Systematic Theology

For decades, Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology has remained one of the most important and widely-used systematic theologies. It provides the clearest and most succinct articulation of Reformed theology. From its first publication in 1932, Berkhof’s work was revised, reprinted, and translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese, and it had become a standard theological text by 1950. It has gained near-universal use in seminaries and Bible colleges across the world, and is widely cited and used by pastors, theologians, and students of nearly all denominational affiliations.

Although many of Berkhof’s ideas are not original—he wrote squarely within the Reformed tradition of Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck—they are succinct, clear, and well-organized.

Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology was first published by Eerdmans in 1932 as a three-volume set: an introductory volume, plus two volumes entitled Reformed Dogmatics. Much of the material in these volumes was transcribed from his lectures at Calvin Theology Seminary between 1926 and 1928. In 1938, Berkhof revised the 2-volume Reformed Dogmatics, and it was published in smaller type by Eerdmans as a single volume entitled Systematic Theology. Berkhof’s Introductory Volume to Systematic Theology was published separately. For decades, both the Systematic Theology and its introductory volume have been reprinted as two-volume sets or combined one-volume editions.