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Education and Career In 1900 he graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan after which he was called to be pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church in Allendale, Michigan. Two years later he attended Princeton Theological Seminary where he earned his B.D. in two years. Then he returned to West Michigan to pastor Oakdale Park Church located in Grand Rapids.
In 1906 he joined the faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary and taught there for almost four decades. For the first 20 years he taught Biblical Studies until in 1926 he moved into the systematic theology department. He became president of the seminary in 1931 and continued in that office until he retired in 1944.
Publications
Berkhof authored twenty two books during his career.
His main works are his Systematic Theology (1932, revised 1938) which was supplemented with an Introductory Volume to Systematic Theology (1932, which is included in the 1996 Eerdman's edition of Systematic Theology) and a separate volume entitled History of Christian Doctrines (1937).
He wrote a more concise version of his Systematic Theology for high school and college students entitled Manual of Christian Doctrine, and later wrote the even more concise Summary of Christian Doctrine.
He also delivered Princeton Theological Seminary's Stone Lectures in 1951. These were published as The Kingdom of God.
In addition to this he worked on many papers for the Christian Reformed Church as well as collections of sermons.
Legacy
Berkhof was not known for being original or speculative but for being very good at organizing and explaining basic theological ideas following in the tradition of John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, and Herman Bavinck.
Theologian Wayne Grudem has called Berkhof's Systematic Theology "a great treasure-house of information and analysis...probably the most useful one-volume systematic theology available from any theological perspective."
Berkhof's writings continue to serve as systematic presentations of Reformed theology. They are organized for use in seminaries and religious education as well as individual reference, though his systematics works are demanding reads.
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