Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 23:1 (Nov 1960)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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WTJ 23:1 (Nov 60) p. 39

Book Reviews

G. C. Berkouwer: Divine Election (Studies in Dogmatics). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1960. 336. $4.50.

In the perspective of historical theology and in the context of present-day debate no undertaking could place greater demands upon the theologian than a monograph on the subject of divine election. And no theologian within the Reformed tradition excels G. C. Berkouwer in the extensive and mature scholarship necessary for such a task. This is not a book to be read at one sitting nor is its argument one to be grasped on one reading. Review is, therefore, more than arduous.

The difficulty just mentioned does not arise from obscurity in Berkouwer’s style of writing. It proceeds rather from the complexity of the issues involved, a complexity not always attaching to the mystery of God’s counsel but to the aberrations of human thought by which the doctrine has been perplexed and distorted. As a contribution to historical as well as to systematic theology, Berkouwer brings the various facets and currents of thought within his purview. No book on this topic surpasses Berkouwer’s in respect of erudition, information, and challenge.

It may not be amiss to suggest that the lay reader should read first of all chapters I, IX, and X. In these chapters the practical and devotional significance of the doctrine of election is brought into focus, and this is particularly true of chapter IX where “Election and the Certainty of Salvation” is dealt with in admirable fashion. From the beginning of the volume this is the question that Berkouwer poses and it is never far from his interest. At the outset his thesis is: “In Scripture the certainty of salvation is never threatened or cast in shadows because of the fact of election. Rather, we always read of the joy of God’s election and of election as the profound, unassailable and strong foundation for man’s salvation, both for time and for eternity” (p. 13). In chapter IX this thesis is vindicated. Here a good deal of space is devoted to the question of the syllogismus practicus, to the misinterpretations against which it must be guarded but particularly to its validity and its consistency with the principle of sola fide when it is properly understood as the syllogism of faith.

WTJ 23:1 (Nov 60) p. 40

And this means that “only in the way of sanctification man can be, and remain, certain of his election” (p. 302). “It is not a connection in which sanctification becomes a compensation whereby man—as a last resort—may deduce his personal election from his sanctification. It is, rather, a connection which originates from the revelation and the reality of election itself” (p. 306). It would have been helpful if so...

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