A Record of B. B. Warfield’s Book Reviews

The more than two-hundred-fifty-page PDF document available for download at the end of this introduction is a table that includes seven columns of information about each of 1268 book reviews by Benjamin B. Warfield published in the journals issued by Princeton Seminary. A brief text within the table explains the runs and titles of Princeton’s journals and provides details needed for interpreting the table. 

Warfield’s first review was published in The Presbyterian Review, April 1880, while he was professor of New Testament at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, and it critiques volume one of C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklärung der Korinthierbriefe. The book is not an expository commentary but instead is concerned with history and the Corinthian people.

His last review considered two titles together and was published the month before his death in The Princeton Theological Review, January 1921. The first of the two titles is Hugo Visscher’s address about science and religion delivered before the four faculties of the Universities of Utrecht during the 284th anniversary of the institution. The second title is a tract by H. W. van der Vaart Smit that evaluated Visscher saying his view “seems to require Christianity to surrender to natural science” and it “appears to abolish all supernaturalism from the fact-basis and fact-content of Christianity.” Warfield maintained an interest in Dutch theology over the years and the Dutch showed their appreciation for his teaching when the Doctor of Sacred Theology was given him by Utrecht in 1913. 

It is appropriate that Warfield’s last review included criticism of naturalism given his life spent defending supernaturalism. In between these two reviews is a period of forty-one years during which Warfield evaluated a wide variety of books including subjects as varied as agriculture, ships, and children’s books, along with the biblical-theological-confessional titles one would expect.

The current version of the table dated September 3, 2024, replaces the first edition that was posted on June 21, 2022. There are not any entries describing additional reviews in the table; the changes are from copyediting and content clarifications.

Free Download: A Table of B. B. Warfield’s Book Reviews in The Presbyterian and Reformed Review and its Predecessors