Baker Academic Heidelberg Catechism Collection (2 vols.)

by Caspar Olevianus; Lyle D. Bierma; Paul W. Fields; Charles D. Gunnoe Jr.

and

1 more

Publishers:

Paternoster; Baker; Baker Academic

, 1995–2005

Overview

One of the most influential of the Reformed catechisms is the Heidelberg Catechism (also known as the Palatinate Catechism). Combining the best of Lutheran and Reformed teaching, and counteracting the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, it is an instructional manual on the basics of the Protestant Christian faith. The Heidelberg Catechism is divided into 52 sections (called Lord’s Days), and includes 129 questions on the faith, divided into three parts: The Misery of Man; The Redemption of Man; and The Gratitude Due from Man.

The Baker Academic Heidelberg Catechism Collection provides two volumes on the Heidelberg Catechism. The first is a commentary on the Lord’s Days 5 through 24. The second volume analyzes various aspects of the Heidelberg Catechism, including its historical background, purpose, authorship, theology, and more.

This collection is essential for students, scholars, pastors, historians, teachers of the Bible, and anyone else studying church history, the Reformed faith, and the Heidelberg Catechism. With Logos Bible Software, these volumes are completely searchable—Scripture passages appear on mouseover and link to your preferred English translation and to the original language texts. For scholarly work or personal Bible study, this makes these volumes more powerful and easier to access than ever before. With Logos’ advanced features, you can perform comprehensive searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of “righteousness,” or “Romans 3:21.”

Key Features

• Contains commentary on the Lord’s Days 5 through 24
• Analyzes the Heidelberg Catechism’s authorship, sources, historical context, purpose, and more
• Includes English translations of of Ursinus’ Smaller and Larger Catechisms

Product Details

• Title: Baker Academic Heidelberg Catechism Collection
• Series: Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Volumes: 2
• Pages: 398
• Christian Group: Reformed
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Theology

Individual Titles

• A Firm Foundation: An Aid to Interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism edited and translated by Lyle D. Bierma
• An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology by Lyle D. Bierma, Charles D. Gunnoe Jr., Karin Y. Maag, and Paul W. Fields

A Firm Foundation: An Aid to Interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism

• Author: Caspar Olevianus
• Editor and Translator: Lyle D. Bierma
• Series: Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Publication Date: 1995
• Pages: 174

This commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism offers comfort from God’s Word in our troubled times. In this edition, Olevianus comments on the Lord’s Days 5 through 24. This study—aimed towards pastors, students, and laypeople—is edited by one of the most competent scholars on this subject.

The translation is competent both in its rendering of the German text and its fluidity in English. . . . Bierma has provided an excellent translation of a significant work by one of the key figures of the ‘second Reformation.’

—The Sixteenth Century Journal

Casper Olevianus (1536–1587) was a leading German Reformed theologian and organizer of the Reformed Church in the Palatinate.

Lyle D. Bierma is the Jean and Kenneth Baker Professor of Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary.

An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology

• Authors: Lyle D. Bierma, Charles D. Gunnoe Jr., Karin Y. Maag, and Paul W. Fields
• Series: Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 224

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This work examines key aspects of the development of the Heidelberg Catechism, including historical background, socio-political origins, purpose, authorship, sources, and theology. The book includes the first ever English translations of two major sources of the Heidelberg Catechism—Ursinus’ Smaller and Larger Catechisms—and a bibliography of research on the document since 1900. Students of the Reformed tradition and the Protestant Reformation will value this resource.

An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism is a valuable addition to studies on the magisterial catechism ratified at Heidelberg. First, it summarizes and updates scholarly research on the purpose and authorship of the Catechism. Second, it breaks new ground on the historical origins and the theological sources and orientation of the Catechism. Third, it offers a helpful summary and bibliography of the early editions and translations of the Catechism as well as a thorough bibliography of studies on the Catechism since 1900. Finally, and most importantly, it provides the first English translations of Zacharias Ursinus’ Smaller Catechism and Larger Catechism, from which so much of the Heidelberg Catechism was drawn.

—Joel R. Beeke, president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

This multifaceted volume contains invaluable resources for understanding the Heidelberg Catechism. The various authors make distinctive contributions toward understanding the background and theology of the catechism with the centerpiece being the translations of Ursinus’ two catechisms, which provide fascinating parallels to the Heidelberg Catechism itself. Anyone interested in the Heidelberg Catechism will have their understanding and appreciation enriched by these studies.

—I. John Hesselink, Albertus Van Raalte Professor of Theology, emeritus, Western Theological Seminary

Everyone who cherishes the Heidelberg Catechism will want to read this book, for Bierma and the contributors he has assembled have made this warm and precise statement of the faith even more accessible. This book will leave those unfamiliar with the Heidelberg Catechism wondering how they could have missed a theological gem of such brilliance. Rarely does a book about a classic text do justice to the original. This one comes close.

—Darryl Hart, director of fellowship programs and scholar-in-residence, Intercollegiate Studies Institute

This excellent study of the background to the Heidelberg Catechism is a splendid addition to the growing number of studies in Reformation and post-Reformation thought. Scholars and students will welcome its attention to detail, bibliographical references, and measured judgments. This is also a book for all Christians who love the Heidelberg Catechism. These pages are a treasure store of information on one of the truly great documents of the Reformed church.

—Sinclair B. Ferguson, professor of systematic theology, Westminster Theological Seminary

This valuable book provides a fresh examination of the Heidelberg Catechism, and of the German Reformation which was its setting and gave it birth. . . . The book provides an indispensable research tool for the study of a document which not only has considerable historical significance, but continues to have importance in Reformed Churches with a German or Dutch origin.

—Ecclesiastical History

Have you understood that Casper Olevianus and Zacharius Ursinus wrote the Heidelberg Catechism? If so, this is a book you need to read. . . . [The] bibliography could be of great service to those who want to do modern research. If you preach out of the Heidelberg Catechism, if you study the Heidelberg Catechism, if you for any reason are interested in the Heidelberg Catechism, this book is an indispensable tool for you to own.

—Kerux

The translations into English of Ursinus’ Larger and Smaller Catechisms are a valuable contribution to the field of Reformation studies. . . . This introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism is an outstanding compilation. It provides its readers with a background to the Heidelberg Catechism and complements other existing works on the same topic. It is written in a style that would allow it to be used as a textbook for colleges and seminaries in the years to come.

—Sixteenth Century Journal

Lyle D. Bierma is the Jean and Kenneth Baker Professor of Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary.

Charles D. Gunnoe Jr. is associate professor of history at Aquinas College.

Karin Maag is the director of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies in Grand Rapids. She has authored and edited three other volumes on the Reformation.

Paul W. Fields is theological librarian and curator of the Meeter Center at Calvin College.