This volume was originally published under another title in 2006. It began as a series of lectures given in 2004, and it carries a number of strong endorsements from Reformed and evangelical luminaries, not the least of which is the foreword by Sinclair Ferguson.

Reformed theologians have a long history of publishing a complete version of their theology, a handbook, and a popular summary. In the seventeenth century, J. H. Heidegger (1633–98) did it.¹ In the first half of the twentieth century, Louis Berkhof published a Reformed Dogmatics (1937; Systematic Theology, 1941), a Manual of Christian Doctrine (1933), and then a Summary of Christian Doctrine (1938). In our time, Michael Horton has published The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (2011) and Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples (2011), and Core Christianity: Finding Yourself in God’s Story (2016). This is Frame’s manual.

John Frame writes well. In this he reminds me of N. T. Wright and Alvin Plantinga. He writes in the first-person singular (which is less unusual now than when he began publishing). He has an engaging, conversational, and even casual style. He writes in short, usually clear sentences. This makes his work accessible and attractive. Physically, this is a substantial volume. Including the end matter it runs to 519 pages in hardcover. One interesting feature of this volume is an appendix composed of QR codes linking to the lectures on which this volume is based. Each chapter includes study questions, Bible memory passages, and resources for further study. It would have been encouraging to see references to appropriate places in the confessions and catechisms of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches as well. Perhaps the publishers could include this in the next edition?

Features and fanfare aside, however, the most important questions that must be answered about a book are two: 1) Is it true? 2) Does it do its job? Let us tackle the last one first. The purpose of a manual like this is to introduce adult (young and old) beginners to a subject. As to the first, there is a lot of truth in this volume, but there are some significant issues that need to be considered before one could judge whether it can be recommended.

Let us divide the question in two: 1) method and 2) content. We will address them in order. The reader, especially a novice in Reformed theology, should understand that for his entire career, Frame has been proposing a methodological revolution. Kevin DeYoung, reviewing Frame’s systematic theology in 2013 wrote,

Whether you think this is a really good systematic theology or one of the most important in the last generation or two, probably depends on how much you get into tri-perspectivalism. I have friends who find Frame’s triads of Normative-Situational-Existential to be extremely enlightening. Try as I might, I find them extremely tenuous.²

This is quite right, but Frame’s triperspectivalism has not always been well understood by his students and readers. I was Frame’s student from 1984–87. I listened to him lecture for hours in multiple courses and I probably did not quite understand for several years just how revolutionary (and dangerous to Reformed theology) Frame’s triperspectivalism is. It is a dialectical theological method. As I explained in my review of his systematic theology,

By dialectical I mean an approach to theology that affirms and denies something at the same time. Frame does this through a method he describes as triperspectivalism. This method is sometimes taken, naively I think, as a sort of common-sense approach to theology that seeks to take into account three perspectives: the norm to be applied, the situation in which the norm is applied, and the person doing the applying. Were that all that triperspectivalism entailed there wouldn’t be much reason for concern. That account, however, is only part of the story.³

What I did not say there and what Frame makes clear in the present volume is that there are not merely three common-sense perspectives for which the theologian must account—the normative (the rule), the existential (the person), and situational (the place). It is that these three perspectives are mutually correcting (97, 403). By contrast, in Reformed theology, the Scriptures are the norm that are un-normed by any other norm. It is not at all clear that this is true in Frame’s method. Further, triperspectivalism permeates the volume, and touches and colors every theological topic he discusses. In traditional Reformed theology, we are the recipients of theology; but in Frame’s version, we are the creators of Christian theology. In short, this is not standard Reformed theology. It is an experiment in theology.

One of the odder features of Frame’s theological project is his seeming boredom with theology. It seems clear to me that he is more comfortable discussing philosophical theology than systematic theology.⁴ Time and again he treats important questions dismissively, whether it is the question of eternal generation (44–5),⁵ the filioque (45–6), the doctrine of humanity (117), the logical order of the application of redemption (229), or the logical order of the decrees (228). The author seems particularly bored with traditional Reformed theology. I do not usually peruse the indices of books. They are for reference, not for study; but in this case the index is illuminating. I was able to find only one reference to a pre-modern Reformed theologian, who happened to be Calvin, with whom he engages eight times—including a perceptive account of the Lord’s Supper (349–50). A beginning student looking for some gateway into classic Reformed theology will not find it in this volume. There is not a single reference to or engagement with any other sixteenth- or seventeenth-century Reformed writer. This is astonishing. Indeed, the reader without any background in Reformed theology must conclude that Wayne Grudem must be one of the most important figures in the history of Reformed theology since, at key points, Frame cites or quotes Grudem’s definitions and formulations.⁶ For the reader who might not be aware, Grudem is not a minister or teacher in any Reformed church or seminary, but is a predestinarian, Baptistic, Charismatic New Testament scholar who has published a popular systematic theology.⁷ Yet, apart from his affirmation of divine sovereignty and the popularity of his systematics volume, it is unclear why his work plays such an important role in a Reformed introduction to systematic theology. He is best known for his advocacy of the doctrine of the eternal submission of the Son (ESS), which is dubious at best and at worst contrary to the Nicene Creed.⁸ He is also known for advocating a form of continuing, Spirit-inspired yet fallible, prophecy.⁹ To his credit, Frame confesses that he is “not convinced of Grudem’s thesis” and argues against it (214). But in typically dialectical fashion, he leaves the door open to some forms of continuing, extra-canonical special revelation, just as he also argues against the Pentecostal/Charismatic doctrine and practice of tongues but then writes, “But nevertheless, I think it is best to leave that question open for now” (215).

This takes us back to the purpose of a manual like this, which is to be an introductory volume for advanced high school, college, and seminary students. The function of a volume like this is to give students a baseline, a place to begin a life of learning about a subject. This volume is not that. Because of the author’s method and conclusions, this book is to theological introductions what Jackson Pollack was to painting. It can be interesting and stimulating but not a place to begin. Those who know what the baseline is—what traditional Reformed theology is—can benefit from this work, but beginners are ill-served by what is too often an idiosyncratic treatment of Reformed theology.

Notes

1. E.g., J. H. Heidegger, A Concise Marrow of Christian Theology, trans. Casey Carmichael, Classic Reformed Theology, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2019).
2. See “Everything Does And Does Not Come Down To Triperspectivalism,” Heidelblog.
3. See R. Scott Clark, “Should I Buy It?”
4. E.g., his discussion of free will (118–21).
5. On the Reformed approach to eternal generation, see R. Scott Clark, “God the Son and the Covenant of Grace: Caspar Olevianus On Eternal Generation, and the Substance of the Covenant of Grace,” Credo Magazine 10, no. 4 (November 29, 2020).
6. Frame cites Grudem six times in the volume.
7. Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2020).
8. For more on this question see our “Resources On The Controversy Over The Alleged Functional Subordination Of The Son.” Frame advocated ESS in The Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 719–22.
9. For more on this question listen to our Heidelcast series, Feathers and All: The Scriptures Are Enough.

©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.

John M. Frame, Concise Systematic Theology: An Introduction To Christian Belief. A Revised and Enhanced Edition of Salvation Belongs To The Lord, ed. John J. Hughes (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2023).

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Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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