Digestible doctrine

For the foreseeable future, Kevin DeYoung’s Daily Doctrine will be my go-to recommendation as an introduction to systematic theology. This volume offers something unique and traditional at the same time.

DeYoung frames his project as a work of “translation,” attempting to summarize in a digestible way standard Reformed teaching as represented in classic confessions, catechisms, and writings of key figures such as John Calvin, Francis Turretin, Charles Hodge, James Bannerman, Herman Bavinck, and Louis Berkhof. DeYoung explains that he does not endeavor to break new ground, describing his book as “a Tiny Turretin or a Baby Berkhof.”

But such descriptors don’t do justice to the distinctive form and accessible style of this work. DeYoung structures his book in 260 units (or “Days”), each addressing a theological topic. Each unit has around 500 words, about the same as a standard devotional text, making it digestible in a short sitting, and daily doctrinal devotional is one intended way to read it. DeYoung, as a gracious pastor, knows his readers will miss days, and he provides just five entries per week. Five to 10 minutes a day with this text will develop a rich theological vocabulary informed by classical Reformed teaching.

However, one could also use this book as a reference work, turning to it first to get acquainted with the basic elements of a disputed doctrine and see how classical Reformed theology relates to contemporary debates. And that is one of the main values of this work: It contributes to live debates while avoiding the likelihood of the book becoming quickly dated. Alongside more standard topics, DeYoung addresses topics relevant to contemporary North American Christianity often neglected in such systematic works: dispensationalism, Baptist covenant theology, new perspective on Paul, Christ’s cry of dereliction, paedocommunion, transgenderism, and concupiscence and the two types of temptation. He doesn’t treat these topics narrowly by focusing on any single contemporary figure, nor is the rhetoric inflated to indicate that any of these is some major issue that will rattle the Church for all time. DeYoung simply brings these themes into conversation with classic Reformed theology to help contemporary Christians get their bearings.

Readers will likely differ with DeYoung’s conclusions in a few places. For example, I disagree with DeYoung’s discussion of the ecclesiological attribute of “unity.” He ignores John 13, a key text to which those who more strongly advocate for visible unity (like me) appeal. I also differ with DeYoung on the relationship between church and state, but I appreciate that he explains that his rejection of the establishment principle is somewhat at odds with “many of the greatest Protestant theologians in history,” and thus he is “hesitant to insist that the idea cannot mesh with biblical principles.” This is a helpful concession for the ongoing debates on this hot topic. Two areas where I wish he would have been able to engage recent debates a bit more in-depth are baptismal regeneration and the imputation of the active obedience of Christ. I don’t necessarily disagree with DeYoung on these topics, but the contrasting views were either too summarily dismissed or inadequately represented.

And though DeYoung claims he does not break any new ground, in places he does contribute views that are somewhat unique, or at least have not achieved broad consensus within the Reformed tradition. One example is his treatment of “heavenly rewards” (Day 249). He believes in rewards, but not variable rewards. The single reward is life with Christ, and there are no different levels with regard to that. He does indicate that “many (most?) Reformed theologians past and present disagree with me on this matter,” and the lone footnote to support his view is a 1992 essay by Craig Blomberg. I appreciate this forthrightness in offering a somewhat idiosyncratic position, and I look forward to any debate this might spark among his readers.

Besides these more debatable contributions, there are a few other areas where DeYoung adds material often not present in systematic works, but which provides very helpful clarifications and elaboration. One salutary clarification regards the topic of semper reformanda (Day 215). Too many today appeal to that principle to justify attempts to alter the Church’s historical teaching on a contested topic. DeYoung provides the background to the original instance of this phrase, whose entirety is ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbi Dei: “the church is Reformed and always [in need of] being reformed according to the Word of God.” When Jodocus van Lodenstein coined this phrase in 1674, he was intending to promote reformation in the lives and practices of the members of the Dutch church, which had already experienced reform of its doctrine. The goal, as DeYoung explains, was “personal piety, not doctrinal progressivism.” DeYoung further teases out Reformed distinctives in an entire section devoted to covenant theology. Though the covenant motif is foundational to Reformed dogmatics, it rarely gets such explicit and sustained treatment. In this section, DeYoung provides insightful arguments about what is new in the new covenant, along with relevant implications for membership that provide the basis for the paedobaptist position. While others have made similar arguments in other publications, I have not seen this put so clearly in such a succinct manner.

DeYoung mentions in the introduction that he may have bitten off more than he can chew in this work by trying to cover the broad scope of systematic topics in a devotional style without losing intellectual depth. He is correct that this is a tall task, but his book is a true gift for contemporary students of theology.