Norm Geisler published four volumes of systematic theology between 2002 and 2005 and it went out of print in 2019. Bastion Books is working towards getting them back into print in 2024. Until then, the four-volume edition of Systematic Theology is available for sale only in the electronic Logos Bible Software format from Logos.com. (And of course the Systematic Theology: In One Volume is available as a hardback and is a slightly condensed, lightly updated amalgamation of the four volumes–in one volume.)
Click here to view the contents of the 4-volume set.
Translations
The four-volume set was translated into Brazilian Portuguese and made available as a two-volume set under the title of Teologia Sistematica.
A translation into Simplified Chinese was begun but not completed. Contact us for more information.
Norm’s popular “in one volume” edition of his Systematic Theology is available for sale in a hardback printed edition. If you’re in the USA, you can now order a copy from Amazon:
If you’re interested in making an in-bulk pre-order at a significant discount, please contact us here to let us know.
Contents
Please click here to view its table of contents as a PDF file
Overview
With a brilliant mind and a Christ-intoxicated heart, Norm Geisler devoted his life to understanding the God who revealed himself indirectly in the natural order (Rom. 1:19-20; Ps. 19:1-6; Acts 14:17), powerfully in human history (Ex. 6:7, Josh. 4:23-24, Acts 17:26; Gal. 4:4), propositionally in the God-breathed Scriptures (Lk. 24:27), personally through the incarnated Word (Jn. 1:1-12; Col. 1:15; Hb. 1:1-3), and spiritually through his Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10-16). This book is arguably the greatest fruit of his seven-decade long quest to know God and make him known. It is his magnum opus and his λογικὴν λατρείαν. This is a matured work of a veteran theologian. Its contents were refined for over sixty years (1959-2019) in the classroom crucibles of some of the finest evangelical seminaries and colleges in the United States. Adding to its uniqueness and value is the fact that it was written at the pinnacle of his long career as a defender of the faith who powerfully “destroy[ed] arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:3-5). Some of that power is stored in this book. This material also flowed from the shepherd’s heart; Norm sincerely wrote and worked to help present the church to its redeemer as a bride both “pure in devotion” and “undeceived in thought” (2 Cor. 11:1-3). We at Bastion Books are very pleased to bring it back into print.
This 1,664-page systematic theology is divided into nine parts: a unique introduction that explains the preconditions of theology, a rigorous bibliology, theology proper, creation, humanity and sin, salvation, ecclesiology, eschatology, and various appendices. At the risk of oversimplification, the perspective from which the book is written is generally Thomistic, mild-Augustinian, mild-Calvinist, baptistic, premillennial, dispensational, and non-denominational. Norm was transparent about the fact that his theology being influenced significantly by Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, Francis Turretin, Charles Hodge, C.S. Lewis, Erich Sauer, and countless others. Standing on the shoulder of giants allowed him to see much further, he insisted. But he also disagreed with them all at various points and proceed to construct his own unique system of theology that was remarkably—but not radically—original. So, while in one sense he was a scholar who interacted with thousands of books, in another sense, he was ultimately a man of one book—the Bible. He insisted, “Only one book, the Bible, I read to believe. All other books I only consider.”
History & Disambiguation
Between 2002 and 2005, Norm published a four-volume set of systematic theology books through Bethany House / Baker Books. In 2011, Bethany/Baker produced a slightly-abridged and lightly-updated amalgamation of the four-volume set into a new one-volume, 1,664-page edition. Both the one-volume and four-volume editions went out of print in 2019 and the rights to both were returned to the Geisler estate. Other than a few minor typos being fixed, the contents of this 2021 one-volume edition are the same as the original one-volume edition by Bethany House in 2011. No new content was added.
To download the Arabic translation of The Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True by Norman L. Geisler, click here. The download is a .zip file of a .pdf file. NGIM has given its permission to allow this PDF file to be downloaded freely and distributed freely, so long as no changes are made. We encourage you to send the link to this page (http://bastionbooks.com/12-points-arabic/)to all the Arabic readers you know!
Click the graphic above to download the zipped PDF version of this book freely.
This translation was made by a native Arabic speaking Christian from Syria and checked by a native Arabic speaking Christian in Egypt.
Read more about the original English version of this book here.
Printed softcover copies may be ordered from Amazon here:
This booklet was published by the Global Journal of Classic Theology in 2019 and was printed with the help of Bastion Books soon after. It is a 42-page review by Dr. Lydia McGrew of Dr. Michael Licona’s book Why are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography (Oxford University Press: 2016).
This review would reappear and be expanded upon in Lydia’s 2020 book The Mirror or the Mask.
As of January 2022, Bastion Books is actively discussing the possibility of creating a slightly-expanded 3rd edition with the help of Winfried Corduan! For now, however, the second edition is available for sale in softcover and e-book formats through Wipf&Stock.
Is there any basis in reality for a religious experience?
Is there any basis in reason for belief in God?
Is it even possible to speak meaningfully of a transcendent being?
And how does one account for evil?
The authors answer these questions, representing the four most important issues in the philosophy of religion, in a comprehensive way and “from the perspective of classical theism.” They support this position with in-depth argumentation, taking into account both classical and contemporary writers. With its well-outlined text, ‘Philosophy of Religion’ is “user friendly.” An introduction, chapter summaries, a glossary, indexes, and bibliography contribute to this end.
The first edition, written by Norman L. Geisler alone, was published by Zondervan in 1974 and was to some degree an expansion of his Ph.D. Dissertation from 1970. It was chosen as a “Choice Evangelical Book of the Year” by Christianity Today (1975).
The second edition was expanded by Winfried Corduan (in concert with Norm) and published by Baker Books in 1988. In this second edition, the authors have not only updated the text and bibliography, but also refined some of the arguments, “scaled down and evened out” the vocabulary, and added several pedagogical aids.
As of 2022, Bastion Books has the rights to the book and hopes to work with Winfried Corduan to make a slightly-expanded, updated, third-edition of this book.
Beware of Philosophy began as the presidential address Dr. Geisler delivered to the biblical scholars at the 50th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) on November 19th, 1998. This eBook edition remains essentially the same but was updated slightly by Dr. Geisler in 2012.
Dr. Geisler begins with this warning:
The exhortation of the apostle Paul to “beware of philosophy” (Col. 2:8) is as urgent today as it was in the first century, if not more so. And this is not only true for Christians who call themselves philosophers but for those who do not, especially for biblical exegetes. Although the context of Col. 2:8 probably has reference to a proto-gnostic type philosophy at Colossae that had a disastrous mix of legalism, asceticism, and mysticism with Christianity, the implications of Paul’s exhortation to “beware of philosophy” are appropriately applied to other alien systems of thought that have invaded Christianity down through the centuries since then.
But before one can beware of philosophy, theologians must first be aware of philosophy. Dr. Geisler begins by explaining the sour theological fruit produced by the incursion of harmful philosophical roots. He warns against Naturalism, Spinoza, Hume, Bultmann, Agnosticism, Evolutionism, Progressivism, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Conventionalism, Processism, Platonic Allegorism, Ockhamistic Nominalism, Aristotelianism, Anthropological Monism, and Historical Criticism. He proceeds to offer helpful advice for the mind and for the soul–advice meant to help us avoid being influenced negatively by harmful philosophical trends and methods. This makes it a “must read” for all biblical scholars and for advanced students of God’s word!
A Bastion of Conservative Evangelical Christian Thought
