Truly vital for ministers and lovers of doctrine. This assembles the key statements of leading Reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries, on every major doctrinal issue. First issued by Heppe, a German Reformed theologian and historian, in 1861, it became available in this English translation by G T Thomson in 1950.
When Karl Barth was a young lecturer at Gottingen in 1924 he was confronted with the duty of giving lectures in dogmatics, a task for which he regarded himself as entirely unprepared. He felt alone, without a teacher. He wanted to stand with the Reformation, but how could he do it, he wondered, without a guide?
Then Heppe's work fell into his hands. He discovered with amazement the 'sterling quality, superior style, sheer beauty, and careful, orderly business' of Reformation thinkers. Here was the great source-book he needed.
Barth's own theology led him far from the contents of this great manual, but his experience will be shared by every minister and lover of doctrine who possesses it. This will give the possessor erudition which would otherwise take a lifetime to acquire.
'All the written sources I could lay hands on,' wrote Heppe, 'I have carefully researched and compared, in order to transmit the thought brought to light by the representatives of Reformed orthodoxy.'