Journal: Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Volume: JIRBS 08:1 (NA 2023)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JIRBS 8 (2023) p. 127

Book Reviews

Natural Peology, Geerhardus Vos (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2022, 97pp.), reviewed by Joshua Sommer*

*Joshua Sommer is pastor of Victory Baptist Church, Kansas City, MO, and an M.Div. student at International Reformed Baptist Seminary.

The recent rise of Christian apologetical emphasis has kindled popular interest in various authors—old and new. If a list of “greats” were to be compiled, among them would be found the nineteenth- and twentieth-century “Princetonians.” Among those divines, Benjamin B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen may stand out. Until recently, avid readers of the Princeton divines would probably not think of Geerhardus Vos as an apologist, per se. However, prior to his tenure at Princeton, Vos taught at the Theological School in Grand Rapids (xliii). In the introduction of Natural Theology, J. V. Fesko notes, “Among the topics that Vos taught were ancient history, biblical geography and history, Hebrew, historical theology, history of religion, symbolics, hermeneutics, preaching, dogmatics, and natural theology” (xliii–xliv). Baking in the current oven of apologetical discord, the loggerhead between presuppositional and classical apologetics may be helped by the freshly recovered words penned by a major figure in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Reformed theology.

JIRBS 8 (2023) p. 128

In the introduction, Fesko tries to link Vos with a much earlier theologian, Thomas Aquinas. He begins by writing,

“Biblical and natural theology may seem like oil and water, Jerusalem and Athens, or in this case, Geerhardus Vos and Thomas Aquinas. What has one to do with the other? Vos and Aquinas might seem like an ill-matched pair, but the two actually do belong together” (xvii).

Leaving aside the question of whether Vos himself would have claimed the same affiliation, or whether such an association was entirely warranted given the current sensitive atmosphere concerning this very topic, such an introduction rhetorically deflates any ill-placed assumptions that Van Til, the father of presuppositionalism, was merely a consistent theological pupil to Vos. To be sure, Vos was no Thomist. Yet, in equal measure, he was no presuppositionalist either. Such an abrupt introduction to the natural theology of Vos might just be the wind needed to steer the ship of discord in a new direction.

However, associating Vos so closely with Aquinas paired with a rather limited approach to natural theology coming from the newly minted professor may work just as hard against any clarifying purpose the publisher may have had. After all, the words set forth in Natural Theology did not even come from Vos’...