A Geerhardus Vos Anthology:
Biblical and Theological
Insights Alphabetically Arranged
edited by Danny E. Olinger
DETAILS:
Publisher: P & R Publishing
Publication Date: March 11, 2005
Format: Paperback
Length: 363
Read Date: January 1-June 25, 2023
What’s A Geerhardus Vos Anthology About?
Danny Olinger literally wrote the book on Geerhardus Vos,* but he’s been studying him for a lot longer than that. As a part of his own personal study, he’s taken notes—he’s written quotations that meant a lot to him, seemed important, and so on—basically (as he put it in the Preface) “the best” of what he was reading. He built upon this foundation to assemble this anthology.
* 2018’s Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian.
Arranged topically (and those topics are arranged alphabetically), this is a collection of excerpts of varying lengths (all pretty short) from his published and published writings—the crème de la crème of one of the best of the 20th Century.
There’s also a great introduction by Olinger outlining Vos’ importance and work.
So, what did I think about A Geerhardus Vos Anthology?
My guess is that this book isn’t meant to be a devotional read, it’s a resource—a reference book. A quick way to find some of Vos’ insights and then know what work to consult for more. That’s a better use for it, for sure. But I liked the way I read it.
So I took this as a letter at a time (although some letter’s entries were long enough that I split them in two). It made for a nice few minutes once a week to think about a variety of bite-sized nuggets of Biblical Theology.
Some were pithy, some took a little chewing to get through—all were insightful and useful (although some took some thinking to figure out how they were useful). Most of all, each one made me curious about the work they were excerpted from.
One aspect (I’m not sure if it’s a pro or a con) of this book being a collection of short (1 sentence to 4 paragraphs or so) thoughts is that some jumped out at me more than others, I’m pretty sure that I could restart it today and different things would grab my attention.
This is a great way to get an easy-to-read introduction to Vos. Grace and Glory might be better—but this is nothing to sneeze at.
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