John Frame Collection (11 vols.)

by John M. Frame

Publisher:

P&R

, 1987–2023

Overview

Among other works such as the four volume Theology of Lordship series, this collection includes 1,500 pages of Dr. Frame’s other theological writings: journal articles, pamphlets, lecture outlines, study guides, syllabi, and written sermons, as well as over 3,000 pages of other published works—virtually everything Dr. Frame has written about theology over the past 40 years!

Dr. Frame is noted for his belief that theology is application—the use of God’s revelation to meet the spiritual needs of people, to promote godliness and spiritual health. Therefore, his theology is inherently practical, deeply grounded in Scripture, and unusually comprehensive.

In this collection, Dr. John Frame combines his wealth of learning and love for theology with 40 years of teaching, making his writings an extraordinarily satisfying feast for the heart and mind.

Key Features

• Systematically examines how God’s lordship affects every aspect of Christian life
• Provides thoughtful analysis and insights for practical application
• Includes over 1,500 pages of John Frame’s shorter theological writings on systematic theology, philosophy, and other topics

Praise for the Print Edition

Few in our day champion a vision of God as massive, magnificent, and biblical as John Frame. For decades, he has given himself to the church, to his students, and to meticulous thinking and the rigorous study of the Bible. He has winsomely, patiently, and persuasively contended for the gospel in the secular philosophical arena, as well as in the thick of the church worship wars and wrestlings with feminism and open theism. He brings together a rare blend of big-picture thinking, leveled-headed reflection, biblical fidelity, a love for the gospel and the church, and the ability to write with care and clarity. These collected works of John Frame are a precious gift to the church.

—John Piper, pastor, Bethlehem Baptist Church

I already own hard copies of most of what John Frame has written and have read the material with enormous profit. Whether he is articulating the best form of presuppositional apologetics, expounding the doctrine of God, or debunking Open Theism, Frame is always worth reading carefully and thoughtfully. To have this material in digital form, not only compact but searchable, is a great boon.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

The entire John Frame theological corpus made available to serious students, pastors, and teachers worldwide? What a boon to the church universal! Frame’s rigorous, clear, and passionately biblical theology has graced the hearts and thinking of this generation and, now, so many more. This is essential theological fare. Highly recommended.

—R. Kent Hughes, senior pastor emeritus, College Church

John Frame’s writings are celebrated rightly for their scriptural base, his sober thinking, his spiritual tone and application of sound doctrine, and his simplicity of style.

—Bruce Waltke, professor of Old Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: John Frame Collection
• Author: John Frame
• Publisher: P&R
• Volumes: 11
• Pages: 7,830
• Christian Group: Reformed
• Resource Type: Collected Works

The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God

• Author: John M. Frame
• Series: A Theology of Lordship
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 1987
• Pages: 437

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

This first volume in John Frame’s Theology of Lordship series explores our relationship with God as a knowing relationship. He writes, “We tend to forget how often in Scripture God performs his mighty acts so that men will ‘know’ that he is Lord.” Frame thus examines our knowledge of God as it relates to our knowledge of ourselves and of the world in which we live.

Reflecting his conviction that theology is the application of Scripture to life in all situations, Frame combines trenchant analysis of theological, apologetic, and epistemological issues with refreshingly practical insights for living in the knowledge of God.

Like other books in the series, this volume analzses God’s lordship by means of threefold distinctions that derive ultimately from the doctrine of the Trinity. Lordship is God’s control, authority, and presence, and that triad provides three “perspectives” essential to human knowledge.

A magnificent treatment that will be a standard work for decades. Frame stands in the great Reformed tradition of Calvin and Charnock, Hodge and Bavinck, yet in his treatment of the doctrine of God, he surpasses them all with an amazing breadth of knowledge and depth of understanding. In every section, Frame brings fresh insight to old doctrines.

—Wayne Grudem, research professor of Bible and theology, Phoenix Seminary

A meticulously biblical, remarkably cogent, and powerfully transforming presentation.

—Richard L. Pratt Jr., president, Third Millennium Ministries

The Doctrine of God

• Author: John M. Frame
• Series: A Theology of Lordship
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 992

John Frame’s a Theology of Lordship series has been greeted with acclaim—and this second volume in the series received an ECPA Gold Medallion Award. The Doctrine of God provides Frame’s fullest exegetical defense of the centrality of God’s lordship in Scripture. He shows in detail the three aspects of that lordship—God’s control, authority, and presence—and then shows that all the Bible’s teaching about God’s nature and actions can be understood as applications of his lordship. God acts and speaks to us so that we may know that he is Lord. In this way, we can better understand the importance of Jesus’ lordship as creator and savior and the lordship of the Holy Spirit as he brings Christ to us and us into Jesus’ presence.

Frame also discusses the traditional controversies: divine sovereignty and human responsibility, the goodness of God and the evil in the world, whether we should ever speak of God as “mother,” the possibility that God “changes” in some way, the nature of miracles, divine election, and whether God is “in time.” On many of these issues, Frame explores new ground, remaining all the while within the bounds of Reformed orthodoxy.

May prove to be one of the most useful all-purpose, “nuts and bolts” theology books written in this generation. . . . Its analytical clarity and style is complimented by a remarkably warm, non-technical, down-to-earth, “shirt-sleeve” approach.

—Philip Blosser, professor, Lenoir-Rhyne College

Extremely relevant . . . simply the best thing I have seen in this area.

—Reginald McLelland, professor of philosophy, Covenant College

No Christian who is serious about thinking God’s thoughts after him can afford to miss this book.

—Peter J. Leithart, pastor, Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, ID

Doctrine of the Christian Life

• Author: John M. Frame
• Series: A Theology of Lordship
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 1,104

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

The third volume in John Frame’s a Theology of Lordship series treats biblical ethics in its manifold relations to current issues and personal decisions.

In an age of ethical relativism and suspicion of authority, how can we know what is good, virtuous, or just? Frame surveys non-Christian ethical traditions before setting forth a solidly Christian ethical method. By clarifying biblical norms, life situations, and personal dimensions, he presents a model for decision making that honors God in all aspects of life.

Discussions range from analyzing natural law and conflict of duties, to exploring the Ten Commandments in connection with questions surrounding worship, the sabbath, church and state, respect for life and truth, sexuality, and the relation of Christ to culture.

Doctrine of the Word of God

• Author: John M. Frame
• Series: A Theology of Lordship
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 720

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

This fourth and final volume in John Frame’s a Theology of Lordship series discusses God’s Word in modern theology and how God’s Word comes to us as his controlling power, meaningful authority, and personal presence.

Dr. Frame says that God’s speech to man is real—like one person speaking to another. “God speaks so that we can understand him and respond appropriately. Appropriate responses are of many kinds: belief, obedience, affection, repentance, laughter, pain, sadness, and so on. God’s speech is often propositional: God’s conveying information to us. But it is far more than that. It includes all the features, functions, beauty, and richness of language that we see in human communication, and more. So the concept I wish to defend is broader than the ‘propositional revelation’ that we argued so ardently forty years ago, though propositional revelation is part of it. My thesis is that God’s Word, in all its qualities and aspects, is a personal communication from him to us.”

A History of Western Philosophy and Theology

• Author: John M. Frame
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2015
• Pages: 928

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

The Western philosophical tradition is diverse and tumultuous, but how did we get to where we are now? Arguing that all philosophical and theological claims must be evaluated by Scripture, John Frame leads readers through a detailed account of how our thought has progressed from Socractes to Jesus, from Jesus to Luther, and from Luther to the postmodern malaise. Providing detailed analysis of the West’s best thinkers and their most important ideas, Frame tests each one against the Bible’s testimony to Jesus Christ and helps Christians understand their faith in the context of the intellectual unfolding of the West.

John Frame has done it again! In the lucid and comprehensive style of his Theology of Lordship volumes, he here presents a full overview of Western thought about knowledge of God as it must appear to all who receive Holy Scripture, as he does, as the record, product, and present reality of God speaking. And the solid brilliance of the narrative makes it a most effective advocacy for the Kuyper-Van Til perspective that in a well-digested form it represents. It is a further outstanding achievement by John Frame.

—J.I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia

Few in our day champion a vision of God that is as massive, magnificent, and biblical as John Frame’s. For decades, he has given himself to the church, to his students, and to meticulous thinking and the rigorous study of the Bible. He has winsomely, patiently, and persuasively contended for the gospel in the secular philosophical arena, as well as in the thick of the church worship wars and wrestlings with feminism and open theism. He brings together a rare blend of big-picture thinking, levelheaded reflection, biblical fidelity, a love for the gospel and the church, and the ability to write with care and clarity.

—John Piper, chancellor, Bethlehem College and Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Professor Frame unabashedly tries to think through sources and movements out of the framework (bad pun intended) of deep-seated Christian commitments, and invites his readers to do the same. These commitments, combined with the format of a seminary or college textbook, will make this work invaluable to students and pastors who tire of ostensible neutrality that is no more neutral than the next volume. Agree or disagree with some of his arguments, but John Frame will teach you how to think in theological and philosophical categories.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

John M. Frame: Talks and Lectures

• Author: John M. Frame
• Resource Type: Audio

This resource contains approximately 70 hours of audio lectures by John M. Frame that cover a host of theological topics.

No Other God: A Response to Open Theism

• Author: John M. Frame
• Publisher: P & R
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 235

Using ideas developed in The Doctrine of God as a theological basis, Frame provides a biblical analysis and critique of the “open theist” movement, which is shaking the church today by challenging the Reformed doctrines of God’s sovereignty, foreknowledge, and providence. In this timely work, Frame clearly describes open theism and evaluates it biblically. He addresses such questions as “How do open theists read the Bible?” “Is love God’s most important attribute?” “Is God’s will the ultimate explanation of everything?” “Do we have genuine freedom?” “Is God ever weak or changeable?” “Does God know everything in advance?” Frame not only answers the objections of open theists, he also sharpens our understanding of the relationship between God’s eternal plan and the decisions and events of our lives.

Open theism is bad news. The appearance of this book is good news. Precisely because God is closed and not open to the nullification of his purposes (Job 42:2), he has opened a future for believers that is utterly secure no matter what we suffer. The key that would open the defeat of God is eternally closed within the praiseworthy vault of His precious sovereignty. John Frame delights to show when it is good to be closed and when it is good to be open. And the Bible is his criterion.

—John Piper, pastor, Bethlehem Baptist Church

This book is something both to read and to give away . . . both needed and effective.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Here one will see vividly so much that is wrong with open theism while encountering afresh the beauty and glory of the true and living God of the Bible.

—Bruce A. Ware, professor of Christian theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

A convincing . . . biblical case for a God whose sovereignty is something not to be avoided but cherished.

—William Edgar, professor of apologetics, Westminster Theological Seminary

A devastating critique of the concept of human freedom as articulated in the “open theistic” view.

—Roger R. Nicole, professor of theology, emeritus, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

Concise Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief

• Author: John M. Frame
• Publisher: P & R
• Publication Date: 2023
• Pages: 519

Writing both to the beginner and to anyone reviewing core biblical doctrines, John Frame presents a brief but comprehensive introduction to Reformed systematics. This enhanced edition of Salvation Belongs to the Lord (2006) provides readers with study questions, memory verses, and additional resources to help them to grasp the general shape and content of Scripture’s teaching.

Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief

• Author: John M. Frame
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 1,280

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

Writing both to the beginner and to anyone reviewing core biblical doctrines, John Frame presents a brief but comprehensive introduction to Reformed systematics. This enhanced edition of Salvation Belongs to the Lord (2006) provides readers with study questions, memory verses, and additional resources to help them to grasp the general shape and content of Scripture’s teaching.

The Amsterdam Philosophy

• Author: John M. Frame
• Publisher: P & R
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 55

This booklet was published in the midst of theological warfare. Representatives of the Amsterdam philosophy (Herman Dooyeweerd and others) were taking a militant stance against traditional Reformed theology, and the controversy created partisan battles on the campus of Westminster Theological Seminary, where Frame was a young professor. It also threatened to split churches, Christian schools, and other Christian organizations. As a member of a committee of the Ohio Presbytery of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Frame was asked to write a brief study of the movement. This booklet is the result.

The Collected Shorter Theological Writings

• Author: John M. Frame
• Publisher: P & R
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 1,560

Like most academics, Frame published much of his thought in the form of articles rather than books. The Collected Shorter Theological Writings includes all his theologically focused articles published in scholarly journals, multiauthor volumes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and more popular publications, as well as his articles posted at such internet sites as www.frame-poythress.org and www.reformedperspectives.org. There also are a number of book reviews in this collection. In his book reviews, Frame tries not only to describe and evaluate an author’s work but also to engage in a dialogue—an exchange of views. Thus, his book reviews contain many of his ideas, as well as those of other writers. Shorter Theological Writings also includes a number of written sermons, syllabi, lecture outlines, and study guides. The included “Primer on Perspectivalism” provides a concise introduction to some of Frame’s distinctive ideas.

About John Frame

John M. Frame (b. 1939) is an American philosopher and a Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in epistemology, presuppositional apologetics, systematic theology, and ethics. He is one of the foremost interpreters and critics of the thought of Cornelius Van Til. He is currently professor of systematic theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.