All Articles For Hanko, Herman

When the Protestant churches celebrate the reformation of the sixteenth century on October 31, they commemorate especially the anniversary of that one event which launched the reformation: Luther’s act of nailing on the door of the church at Wittenberg, the university’s bulletin board, the Ninety-Five Theses which he drew up against the sale of indulgences in the territory of Frederick the Wise. While this event indeed launched the reformation, it was, in itself, not intended to be an act of reformation. There were countless abuses in the Romish Church of the sixteenth and preceding centuries; one among many was the...

It has come as a surprise to me that the current controversy in our churches has been over the question of the place of good works in God’s work of salvation. Most of us were taught the truth of this question in our covenant homes, our catechism classes, the preaching we heard every Lord’s Day and it is, as far as I am concerned, what I was taught in the Seminary. It was part of our heritage with its glorious emphasis on sovereign grace. That we face controversy over the question is puzzling to me. Let me briefly spell out...

by Henry Danhof and Herman Hoeksema. Edited by David J. Engelsma. Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2016. Pp. xii + 544. $43.95 (cloth). [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.]   This outstanding book is vitally important to members of the Protestant Reformed Churches. I urge everyone to obtain a copy and delve into it with haste and interest. Using the important admonition of Isaiah 51:1 as its title, the book gives in one volume the most important documents concerning the origin of the Protestant Reformed Churches. Some documents have previously appeared in English, but others have not. Now they are available...

Paul C. Gutjahr. Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. 477. $39.95 (paper). [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.] If one is interested in and con­cerned about American Presbyte­rianism in the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, one must read this book. It is intended to be a definitive biography of one of the outstanding Presbyterian theologians in America, and it succeeds admirably. It does not, however, merely record the life of Charles Hodge, but it describes his life in connection with all the major events of his lifetime, especially of the church of which he was a member all his life. And...

This article, abbreviated somewhat for SB length, was written at the request of the Special Education Board. As part of the rich and glorious inheritance of the Reformed faith is the doctrine of God’s covenant of grace. The truth of God’s covenant of grace includes in it the promise of the Scriptures that God will be our God and the God of our children. We believe with all our hearts that our children “as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God;…since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the...

David Teems. Thomas Nelson, 2010. Pp. 301 (paper). [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.]   I have seldom read such a well-written and interesting book on the behind-the-scenes happen­ings and the actual translation of the King James Version of the Bi­ble. The blurb on the back cover is not exaggerating when it says, “David Teems’ narrative crack­les with wit, using a thoroughly modern tongue to reanimate the life of this seventeenth century king—a man at the intersection of political, literary, and religious thought, yet a man of contrasts, dubbed by one French king as ‘the wisest fool in Christendom.’” Its theme is...

Laurence M. Vance. Pensacola: Vance Publications, 2006. Pp. 167 (paper). [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.] Dr. Vance has brought to­gether fourteen essays he has written over the years in defense of the King James Version of the Bible. The essays are roughly divided into four groups. The first group, composed of four essays, deals with the history that resulted in the KJV and the translators who did the work. The second group of three essays discusses the translators’ finished product. The third group of two essays examines the KJV in the context of the history of the English Bible. And the...

by Robert Godfrey (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2009). Pp. 207 (soft cover). [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.]   Godfrey has written an excel­lent biography of John Calvin that should have an important place among the many other biogra­phies that have appeared over the years. I would recommend it for reading in our high schools in any church history classes that include the history of the Reformation. It is a book that in my judgment is what a biography of a church father ought to be. It does not give mere data on Calvin’s life. It makes no effort to explain his...

by Bruce Gordon (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). Pp. 398 (hard cover), $35.00. [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.]   This book, written by a pro­fessor of reformation studies at Yale Divinity School, has been said to be the definitive biography of the great Genevan reformer. I am very much inclined to agree. I have read many biographies of Calvin, but I cannot remember reading one that was as interest­ing, comprehensive, informative, and accurate as Gordon’s work. It was written in commemoration of Calvin’s 500th birthday, which took place last year. It is a worthy addition to the countless books on...

by Herman J. Selderhuis, tr. by Albert Gootjes (Nottingham, England: InterVarsity Press). Pp. 287 (soft cover). [Reviewed by Herman Hanko.] With the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, a spate of books have come out on Calvin’s life and doctrine. The book under review is, as the title suggests, a biography. I have mixed feelings about it. The author is professor of Church History and Church Polity at the Theological School in Appeldoorn, Netherlands. He is also director of the Univer­sity’s Institute of Reformation Research. He, as professor in a Reformed Seminary, stands in the line of Calvin,...