BEHOLD, this will be a list of my Reformed resources that I have in good editions in my kindle that scream out to me as being a part of my 1st theological mountain to learn the ropes from some of the best in the Reformed cosmos.
1. Calvin's Institutes -- this goes without saying, and I would normally boast about it having footnotes unlike the Beveridge translation, but ever since I saw a video that called attention to the suspect quality of the footnotes of the otherwise standard edition causes me to pass them over most of the time whilst reading the pluperfect text, from what I've seen the footnotes like to bring Karl Barth into things, I believe it was put together in the 60s when theology was dominated by liberal theologians. Anyway Calvin's great work is fundamental for Reformed Theology, and for the record he doesn't use much ink on the doctrines he's most known for standing for, the longest chapter is about prayer. He was really prolific too in other writings, if you're into these things Calvin is a large body of water that you can drink, and it has tasty little fishy beings there too.
2. Stephen Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God -- in the theological loci right after the prolegomena is traditionally dealt with what Stephen's great series of lengthy discourses does, it's the best of it's kind brothers and sisters!! I'll be reading this in large chunks of time which for me is anything over an hour before going to the many other resources i've amassed. The Crossway edition which come in 2 handsomely designed hardcovers has a neat Introduction which gives the life of ole Mr. Charnock and a most endearing story which involved a little matter of his whole library going up in flames. Only real bibliophiles can understand the anguish that could put a person through, and this Introduction describes Charnock's state admirably.
3. Sin and Temptation -- John Owen this is vol. 15 in Crossway's complete works of this guy, these are the classic three about these matters plus a later treatise I've not read or committed to memory yet, oh this is the stuff to remove the icky stuff in your life. wink wink I don't talk about a certain thing here on SW because that's a completely other person I wish to eradicate, and yes these works by Owen are the best of their kind. I therefore here abandon any design fashioned after a systematic Loci arrangement.
3. The Christian's Reasonable Service by Wilhelmus a Brakel is a shining example of the Dutch Further Reformation, and from what i've heard it gets really warm and devotional in the 3rd volume on, (4 volumes in all) some guy said in a video that a 5th part was untranslated which treats of eschatology, the last things. I don't usually think the Reformed shines best in this department, but overall this is a part of the whole system I don't find myself thinking all that much on. It's because I grew up in a fervor over the commodification of prophecy wackaloons. I have a nice Reformed friendly book about Dispensationalism gotten specifically to give me an antidote to such madness, and would like to learn more in the future of eschatology, in Puritan Board I remember there was a buzz about a certain teacher's commentary on Revelation, I don't know wheter it's all that Pre-Trib or Post or Mid or what, also I have a book about the 4 interpretations of Rev. So that could help too, but I'm not ready quite yet, a Brakel's guidance in the other areas of theology is more up my alley.
4. Institutes of Elenctic Theology -- this is a difficult book, but i'm taking my time with it, when I first got it, I paid the full price, over 50 times 3 and it comes with misspellings in every paragraph!! I was lucky to have snatched a 3 in volume typo free version for free in a bad bad service that I believe is defunct now, when I talked about this when I was on Puritan Board they guilt tripped me into getting rid of the typo free version!!
5. Theoretical-Practical Theology -- by the time I finish this 7 volumes work will be I think the summit of this mountain, 2 more to be released, and it was an epic long wait between volumes 4 and 5!! Mastrict was Jonathan Edwards favorite, that's for most the claim to fame about this Dutch epic!! I'm only scraping the surfaces of it, and it is a wild ride indeed, each part is divided into 4 parts, each part done in it's own way, so for me the ability to say, "Oh I think I know what's coming next" will be after more time is spent with it. I needed to jump right into vol. 2 a couple days ago because I had had it with the "talking about" I want the "talking of" stuff to commence, these aren't novels, they're textbooks, they're so sharply laid out and clearly defined, it's almost like they want you to go where you feel called to.
6. Reformed Dogmatics by Herman Bavinck -- but before the summit, I have HB's monumental work to paddle through on the scenic route, or like Dr. Who's TALIS teleporting through the doctrines like a sci-fi hero!!
7. Reformed Systematic Theology by Joel R. Beeke and his trusty sidekick Paul M Smalley give you a most detailed and easy to read summation, and each chapter ends with a one two punch of Doxology and 2 levels of questions to ponder the first part has the answers in the chapter, and the 2nd require deep thinking, and aren't explicitly in the chapter, Oooooh eh? I often skip these questions and doxologies, being just a meat and potatoes kinda guy. But oh these chunky volumes are just the sweetest thing that ever so slightly dumbs it down a tad from the dizzying heights of Bavink, Turretin and Mastricht. Here we find a wisp of the Puritan experiential touch which is Beeke's bread and butter, he's this generation for Puritan appreciation that folks like JI Packer was for the 2nd last generation, like the 50's era onward. I breathed the wisps of Packer's aroma as I grew up.
Not by a long shot are these the only things I have to be reading, there are close to 1000 I've set apart to be in the mix, and i'd like to close on how I read from one of them to dad tonight, which had a beneficial effect on him, I read Letter 1 of Anne Dutton!! It was so theologically rich!! Another hallowed collection of Letters in the Reformed tradition are the Letters of Samuel Rutherford.
What's that I hear???
By golly it's Stephen Charnock, he's saying he needs a word with me, welp gotta go!!
I apologize for the initial comment, one shouldn't compare certain things, Thanks for your reply, I may be am too fervent for my esteem of human writers, but I like to read, and finding the best in whatever fields they are.
