John H. Leith
Pastor, Calvin scholar, professor at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, founder of the Foundation for Reformed Theology.
Showing 24 of 87 resources by or about John H. Leith, grouped by collection
Bibliographies24
All bibliographiesCover Letter – Bibliographies For Seminars
Introductory letter explaining the purpose, scope, and approval of the Foundation’s seminar bibliographies. Recounts the history of the program, established by Dr. and Mrs. John H. Leith in 1982 and continued by the Foundation since 1998, and notes that only the listed topics are approved for Foundation seminars.
Introduction to John Haddon Leith
The required first reading for new seminars: a survey of Dr. John H. Leith’s principal works including An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition, The Reformed Imperative, From Generation to Generation, and Basic Christian Doctrine. These set forth the Reformed tradition as the Foundation understands it and articulate the program of the seminars he founded.
Topic 1: The Christian Hope in Eternal Life
Seminar readings center on Augustine’s City of God (Books 20-22), Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Heaven Is a World of Love,” William Temple on the conditions of eternal life, and Karl Barth’s sections on the Holy Spirit and Christian hope from the Church Dogmatics. Supplementary readings include works by Jüngel, Rahner, Baillie, and Leith’s chapter in Basic Christian Doctrine.
Topic 2: The Reformed Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
Primary readings draw on Calvin’s account of how we receive grace (Institutes, Book III), and extended sections from Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics on the Holy Spirit and the Christian community (CD IV/2 and IV/3). Alternate main texts include Thomas Oden’s Life in the Spirit, Jürgen Moltmann’s The Spirit of Life, and Alasdair Heron’s The Holy Spirit.
Topic 3: Reformed Theology in Pluralistic, Secular Society
Readings examine Calvin’s engagement with Nicodemism through Carlos Eire’s essays, paired with Barth’s prolegomena from CD I/1 and “The Light of Life” from CD IV/3. Contemporary voices include Lesslie Newbigin’s Truth to Tell and Robert Wilken’s essay on pluralism in early Christian thought.
Topic 4: How Reformed Theology Shapes Liturgy
The bibliography traces the Reformed liturgical tradition through its primary sources: Farel’s La Maniere et fasson (1524), Zwingli’s Zurich Liturgy (1525), Oecolampadius’s Form and Manner (1525), Calvin’s Form of Church Prayers from Strassburg and Geneva, and à Lasco’s Forma ac Ratio (1550). Elsie Anne McKee’s essay on the Calvinist liturgy provides essential commentary.
Topic 5: Reformed Piety
Seminar readings open with Calvin on the Christian life (Institutes III.6-10) and the Westminster Larger Catechism (QQ. 91-196) as primary statements of Reformed piety. Barth’s Church Dogmatics IV/4 on baptism as the foundation of the Christian life provides a major twentieth-century counterpoint.
Topic 6: Prayer
The reading list centers on Calvin’s great chapter on prayer as the chief exercise of faith (Institutes III.20), Barth’s treatment of God’s lordship over creation and the theology of petition (CD III/3 and III/4), and Hughes Oliphant Old’s Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Ministers. Temple’s Readings in St. John’s Gospel and George Hendry’s essay on prayer as the lifeline of theology round out the list.
Topic 7: Providence
Primary readings draw on Calvin’s classic chapters on divine providence (Institutes I.16-18) and Barth’s extended treatment of the doctrine of providence and God as Lord of the creature (CD III/3, §§ 48-49). Emil Brunner’s Dogmatics vol. 2 is offered as an alternate, alongside Calvin’s Treatises Against the Anabaptists and the Libertines for its pastoral application.
Topic 8: The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds
The bibliography grounds the reader in the early Christian creeds through J.N.D. Kelly’s authoritative Early Christian Creeds and Calvin’s account of the Mediator’s work (Institutes II.16). Bullinger’s Decades, Barth’s Credo and Dogmatics in Outline, Emil Brunner’s I Believe in the Living God, and T.F. Torrance’s Trinitarian Faith provide the Reformed confessional and dogmatic context.
Topic 9: Karl Barth for Preachers
Designed specifically for parish ministers, this bibliography moves through Barth’s own preacher-facing works: the prolegomena of CD I/1, his Homiletics, The Faith of the Church (commentary on the Apostles’ Creed), Learning Jesus Christ through the Heidelberg Catechism, Deliverance to the Captives (Basel prison sermons), and Evangelical Theology. Secondary guides by Busch, Hancock, and Hunsinger are included for orientation.
Topic 10: Preaching Jesus Christ: Karl Barth and the Christian Story
Readings focus on Barth’s christological sections in the Church Dogmatics: the chapters titled “The Judge Judged in Our Place,” “The Royal Man,” and “The Light of Life” from CD IV as the theological center of preaching. Secondary readings draw on Hans Frei, Ronald Thiemann, and Thomas Torrance for the narrative and proclamatory dimensions of christocentric preaching.
Topic 11: The Doctrine of Humanity
Seminar readings open with Augustine’s Confessions, then move to Calvin on the knowledge of God and human nature (Institutes I.1-5, 15) and Edwards’ Religious Affections as a study of what it means to be genuinely human before God. Barth’s massive treatment of the creature in CD III/2 provides the major systematic counterpart, with Calvin’s Sermons on Job as an alternate.
Topic 12: Basic Christian Doctrine: The Question of Heresy
Primary readings engage Augustine’s Four Anti-Pelagian Writings and Calvin on the Trinity (Institutes I.13) and the two natures of the Mediator (II.14). H.E.W. Turner’s The Pattern of Christian Truth and C. FitzSimons Allison’s The Cruelty of Heresy provide historical and constructive accounts; Leith’s essay on the confession as normative theology grounds the discussion in Presbyterian practice.
Topic 13: Reading the Bible
Uniquely structured as an invitation to read through the Bible itself, from Genesis, Exodus, and the historical books through the New Testament. Supplementary readings include Alan Richardson’s A Preface to Bible Study, C.H. Dodd’s The Bible Today, and David Daniell’s biography of William Tyndale as a study of how Scripture was transmitted to the English-speaking church.
Topic 14: Jonathan Edwards: The Religious Affections
A focused introduction to Jonathan Edwards built around his Religious Affections, edited by John E. Smith for the Yale edition, as the primary text. The biography by George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, is the definitive secondary work, supplemented by Perry Miller’s classic intellectual biography and John Smith’s Jonathan Edwards: Puritan, Preacher, Philosopher.
Topic 15: The Living God Who Works Personally in the Created Orders of Nature and History
Readings address the doctrine of God as the living Lord who acts in nature and history, drawn from Calvin’s account of God’s knowledge and providence (Institutes I.1-5, 14-18), Barth’s doctrine of providence (CD III/3), and William Temple’s Gifford Lectures, Nature, Man and God. John Polkinghorne’s The Faith of a Physicist and Leith’s chapters in Basic Christian Doctrine bring the conversation into dialogue with contemporary science.
Topic 16: Reformed Doctrine of Mission
Centers on Barth’s three great sections in CD IV on the gathering, upbuilding, and sending of the Christian community (CD IV/1, IV/2, IV/3) as the theological foundation for mission. Historical balance is provided by Hans-Werner Gensichen on the Reformers and mission and Lesslie Newbigin’s The Open Secret, one of the most important missiology texts of the twentieth century.
Topic 17: The Pilgrim’s Progress
A focused reading of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress in the Oxford World’s Classics edition, with Roger Sharrock’s biography, John T. McNeill’s essay in Books of Faith and Power, and Gordon Rupp’s chapter in Six Makers of English Religion as companion readings. The bibliography invites ministers to read Bunyan’s allegory as a Reformed theology of the Christian life in narrative form.
Topic 18: The Christian Life
A focused reading list on the Christian life: Calvin’s classic chapters in the Institutes (Book III, chapters 6-10), Leith’s Yale dissertation John Calvin’s Doctrine of the Christian Life, and Richard B. Hays’ The Moral Vision of the New Testament. The bibliography draws together Reformed theology and New Testament ethics as a single picture of life shaped by the gospel.
Topic 19: Augustine’s Interpretive Frame of Reference
The seminar reads Augustine’s City of God, Part II (Books 11-22), alongside Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo as the indispensable biographical companion. Seminars have found it most useful to read Brown first to establish the framework. The bibliography makes a sustained case for reading Augustine as a theologian whose engagement with history, politics, and the two cities is perennially relevant.
Topic 20: Election
Seminar readings address the Reformed doctrine of election through Calvin’s chapters on eternal election (Institutes III.21-24), Calvin’s Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, and Barth’s far-reaching reformulation of election in CD II/2. William Temple on freedom and grace and Leith’s own writings on predestination and the Christian life complete the reading list.
Topic 21: Puritan Statements of Reformed Theology
Seminar readings draw from William Perkins’ The Art of Prophesying, John Cotton’ s The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England, William Ames’ The Marrow of Theology, selections from Bunyan and Milton, and secondary works by Patrick Collinson, Charles Hambrick-Stowe, and David Hall. The bibliography traces the Puritan movement from its English origins through its development in New England, giving particular attention to Puritan preaching, piety, and ecclesiology.
Topic 22: Reformed Theology of the Family
Primary readings include Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Advice, Robert Kingdon’s Adultery and Divorce in Calvin’s Geneva, and Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics III/4 on the relationship between man and woman. Secondary works survey the theology and practice of Christian marriage, sexuality, and household ethics across the Reformed tradition, from sixteenth-century Geneva to the twentieth century.
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About John H. Leith
Pastor, Calvin scholar, professor at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, founder of the Foundation for Reformed Theology.
Subjects in this work 42
- Baptism
- Biblical Interpretation
- Christian Hope
- Christian Life
- Christian Witness
- Christmas
- Christology
- Collected Essays
- Columbia Forum
- Communion of Saints
- Creeds and Confessions
- Death and Funerals
- Doctrinal Theology
- Ecclesiology
- Ethics
- Evangelism
- Historical Theology
- Introduction
- Islam
- Jesus Christ
- Justification
- Means of Grace
- Ministry of the Church
- Pastoral Care
- Perseverance of the Saints
- Philosophy
- Prayer
- Preaching
- Predestination
- Presbyterian Heritage
- Providence
- Reformation History
- Reformed Perspective
- Reformed Tradition
- Reformed Worship
- Sanctification
- Teaching
- Teaching with Technology
- Thanksgiving
- The Reformation
- Tradition
- Word and Spirit
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