Kim Riddlebarger on Where to Begin Reading B.B. Warfield

http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/the-latest-post/2008/7/1/reading-warfield-where-to-begin.html

Reading Warfield... Where to Begin?

I recently received an email from someone (Mike Swope) asking what I thought was a great question.  Since B. B. Warfield is such an important theologian, and such a prolific writer (on the order of a Barth, or an Aquinas), where should someone begin if they wish to become more familiar with the Lion of Princeton?

I can answer this in one of two ways.  First, there would be my list of favorite Warfield pieces.  This would include a number of things "off the beaten path" so to speak (some of my favorites are more technical or obscure book reviews and journal articles). Then there would be the list of those essays/books which highlight Warfield's career and importance.  What follows is the latter (although there is some overlap).

Since much of Warfield's work is easily accessible (in the ten-volume set from Baker Books, or the five-volume set from P & R, from Warfield's Selected Shorter Writings from P & R,  or even on-line), let me set out a list of a few things just to get you started.  This list is suggestive only, and is by no means exhaustive.

Online sources:  Here's a great list (Click here: Warfield Index).  To get started, I'd simply suggest that you pick essays based upon your personal interests--Warfield wrote on virtually every theological topic of his day. 

Some of these essays are quite basic (i.e., introductory articles for encyclopedias or magazines), while others are much more technical (and written for theological journals).  But be sure not to miss the following (which include a sermon, a book review, and several ground-breaking articles on critical topics--just so you get a flavor of the scope of Warfield's massive output and mastery of his subject):

Click here: Warfield - On Faith in Its Psychological Aspects

Click here: Warfield - Faith

 

Click here: Warfield - On the Antiquity and the Unity of the Human Race

Click here: Warfield - Trinity

Click here: Warfield - The Person of Christ

Click here: Warfield - The Inspiration of the Bible

Click here: Warfield - The Real Problem of Inspiration

Click here: Warfield - A Review of Lewis Sperry Chafer's "He That Is Spiritual"

Click here: Warfield - The Christ that Paul Preached

Click here: Warfield - Calvin as a Theologian

Click here: Warfield - The Theology of the Reformation

Click here: Warfield - Mysticism and Christianity

 

Books:

It is my humble opinion that every Reformed Christian should read Warfield's The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible.  There is nothing like it.  It has generated no end of controversy (although it defends inerrancy) and although Warfield is crystal clear, his critics consistently misquote or misrepresent him.   This book is too important not to read.  Click here: P & R Publishing: Individual Title

I would also suggest reading Warfield's Plan of Salvation (which is available on-line--Click here: Warfield - The Plan of Salvation).

Every seminarian should read this short essay:  Click here: P & R Publishing: Individual Title

Essays: 

Since Warfield's main efforts are found in theological journals, here are a few which have been reprinted (in books) and which I think are must reading:

From Biblical and Theological Studies (P & R): "The Spirit of God in the Old Testament" (127 ff.).

From Studies in Perfectionism (P & R):  "The Theology of Charles G. Finney" (166 ff.).

From The Person and Work of Christ (P & R): "The Emotional Life of Our Lord" (93 ff.); "Christless Christianity" (265 ff.), "Imitating the Incarnation" (563 ff.).

From Calvin and Augustine (P & R):  "Calvin's Doctrine of the Knowledge of God" (29 ff.); "Augustine's Doctrine of Knowledge and Authority" (387 ff.).

From Studies in Theology (Baker): "Predestination in the Reformed Confessions" (117 ff); "Charles Darwin's Religious Life" (541 ff.). 

From Selected Shorter Writings, Vol 1:  "How to Get Rid of Christianity" (51 ff.);  "Hosea VI.7:  Adam or Man?" (116 ff.); "Jesus Christ the Propitiation for the Whole World" (167 ff.); "The Resurrection of Christ:  A Historical Fact" (178 ff.); "Antichrist" (356 ff.).

From Selected Shorter Writings, Vol 2:  "A Review of Herman Bavinck's De Zeherheid des Geloofs" (106 ff.); "Darwin's Arguments and Christianity and Religion" (132 ff.); "Review of John Miley's Systematic Theology" (308 ff.); "A Calm View of the Freedmen's Case" (735ff.)

This will get you started, but will barely scratch the surface of the body of Warfield's work. 
 

Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Enloe on (Warfield's dictum on) Augustine, the Medieval Theologians, a nd the Reformation

http://www.timenloe.net/?p=46

Augustine, the Medieval Theologians, and the Reformation
Saturday, November 11th, 2006

Reformed theologian B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) famously said, �The Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine�s doctrine of grace over Augustine�s doctrine of the church.� Paul Rorem, ironically the Benjamin B. Warfield Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Princeton, disagrees and develops an argument that both sides of Warfield�s dictum need serious corrective input from Medieval studies: �Warfield�s own perspective needs to be reassessed or even reversed regarding the Reformation as an Augustinian debate, not to mention his Protestant leap over all of the medieval theologians in appealing directly to St. Augustine.�[1]

The following is a brief summary of Rorem�s article, which contains much food for thought.

First, Warfield�s view of Augustine�s view of �the Church� needs to be qualified by the recognition that Augustine did not separate ecclesiology from sacramentology. But then, neither did his Medieval expositors who were the creators of the (perhaps surprisingly to many Reformed theologians) multifacted phenomenon of �Augustinianism.� From the Donatist controversy (4th century) to the disputes between Radbertus and Ratramnus (9th century) to the battle of Berengar of Tours with Lanfranc (11th century), widely divergent theologians who could in entirely legitimate senses all call themselves �Augustinians,� the nature of the Church was always related to the sacraments. Both Church and sacraments were considered objective realities and were objectively related to each other, whereas this was not true for the type of theology Warfield represented. Warfield�s anachronism consists in first assuming that Augustine�s idea of �the Church� was limited to Cyprian�s identification of it with the empirical-episcopal institution, and second, that it is possible to speak accurately of �Augustinianism� while simply jumping from Augustine to the Reformers.[2]

Second, Warfield�s view of Augustine�s view of �grace� needs similar qualification from Medieval sources. Gottschalk of Orbais and Hincmar of Rheims, who fought over predestination in the 8th century, were both mistaken about Augustine�s own understanding of �foreknowledge.� As well, a key source for understanding �Semi-Pelagianism,� the decrees of the Second Council of Orange in 529, were unknown to most Western theologians until the time of Thomas Aquinas. Further controversies, involving such worthies as Wycliffe, Bradwardine, Gregory of Rimini, and Gabriel Biel, made it extremely difficult to know exactly what �Augustinian��let alone �Pelagian��meant. A measure of the difficulty in working one�s way through the maze of Medieval �Augustinianism� and trying to distinguish it from Augustine himself may be seen in the fact that both the Protestant Luther and his Catholic opponent Cardinal Seripando believed the great Saint fully supported their own contradictory causes.[3] As Rorem puts it, �Despite Warfield�s implication, Augustine�s doctrine of grace was not so easily identified and was certainly not so captive to a Protestant monop0ly.�[4]

Rorem concludes with two points. First, he revisits Gottschalk VS. Hincmar on predestination in order to demonstrate that Gottschalk�s view of Augustinian teachings on the subject completely ignored Augustine�s understanding of mediated grace. Second, Rorem again notes that Warfield�s dichotomous understanding of grace and the Church simply is not present in Augustine, and thus, on its most basic level, even without descending into the deep waters of Medieval divergences within �Augustinianism,� Warfield�s dichotomy is false. The Reformation, rather than �setting Augustine�s (Protestant) doctrine of grace over against his (institutional) doctrine of the church,� might be better called a failure than a success�namely, �the failure to keep a Protestant or low-Augustinian doctrine of the Church together with the Tridentine-Augustinian doctrine of a healing or transforming grace.� Rorem thinks this reversal would be just as flawed as Warfield�s initial reductionism, but the point of raising it is to observe that �In both oversimplified caricatures, however, the linkage of grace and the means of grace, of election and the sacraments, is lost.� Warfield�s dictum tends to unravel the multifaceted nature of Augustine�s views. For this reason it must come under the careful scrutiny that can only be afforded by a more detailed examination of the development of �Augustinianism��and this means a more detailed look at the Middle Ages.
Linknotes:

1. �Augustine, the Medieval Theologians, and the Reformation,� in The Medieval Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Medieval Period, ed. G.R. Evans [Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001], pp. 365-372. This quote is from pg. 365. ↩
2. Ibid., pp. 368-369. ↩
3. Ibid., pp. 370-371. ↩
4. Ibid., pg. 371. ↩