Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 84:2 (Fall 2022)
Article: What Indeed Hath Thomas To Do With Vos? A Review Article
Author: James Baird

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What Indeed Hath Thomas To Do With Vos? A Review Article

James Baird

James Baird, ThM, is Director of Marketing at Synthesis School. He extends thanks to William D. Dennison and Richard B. Gaffin Jr. for their helpful comments on this article.

For decades, students of Reformed biblical theology have sat under the instruction of its pioneer, Geerhardus Vos, through his magisterial corpus of exegetical writings—and for good reason.1 No less a theologian than B. B. Warfield called Vos “the best exegete Princeton ever had.”2 Until recently, however, few recognized that before he assumed the chair of biblical theology at Old Princeton, Vos taught dogmatics at the Theological School of the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan (now Calvin Theological Seminary).3 Through the labors of Richard B. Gaffin Jr., we now have access to Vos’s extensive lectures on this subject via his five-volume Reformed Dogmatics.4 Although sweeping in their scope, the Dogmatics conspicuously lacked a prolegomenon, a theology of revelation in nature and Scripture.5 In 2017, I found a possible answer to this puzzle in the Calvin University archives in the form of previously undiscovered lecture notes by Vos on natural theology and hermeneutics.6 Vos apparently covered topics in prolegomenon in other

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classes outside of his courses on dogmatics. A portion of these reflections on prolegomenon—namely, Vos’s notes on natural theology—have recently been published by Reformation Heritage Books, enabling a fuller examination of Vos’s early theology.7

Vos’s lectures on natural theology arose out of his professorship at the Theological School between 1888–1893.8 We do not have Vos’s original manuscripts. Rather, we have three transcriptions by students, two of which are dated 1895 and 1898, after Vos had left the Theological School for Princeton. Presumably, these students copied Vos’s lectures as a study exercise or transcribed lectures given by teachers who used Vos’s notes as the basis of their lessons.9 There is no reason, however, to doubt their veracity. All three manuscripts make clear attribution to Vos and recount the same content with minimal deviations between eac...