What are his best works. I was thinking about purchasing Biblical Theology and Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos. Thoughts?
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What are his best works. I was thinking about purchasing Biblical Theology and Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos. Thoughts?
My main problem with Vos: He is unnecessarily wordy. If he has chance to say something in 3 pages, he will spend the next 300 telling you that.
My main problem with Vos: He is unnecessarily wordy. If he has chance to say something in 3 pages, he will spend the next 300 telling you that.
Agreed. I think that Vos can tend to be overrated in some circles. He does make some good points, and these were especially necessary for the time in which he wrote, and for the academic audience to whom he wrote, but as Jacob has pointed out, you really need to know where to prune if your are to make good use of your time with him.
A good little book of his that we read through during our General Epistles course was his writing on the Epistle to the Hebrews. It has some thoughtful insights into the issue of the archtype in relationship to the type/antitype paradigm.
Vos is wonderful. If you are able to get a copy of his (now out of print--somebody really needs to get on Banner of Truth's case to reprint it) Grace and Glory, which is a collection of his sermons, do so. His sermon, "Rabboni", in that volume on Mary going to Christ's empty tomb on the morning of the resurrection, is one of the most moving sermons I have ever read.
Vos is wonderful. If you are able to get a copy of his (now out of print--somebody really needs to get on Banner of Truth's case to reprint it) Grace and Glory, which is a collection of his sermons, do so. His sermon, "Rabboni", in that volume on Mary going to Christ's empty tomb on the morning of the resurrection, is one of the most moving sermons I have ever read.
Grace and Glory has been reprinted by Solid Ground Christian Books. It is available at a slightly cheaper price at Reformation Heritage Books. "Rabboni" is available online here.
Right now I am doing research on Vos for an article to be published. I have read a good deal of Vos by now. I would say that it is not that he is wordy, but that his sentence structure is complex. It is rather Latinate. That being said, there is profound insight on almost every page of Vos. I think it is a sign of our age that many of us find him difficult. He is not difficult when compared to other writers of his time. I find many commentaries of the late 19th-early 20th century to be very difficult to read. Vos is no more difficult than they are.