John Henry Gerstner was a Professor of Church History at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary and an authority on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards. He earned both a Master of Divinity of degree and a Master of Theology degree from Westminster Theological Seminary. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University in 1945. He was originally ordained in the United Presbyterian Church of North America, then (due to church unions) with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1990, he left the PCUSA for the Presbyterian Church in America.
Gerstner counted among his students, noted author and preacher, R. C. Sproul, founder of Ligonier Ministries, Dr. Arthur Lindsley, Senior Fellow at the C.S. Lewis Institute, and Dr. Walter (Wynn) Kenyon, Professor of Biblical Studies and Philosophy; Chair of the Philosophy Department and Division of Ministry and Human Services at Belhaven University.
In addition to the books Gerstner had written, he also recorded several lengthy audio courses giving a survey of theology, church history, and Christian apologetics, which are distributed through Ligonier Ministries. Gerstner was non-dispensationalist.
In 1976, a Festschrift was published in Gerstner's honor. Soli Deo Gloria: Essays in Reformed Theology included contributions by Cornelius Van Til, J. I. Packer, Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, John Murray, R. C. Sproul, John Warwick Montgomery, and Roger Nicole.
I'm a moderate to fast reader and I took three months to complete this. But it was totally worth the time and effort. Gerstner makes you think and wonder. Makes you pause many times and hence it's not easy to breeze through a book like this. Set in a dialogue format between an Inquirer and a Christian, this covers all major theological topics with the Inquirer asking questions, and the Christian answering them for him. The format made it much more entertaining and readable than what it would have been otherwise, and that's why I would suggest it for everyone and not just for students of theology. The only missing star is due to my disagreement with the author on his method of apologetics which is classical, whereas I hold onto the Vantillian method. But that's not a big deal by any means, this is a great book and I totally recommend it!