anyone intends to apply his critique to anyone other than the extreme left in most mainline churches, they're not being very careful.
Surely you are not suggesting that the mainline churches (I'm referring to denominations as a whole, and the PCUSA in particular) are more conservative now than in the 1920's? (Machen's book was published in 1923 during the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy.) That's basically the way your argument reads. Or were you simply unfamiliar with Machen?The problem with the book is that he uses the absurdity of these atypical liberals as a way to defend his own understanding of Jesus and Paul. But the real issue isn't with people who deny miracles and the importance of history, although the certainly exist. It's with scholars whose work suggests that Machen has misunderstood significant parts of what Jesus and Paul teach.
Is it your position that Wright's work on the resurrection, for example, is widely accepted and lauded in the PCUSA, etc.? (Particularly, PCUSA seminaries?) Perhaps we live in two different universes, but the mainliners I've known would regard Wright as being quite conservative and just to the left of being fundamentalist. (Everybody is somebody's fundamentalist, etc.) Besides, unless he's given indication elsewhere, I doubt the OP is looking for higher criticism, the latest quest for the historical Jesus, etc., none of which are Presbyterian specific anyway. Is there a distinctively Presbyterian way to do that?There are certainly conservatives who engage in these issues. However I'm not seeing many of them in the reading lists. Most of the lists from the conservative posters contain classic works from people who either precede 20th Cent scholarship or largely ignore it. They are worth reading. We certainly should not ignore Calvin or the Puritan writers because scholarship has progressed since. I find Calvin's theology and Biblical commetaries well worth reading. But this doesn't mean that modern Reformed folk have to believe the same thing, any more than modern scientists have to believe the some things as Newton.
Machen's book was published 91 years ago. It wasn't recommended with that in mind.To see what modern Reformed theology should look like, we need to engage the results of science and scholarship in detail. In this, the conservative cause deserves better than Machen, or at least Machen as he appears in that book.
I'm guessing that the OP is looking for "popular presentations" of Presbyterian and Reformed theology but my apologies if I'm wrong. But that's what I assume based on the brief question posed in the OP and not knowing the poster.There are conservative equivalents of Wright and Borg out there. It would probably be good to read them alongside of folks like Wright and Borg to see who you think does a better job of understanding the Bible. I'm not the best one to recommend specific authors. The most prominent tend to be the most extreme, but those tend to be the ones whose names I know. I've read several things by R C Sproul. He's does a great job presenting Puritan history and beliefs, and also a good job writing popular presentations of conservative Reformed theology, but I haven't read any serious Biblical scholarship or theology by him.
While not identical of course, there was actually no small degree of overlap in the KKK program and the progressive program of that era. (This was the second KKK, which had considerable influence outside of the old CSA.) That overlap included anti-Catholicism (which naturally included anti-immigration), disenfranchising blacks and other undesirables, eugenics, forced sterilization, Prohibition, etc. Woodrow Wilson was a theologically liberal Presbyterian who thought Birth of a Nation was fantastic to give one very prominent example. The methodology may have been different, but the ends were not all that different in some cases.His book may also require fact checking. He cites as an example of liberal overreach a law passed in Oregon in 1922 that required all students to go to public school. Several articles say that this bill was actually sponsored by the KKK, and was aimed against Catholics. It was overruled by the Supreme Court in 1925. The Oregon School Bill, 1922 and Ku Klux Klan in Washington State, 1920s. Last time I heard, the KKK was not motivated by liberal theology.
Another of his examples was a law prohibiting the teaching for foreign languages in Nebraska. Again, this was not an example of liberal overreach, but was anti-German. Meyer v. Nebraska - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
His book doesn't actually say that these laws resulted from liberal efforts at control, but it seems clearly implied by context. Perhaps he only meant them as examples of governmental overreach, with the implied claim that conservative theology does a better job of liberal theology protecting from that kind of thing. I can only say that conservative theology in the South didn't do a better job resisting KKK-sponored laws than liberal theology has done. I am actually very concerned with overreaching government. But so far as I haven't observed any superiority of conservative theology in restraining it. It seems to me that liberals and conservatives are equally willing to trample the rights of other in order to enforce their own views. At any rate, when he cited the examples he didn't do it in that way. The clear implication was that they were signs of the impact of liberalism.
These are the only two things in his book that I looked up. Let's hope the rest survives fact-checking better.
A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life by Beeke and Jones is an essential introduction to systematic theology from a Puritan perspective.
The kind of antisupernaturalism he opposed is alive and well in mainline churches. For starters I would cite the virgin birth and deity of Christ. It is not hard at all to find mainline ministers who deny both. And it wasn't hard to find them 20-30 years ago. And I live in the so-called "Bible Belt."
Surely you are not suggesting that the mainline churches (I'm referring to denominations as a whole, and the PCUSA in particular) are more conservative now than in the 1920's? (Machen's book was published in 1923 during the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy.) That's basically the way your argument reads. Or were you simply unfamiliar with Machen?
Is it your position that Wright's work on the resurrection, for example, is widely accepted and lauded in the PCUSA, etc.? (Particularly, PCUSA seminaries?) Perhaps we live in two different universes, but the mainliners I've known would regard Wright as being quite conservative and just to the left of being fundamentalist. (Everybody is somebody's fundamentalist, etc.) Besides, unless he's given indication elsewhere, I doubt the OP is looking for higher criticism, the latest quest for the historical Jesus, etc., none of which are Presbyterian specific anyway. Is there a distinctively Presbyterian way to do that?