"When I was young, I had to walk five miles in the snow to school every day! Uphill, both ways!" We've all heard the cliches about how times were tougher for previous generations, but in terms of easy access to classic works of Reformed theology, it's true. If we think about systematic theologies, when I started seminary in 1990, most of us knew of John Calvin's Institutes, Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology, and Louis Berkhof's Systematic Theology. Anyone with acess to a CBD catalog could purchase those works. With access to a good library we seminary students were also able to find others such as Wollebius's Compendium (found in John Beardslee's Reformed Dogmatics), Ames, Shedd, Dabney, and selections of Reformed scholastics in Heinrich Heppe's Reformed Dogmatics. But for the average pastor, those works were not easily accessible.
That was 1990. That's not that long ago. Despite what some among Generation Z may think, 1990 was not the age of the dinosaurs. We had already discovered fire and knew how to make it. We knew about electricity. We had already invented horseless carriages. But unless you had a good grasp of Latin and easy access to a great library, finding the classic works of Reformed systematic theology was difficult. For most of us, we had one classic work from the 16th century (Calvin), one from the late 19th century (Hodge), and one from the early 20th century (Berkhof). There was a huge gap between the time of Calvin and the time of Hodge, and no new Reformed systematic theologies had been written since Berkhof. It was, of course, possible to find old editions of the works of the Puritans and of men such as John Dick and B. B. Warfield, but the great works of the Reformed orthodox theologians of the 16th and 17th century were out of the reach of most seminarians and pastors. Things began to change for the better in late 1992, when the English translation of the first volume of Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology was published by P&R Publishing Company.
Since then, slowly but surely, more and more classic works of Reformed theology have been translated and published. In 2014, the first volume of Synopsis of a Purer Theology was published by Brill (a far less expensive edition was published in 2023 by Davenant Press). In 2018, the first volume of Petrus van Mastricht's Theoretical-Practical Theology was published by Reformation Heritage Books. Other, lesser known, classic Reformed theologians have also been translated and published since 1992 (e.g. Olevianus, Rollock, Heidegger, Witsius, Brakel, etc.). Even important 19th/20th century works have been newly translated. In 2003, the first volume of Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics was published by Baker books. At the forefront of the effort to translate and publish more of the classic works of Reformed theology has been Reformation Heritage books, and within the next few months they will be releasing two more classic works. The first is Campegius Vitringa's Fundamentals of Sacred Theology.
This 17th century work, translated by Levi Berntson, my colleague at Reformation Bible College, is arranged in one thousand concise statements. Berntson, who is presently completing his PhD on Vitringa, provides a very helpful introduction and a brilliant translation. For those wanting to expand their knowledge of late Reformed orthodox theology, I cannot recommend this highly enough. In September, RHB will be publishing a new translation of Girolamo Zanchi's Confession of the Christian Religion.
I say "a new translation" because this work was translated into English about 400 years ago, and that old English translation has been available until recently in a two-volume Latin/English edition published by Brill. There are, however, several advantages to the new RHB translation. First, it is a modern English translation with modern English spelling. Second, the Brill edition is currently out of print. Third, Brill apparently uses paper made from trees harvested in Narnia, because the two-volume set (when available) was $257. The RHB volume will be sold for $60. Zanchi's Confession of the Christian Religion is one of the first works of early Reformed orthodoxy, and as such holds an important place in the history of Reformed theology. These classic works of Reformed theology are theologically rich and edifying. Get a copy for your pastor. Get a copy for yourself.