Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Happy 300th Birthday Bernhardinus de Moor!

Bernhardinus de Moor, Dutch Reformed theologian, was born on January 29, 1709. He was of the school of Gisbertus Voetius and Johannes à Marck. He died on July 18, 1780. His magnum opus was a commentary on that valuable work by à Marck, Christianæ theologiæ medulla didaetico-elenetica. De Moor's 7-volume commentary is entitled Commentarius perpetuus in Johannis Marckii Compendium theologiae Christianae didactico-elencticum I-VII. It marks the highwater of post-Reformation Reformed orthodoxy. Richard A. Muller writes, "De Moor's efforts did for late Reformed orthodoxy what the massive system of Quenstedt did for Lutheranism in the concluding years of the seventeenth century: the work was so exhaustive and so complete in its detail and bibliography that it virtually ended the development of Reformed doctrine in the form of orthodox system." (Post-Reformed Reformed Dogmatics, I.83) Elsewhere it has been noted that:
It was published at Utrecht (Lugduni-Batavorum) by Johannem Hasebroek in the years 1761-1778. Though not listed in Heppe it is one of the most extensive works on Reformed Theology in existence. Each volume is organized to cover a specific chapter in Marck. Volume 1 (1761) treats Scripture, theology and God, pp. 1034; volume 2 (1763), predestination, creation, etc., pp. 1087; volume 3, sin, Christology, etc., pp. 1173; volume 4, justification, etc., pp. 912; volume 5 (1768), ordo salutis, pp. 828; volume 6 (1778), church, etc., and supplements, pp. 970.

And so on this tricentennial birthday, cheers to one of the giants who went before us and who is worthy to be remembered.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for that, Andrew. Too bad de Moor isn't available on Google Books yet. Curious: where does your second quote come from?

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  2. You're welcome, Wes, and I agree. The second quote comes from the Encyclopedia Reformata article which is the first link in my post. Cheers!

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