Benjamin B. Warfield
30 articles · 17 topics
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (1851–1921) was the last and perhaps the most formidable of the great Princeton theologians, serving as Charles Hodge Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1887 until his death in 1921 — thirty-four years during which he became the most respected conservative Reformed scholar in the English-speaking world.
Born into a prominent Kentucky family and educated at Princeton College and then Princeton Seminary, Warfield combined extraordinary intellectual gifts with prodigious industry. He read widely in ancient and modern languages, engaged the most demanding critical scholarship of his day, and produced a collected works spanning ten volumes that covers Christology, soteriology, the inspiration and authority of Scripture, Reformed theology, and the history of doctrine.
His most lasting contribution is probably his rigorous defense of the plenary verbal inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture — most fully articulated in The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible — which set the terms for evangelical and Reformed discussion of the subject throughout the twentieth century. His studies of perfectionism, Calvinism, and the person of Christ display the same combination of historical learning, theological precision, and polemical force. Warfield was also, unexpectedly, an early and thoughtful Protestant who took evolution seriously as a scientific question while maintaining full confidence in Scripture — a combination that made him impossible to pigeonhole. He rarely left Princeton after his wife became an invalid in 1876, but his influence was global.
Read Articles by Benjamin B. Warfield
The Plan of Salvation - Part I (Differing Conceptions)
THE SUBJECT to which our attention is to be directed in this series of lectures is ordinarily spoken of as 'The Plan of Salvation.' Its more technical designation is, 'The Order of Decrees.' And this technical designation has the advantage over the more popular one, of more accurately defining the…
The Plan of Salvation - Part II (Autosoterism)
THERE ARE fundamentally only two doctrines of salvation: that salvation is from God, and that salvation is from ourselves. The former is the doctrine of common Christianity; the latter is the doctrine of universal heathenism. 'The principle of heathenism,' remarks Dr. Herman Bavinek, 'is,…
The Plan of Salvation - Part III (Sacerdotalism)
IT IS THE consistent testimony of the universal Church that salvation is from God, and from God alone. The tendency constantly showing itself in all branches of the Church alike to conceive of salvation as, in one way or another, to a greater or less degree, from man, is thus branded by the entire…
The Plan of Salvation - Part IV (Universalism)
THE EVANGELICAL note is formally sounded by the entirety of organized Protestantism. That is to say, all the great Protestant bodies, in their formal official confessions, agree in confessing the utter dependence of sinful man upon the grace of God alone for salvation, and in conceiving this…
The Plan of Salvation - Part V (Calvinism)
AS OVER AGAINST all attempts to conceive the operations of God looking to salvation universalistically, that is as directed to mankind in the mass, Calvinism insists that the saving operations of God are directed in every case immediately to the individuals who are saved. Particularism in the…
The Christ That Paul Preached
'THE monumental Introduction of the Epistle to the Romans'—it is thus that W. Bousset speaks of the seven opening verses of the Epistle—is, from the formal point of view, merely the Address of the Epistle. In primary purpose and fundamental structure it does not differ from the Addresses of Paul’s…
The End of the Incarnation
John 6:38-39: For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent me; and this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all that He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. In the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand our…
The Historical Christ
The rise of Christianity was a phenomenon of too little apparent significance to attract the attention of the great world. It was only when it had refused to be quenched in the blood of its founder, and, breaking out of the narrow bounds of the obscure province in which it had its origin, was…
The Person Of Christ According To The New Testament
It is the purpose of this article to make as clear as possible the conception of the Person of Christ, in the technical sense of that term, which lies on—or, if we prefer to say so, beneath—the pages of the New Testament. Were it its purpose to trace out the process by which this great mystery has…
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The External History of the Pelagian Controversy
Pelagius seems to have been already somewhat softened by increasing age when he came to Rome about the opening of the fifth century. He was also constitutionally averse to controversy; and although in his zeal for Christian morals, and in his conviction that no man would attempt to do what he was…
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The Origin & Nature of Pelgagianism
It was inevitable that the energy of the Church in intellectually realizing and defining its doctrines in relation to one another, should first be directed towards the objective side of Christian truth. The chief controversies of the first four centuries and the resulting definitions of doctrine,…
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The Theology of Grace
The theology which Augustine opposed, in his anti-Pelagian writings, to the errors of Pelagianism, is, shortly, the theology of grace. Its roots were planted deeply in his own experience, and in the teachings of Scripture, especially of that apostle whom he delights to call 'the great preacher of…
Election
This article was originally published in 1918 by the Presbyterian Board of Publication as a pamphlet of twenty-two pages. 'By grace have ye been saved,' says Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. ii. 5, 8); and so important does it seem to him that his readers shall understand this and bear it on their…
Some Thoughts on Predestination
This essay was originally published in The Christian Workers Magazine, Dec. 1916, pp. 265-267. A great man of the last generation began the preface of a splendid little book he was writing on this subject, with the words: 'Happy would it be for the church of Christ and for the world, if Christian…
What Fatalism Is
This is a sad state of mind that people fall into sometimes, in which they do not know the difference between God and Fate. One of the most astonishing illustrations of it in all history is, no doubt, that afforded by our Cumberland Presbyterian brethren, who for a hundred years, now, have been…
Calvinism: The Meaning and Uses of the Term
This essay originally appeared in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, edited by Samuel Macauley Jackson, D.D., LL.D., ii. pp. 359-364 (Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York, 1908). This edition, however, was derived from volume five of The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield (Grand…
What Is Calvinism?
It is very odd how difficult it seems for some persons to understand just what Calvinism is. And yet the matter itself presents no difficulty whatever. It is capable of being put into a single sentence; and that, on level to every religious man's comprehension. For Calvinism is just religion in its…
Edwards and the New England Theology (Full Text)
JONATHAN EDWARDS, saint and metaphysician, revivalist and theologian, stands out as the one figure of real greatness in the intellectual life of colonial America. Born, bred, passing his whole life on the verge of civilization, he has made his voice heard wherever men have busied themselves with…
John Calvin The Theologian
[/caption] The subject of this address is "John Calvin the Theologian," and I take it that what will be expected of me is to convey some idea of what manner of theologian John Calvin was, and of his quality as a theological thinker. I am afraid I shall have to ask you at the outset to disabuse your…