Essential Truths in the Heart of a Christian

Thanks once again to the Dutch Reformed Translation Society, which has added another volume to its list of translated "Classics of Reformed Spirituality." The newest contribution is a translation of William Schortinghuis' (1700-1750) Essential Truths in the Heart of a Christian.

It is a catechism covering in 40 chapters the main points of Christian life and theology as taught by Scripture. Written as an introduction to the Reformed Faith, it was popular in its time and place. Schortinghuis was a leader of the later Dutch Further Reformation, or Nadere Reformatie, and not without controversy within the movement, but this work gained the approval of the Dutch orthodox in the 18th century, and should be well received by the orthodox English-speaking world of the 21st century. I have read it, and am grateful for the labors of the DTRS in making this volume available to us today.

Petrus Van Mastricht Translation Project

For some time (since 2006 at least), there has been talk that the Dutch Reformed Translation Society would undertake to translate and publish in English the famous and massive Theoretico-practica theologia of Petrus Van Mastricht. In November 2008, it was announced that this project was indeed moving forward. Most recently, Reformation Heritage Books has made it known that the project is in fact underway with an estimated completion date of 2014 (HT: Tony Reinke). Until now, only a small section of this work has been available in English, a Treatise on Regeneration, first translated and published in 1770, republished by Soli Deo Gloria Books in 2002. As mentioned previously on this blog, no less than Jonathan Edwards has described this as "...much better than Turretine or any other book in the world, excepting the Bible, in my opinion." That the magnum opus of this professor of practical divinity (Adriaan C. Neele, The Art of Living to God: A Study of Method and Piety in the Theoretico-practica theologia of Petrus van Mastricht (1630-1706), p. 16, says that '[Henricus] Pontanus mentions Mastricht's unique position among Reformed theologians, having the title "professor of practical divinity" while [Bernhardinus] De Moor recommends the reading of Mastricht for practical theology.') will finally be brought to light in the English-speaking and reading world is worthy of our thanks to God and our prayers for the successful completion of this project.