Covering the whole range of systematic theology, Turretin offers twenty topics. Each topic is addressed through a series of questions. The questions are answered. Objections are raised. Objections are answered. With the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, Turretin addresses problems, works through all the angles, and brings the reader to a pinpoint resolution—aided by logic, the best of the tradition, and above all Scripture.

R.C. Sproul once said, “If you ask me who I think were three most brilliant theologians in all of history, I would say Thomas Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards, and Francis Turretin.” About Turretin, he added, “If you want to find sound theology, here it is.”

So who is this giant from the past? Francis Turretin spanned most of the seventeenth century. Born in 1623, he came by theology as his profession honestly. His grandfather, having embraced the Reformed faith, immigrated to Geneva from Italy. Francis’s father, Benedict Turretin, was also a theologian whose career included a significant role at the Synod of Dort. Francis cut his teeth on theology in Geneva, then studied at a number of Europe’s most prestigious universities. He returned to Geneva to pastor an Italian church and serve as a professor at the Geneva Academy. The Italian church in Geneva had been established in 1542 to serve Reformation refugees. The Geneva Academy was founded in 1559 by Calvin. Turretin died in his beloved city of Geneva on September 28, 1687.

In addition to preaching and teaching, he wrote. Most notable among Turretin’s writings is his three-volume Institutes of Elenctic Theology. It was originally published in Latin as Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, published in four volumes in 1688.

It was and is immense. Covering the whole range of systematic theology, Turretin offers twenty topics. Each topic is addressed through a series of questions. The questions are answered. Objections are raised. Objections are answered. With the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, Turretin addresses problems, works through all the angles, and brings the reader to a pinpoint resolution—aided by logic, the best of the tradition, and above all Scripture. It was this precision, that made Turretin so appealing to R.C. And it is Turrretin’s precision that makes him so necessary for pastors today.

We need to see this precision played out against three things:

• the context in which Turretin lived and wrote
• the method animating how and what Turretin wrote
• the end for which Turretin wrote

The Polemics of the Seventeenth Century:  Turretin’s Context

Cool closets or controversy? B.B. Warfield once remarked that theologians and pastors might prefer comfortable environments, what Warfield called “cool closets.” The reality is that many actually find themselves in controversy, sometimes steeped in it.

When we think of the Reformers we sometimes forget that they lived far from charmed lives and existences. Luther lived most of his adult life as an outlaw with a potential death sentence over his head. Calvin suffered wave upon wave of betrayal, misunderstanding, and conflict. These were times of significant political, ecclesiastical, and theological upheaval. These times rolled into the seventeenth century. Disputes rose against what came to be called Calvinism, or the Reformed view of the doctrines of grace. They were addressed at the Synod of Dort, but the Arminian camp grew stronger as the decades wore on. The Socinian controversy raged in Turretin’s day, as it did in Calvin’s day. And the papists did not disappear when Luther swung his mallet. All of these controversies and more were part of the warp and woof of Turretin’s life. Whether he was addressing those in the pew or those who would step into the pulpit he fully embraced the challenge of defending orthodoxy and calling out heresy and error. That was called polemics, the engaging in controversy and dispute. Turretin knew that error was deadly for the church, and he stepped in.

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