Studies in Perfectionism

by B.B. Warfield

Book by Warfield, Benjamin B.

Genres: Theology, Christianity

464 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1958

About the author

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (usually known as B. B. Warfield) was professor of theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. Some conservative Presbyterians consider him to be the last of the great Princeton theologians before the split in 1929 that formed Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final two essays on the German Higher Life movement are excellent, but the preceding articles from the Princeton Theological Review are a yawn-fest with a few good paragraphs here and there.

[Travis Daggett · Rating 2 out of 5]

If perfectionism was more of an issue today, I would give this book three or four stars.

[Edward]

Rushdoony: "Warfield’s two volumes on Perfectionism, a magnificent study.
Now when Warfield made this study it was a very narrow theological work. He confined himself to what happened when Arminianism turned as it logically did not only into Antinomianism, but also into Perfectionism. And the implications of it as he develops it are masterly, because, you see why Utopianism has developed in the modern world as the old premises of the reformed faith have disappeared.

Now when me begin to see Perfectionism as a goal and place their hope in man and man’s development of himself rather than in what man does in God’s service, then we are going to have a society that is Utopian, that is going to be censorious of the past, that is going to believe that all sins are committed by our forbearers and we are the generation that is going to usher in a perfect society and a perfect world. In other words, although Warfield did to go into it, what comes through loud and clear is the vast realm of social implications, of bad theology. And how it leads to bad morality, to a misconception of what life is about and our purpose here on this world.

And as he points out in one telling sentence, we go from simple trust in Christ as our Savior to an imitation of Christ and that this helped kill the Middle Ages and it is, as he saw, killing the Reformation. Man sees himself capable of reproducing in his life what Christ was instead of serving him. So we go from a trust in Christ’s saving work and a service under him to the imitation of Christ."

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't imagine a more thorough treatment of this heretical doctrine. Warfield goes back to the German theologians to establish the origin of this movement. While this gets a bit tedious, it nonetheless lays a necessary foundation for the British and American proponents. As has been pointed out by other reviewers, it is interesting how the perfectionists devolved into antinomianism to avoid God's revealed law. Once someone comes to grips with the whole of God's law, there is no way they can claim perfectionism.