Turretin’s Institutes
Working through Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology, topic by topic and question by question, in plain modern English.
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 9 — Topic 1, Questions XII & XIII Two more tools questions round out the “how do we actually reason theologically” cluster: can a doctrine be true and biblical even if the Bible never states it in so many words? And is philosophy an enemy of theology, a servant to it, or…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 8 — Topic 1, Question XI This is where the abstract reason-versus-faith discussion from the last post gets concrete, and combustible — Turretin uses it to take a direct shot at transubstantiation. The Setup Catholic theologians defending the doctrine that the bread and wine of the Mass literally become Christ’s body and…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 7 — Topic 1, Questions VIII, IX & X These three Questions are really one sustained argument, sliced into three angles: how much authority does human reason have over religious truth? Turretin fights this on two fronts at once — against people who give reason too much power, and against people who…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 6 — Topic 1, Question VII This one has real consequences either way you answer it. If theology is just information to know, someone could master it and remain totally unaffected by it. If it’s purely about behavior, doctrine barely matters as long as you’re a decent person. Turretin’s answer shapes how…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 5 — Topic 1, Questions V & VI Two structural questions close to the start of the book: what exactly is theology “about” (its object), and what category of knowledge does it belong to (its genus)? These sound like scholastic hair-splitting, but they’re load-bearing. Get the object wrong and theology either collapses…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 4 — Topic 1, Questions III & IV Turretin just finished sorting the different kinds of theology, including “natural” theology — whatever true knowledge of God a person can have apart from Scripture. Now he asks two connected questions that still matter enormously today: does that natural knowledge actually exist? And if…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 3 — Topic 1, Question II Question I defended the word “theology.” Question II asks something more basic: does the thing itself — a genuine, reliable body of knowledge about God — actually exist? And once we admit it does, which of several very different things people call “theology” is Turretin actually…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 2 — Topic 1, Question I Francis Turretin opens his entire three-volume, twenty-topic work with a question that looks like throat-clearing but isn’t: is it even legitimate to use the word “theology” for Christian doctrine? It’s not in the Bible. The Greeks used it for their own mythology. That question matters more…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 1 Before we open the book itself, it’s worth knowing who wrote it. You can’t understand why the Institutes of Elenctic Theology reads like a legal brief until you know Francis Turretin spent his life as a front-line combatant in a doctrinal war — and not, as you might expect, against Rome.…
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Turretin’s Institutes, Post 0 — Series Introduction This series is a long-term project: working straight through Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology — three volumes, twenty topics, roughly 286 individual debates, 1.36 million words — question by question, in plain modern English. Before we open the book itself, it’s worth spending one post on why…
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A quick apology for today’s stray notifications — plus two short videos to get you oriented while we get the real posts sorted.