Geerhardus Vos

Life

Vos was born in the Dutch province of Friesland, the son of a Reformed minister. In 1881 he emigrated to the United States with his family. He studied at the Christian Reformed Church's theological school in Grand Rapids and at Princeton Theological Seminary, and then pursued further study in Berlin and Strasbourg, Germany, receiving his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg in 1888.

After returning to the United States, he began teaching in 1888 at the Christian Reformed Church's theological school in Grand Rapids (the forerunner of today's Calvin Theological Seminary). Abraham Kuyper of the Netherlands reportedly offered him a professorship at the Free University of Amsterdam, but he declined. In 1893 he assumed the newly established chair of biblical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, a position he held until his retirement in 1932. After retiring, he lived in the western United States and in Grand Rapids until his death.

Work and Contributions

Biblical theology, as Vos understood it, differs from systematic theology, which organizes the teaching of the Bible by topic; instead, it traces how God's revelation was progressively disclosed over the course of history. He preferred to call the discipline "the history of special revelation." He set forth the nature of this discipline in his 1894 inaugural address.

His work is distinguished by its reading of the Old Testament and the New Testament as a single history of redemption, with Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God at its center. In his study of the Pauline epistles in particular, he explained eschatology within an "already and not yet" framework: through the resurrection of Christ the "age to come" has already begun but has not yet been consummated. This interpretation went on to exert considerable influence on later Reformed theologians.

His major works include The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church (1903), The Self-Disclosure of Jesus (1926), The Pauline Eschatology (1930), and Biblical Theology (1948), compiled from his lecture notes. He also left a collection of sermons, Grace and Glory.

Influence on the Korean Church

Vos never visited Korea. Nevertheless, his biblical theology entered Korean Presbyterian theological education through the Reformed theology associated with Princeton and Westminster Theological Seminary. His major works, including Biblical Theology and The Pauline Eschatology, have been translated into Korean and are widely used as textbooks or reference works in biblical theology at Reformed seminaries such as Chongshin University and Kosin University. His biblical theology is also frequently cited as the theoretical foundation for Korean discussions of redemptive-historical preaching, which urges that biblical texts be read not merely as moral examples but within the history of redemption, with Christ at the center.

Assessment

In Reformed circles Vos is held in high esteem and is called "the father of Reformed biblical theology." He is regarded as a theologian who upheld the inspiration and authority of Scripture while engaging seriously with its historical character. Scholars at Westminster Theological Seminary, including Richard Gaffin, took up and developed his work.

Others, however, have raised criticisms or pointed to limitations. Scholars associated with liberal theology and historical criticism contend that his research presupposed the unity of Scripture. Even within the Reformed tradition, some find his prose excessively difficult. Still others observe that redemptive-historical preaching that follows his method can neglect the ethical application of the text.