Preface to the Second Edition

More than three decades have passed since the appearance of the first edition of my Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms. Reception of the book throughout the years has been most gratifying.

In many ways the first edition of the dictionary charted my own introduction both to the intricacies and, underneath those intricacies, to the incredible clarity of Protestant scholastic thought. In the years intervening between that initial attempt at grasping the vocabulary of the older orthodoxy and this new edition of the book, I have continued to study the materials of the eras of the Reformation and orthodoxy, and I have found (not surprisingly) that the language of this highly variegated, philosophically attuned, and sometimes highly technical theology was far richer than I had originally imagined. A second edition allows me to offer in print an expanded point of entry into the terminology of Protestant orthodoxy, incorporating some of what I have learned over the years.

Few readers have complained about omissions, although various colleagues and students have noted terms and phrases that they would have liked to have seen included and defined, and several colleagues have indicated places in which definitions could be improved. My thanks in particular to David Sytsma, who carefully read through the entire text, pressed me to clarify passages, and made numerous suggestions for additions and elaborations. This new edition of the dictionary permits me to thank those colleagues by adding over one hundred terms and phrases; by editing, refining, and expanding other definitions; and by correcting typographical errors (and hopefully not inserting new ones).

Soli Deo gloria