Francis Turretin has been called "the Aristotle of theology." His magnum opus. Instilutio theologiae elencticae, was evaluated by William Cun- ningham as a book "of inestimable value"

The Institutio has also been exceedingly influential. According to John W Beardslee III, it "exercised a real influence on the theology of the nine- teenth century, especially of American Presbyterianism, through its place in the background of the Princeton movement that culminated with the Systematic Theology of Charles Hodge." Through the mediation of Charles and A. A. Hodge and of Benjamin B. Warfield. Turretin's theology has affected much of twentieth-century American evangelicalism, as well. Of no doctrine is this more true than that of Scripture.

Yet the second locus of Turretin's Institutio, where he develops his doctrine of Scripture, has never been published in English translation. This edition, then, is important both for historians of theology and for theologiarns now wrestling with the matters of Scripture's inspiration and authority

Francis Turretin (1623-1687) wat city pastor and professor of theology at Geneva from 1648 until his death. Of his many published works, the three-volume Institutio theologiae elencticae (1688), was his most significant

John W. Beardslee III, professor of church history at New Brunswick Theological Seminary since 1964, also translated locus 4 of Turretin's Institutio on God's decrees and predestination.