Contending that the theology of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is often misrepresented in church histories and scholarly treatments, Richard Muller has undertaken this exhaustive study of specific doctrines to demonstrate how doctrine developed in the early Protestant period.

Volume one, Prolegomena to Theology, introduces the study of Protestant scholasticism. Muller defines theology and religion and discusses several aspects of theology as they were understood in the post-Reformation era.

Volume two, Holy Scripture, examines post-Reformation understandings of Scripture as the word of God, its divinity, its properties, and its interpretation.

Volume three, The Divine Essence and Attributes, examines post-Reformation theology on the unity of God’s existence, God’s divine essence and attributes, and divine will. Included is an analysis of the doctrine of God from the twelfth to eighteenth century.

Volume four, The Triunity of God, examines the doctrine of the Trinity, including unity and distinction in the Trinity as they were understood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and addresses the deity and person of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

This important historical and theological treatment is now available as both individual volumes and as a complete set.

Richard Muller has gained an international reputation as a brilliant and incisive commentator on John Calvin and the Reformed tradition. But these volumes are something else. With immense erudition and energy, Muller here displays the theology of the Reformed scholastics in relation to the full sweep of the history of Christian doctrine, expounding it on a truly monumental scale. The scholarly community is permanently in his debt. Muller demonstrates that when used with discernment, the long-neglected wealth of Reformed dogmatics can result in the deepening of theological reflection and preaching in the Christian church.-Paul Helm, Regent College, Vancouver

Richard Muller’s long-awaited volumes represent a work of vast historical scope, profound engagement with the primary and secondary sources, and careful application of sound historical method. By setting seventeenth-century Reformed theology against the background of classical, patristic, medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation intellectual culture, Muller paints a picture of seventeenth-century Reformed theology that belies the old clichés through its nuance, learning, and sophistication. Nobody engaged in this area can afford to ignore his arguments or his conclusions; those who wish to dissent from his central theses have been set a daunting task, and those who find themselves in agreement have been set a standard for their own research.-Carl R. Trueman, Westminster Theological Seminary