Recommended Books for Understanding the Westminster Confession of Faith

kmathison6
4 hours ago
7 min read

Although published in the middle of the seventeenth century, the Westminster Confession of Faith remains one of the most important confessional standards in existence. It, along with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, is the confessional standard of numerous denominations such as the OPC, the PCA, and the ARP.

The Confession did not, however, appear in a vacuum. Just as it is important to understand the Arminian controversy if one is to fully understand the Canons of the Synod of Dort, it is important to understand the context of the Westminster Assembly in order to understand the theology of the standards produced by that assembly. The following is a list of books that I have found particularly helpful to one degree or another in understanding the Westminster Confession of Faith. The first group of books are helpful for providing historical and theological context. The next group of books are commentaries on the confession that I have read and used.

HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Chad Van Dixhoorn – “Reforming the Reformation: Theological Debate at the Westminster Assembly 1643–1652, 7 vols. (2004).

Chad Van Dixhoorn’s seven volume dissertation on the Westminster Assembly has been a game changer. There is probably nobody alive today who knows more about the day-to-day work of the assembly than Van Dixhoorn. He has discovered and brought to light numerous documents that had been lost for centuries and made them available to researchers everywhere. We all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

The first volume of his dissertation is the dissertation proper. It is an in-depth examination of the work of the assembly. It is a must read for anyone studying the Westminster Confession at a scholarly level. The remaining six volumes are all appendices. Volumes 3 to 7 of the dissertation were published by Oxford University Press in 2012 as The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643–1652 (See image above). A few sections of the dissertation proper are found in the first volume of this Oxford set. Unfortunately, this five-volume set retails at nearly $1500, putting it out of reach of most of us mere mortals. Volume 2 of the dissertation was published by Oxford University Press in 2023 as John Lightfoot’s Journals of the Westminster Assembly. This one retails for about $220. Volume 1 of the dissertation is the only part of the dissertation yet to be published in its entirety. Hopefully, that will change soon, and hopefully, when it does happen, it will be more affordable than the other volumes.

For those of us on a budget, there is some good news. All seven volumes are available for purchase as a collection or individually from Cambridge University for far less than the price of the Oxford editions. My pdf copy of volume 1 cost about $45. If you don't mind reading it as a pdf and in dissertation format, that's not terrible compared to the price of the printed Oxford volumes.

A.F. Mitchell – The Westminster Assembly: Its History and Standards (1884)

Mitchell's work is older, but it remains a highly informative and helpful book. He puts the assembly in its larger puritan context before turning to the work of the assembly on its various documents. He may be the Van Dixhoorn of his day.

B.B. Warfield – The Westminster Assembly and Its Work (1931)

Volume 6 in the 10 volume set of Warfield's works contains a number of articles Warfield wrote on subjects related to the Westminster Assembly. The first chapter “The Westminster Assembly and Its Work” provides historical context. The bulk of the remaining chapters are articles focusing on the assembly's doctrine of Scripture. Although older, this remains a valuable resource.

Robert Letham – The Westminster Assembly. (2009)

For those looking for something more up to date and something that has taken into account the research of Van Dixhoorn, Letham's volume is probably the best place to start. The entire volume is dedicated to putting the Confession and Catechisms in their proper historical and theological context.

J. V. Fesko – The Theology of the Westminster Standards. (2014)

This is not a line by line commentary on the Confession of Faith. As Fesko himself explains, this book examines key theological elements in the Westminster standards and illustrates them with primary sources from the era. A very useful work. Anybody beginning a study of the Westminster Confession today should probably begin by reading Letham and Fesko.

John Bower – The Confession of Faith: A Critical Text and Introduction. (2020)

This volume will likely be of interest primarily to specialists. Bower provides in this volume a critical edition of the text of the Westminster Confession of Faith intended to come as close as possible to the text as the assembly members wanted it to be. Personally, I found the sections discussing the debates over precise wording to be the most fascinating parts of the book.

COMMENTARIES

The following commentaries on the Westminster Confession of Faith are the ones I own and have used. They are listed here in order of publication.

David Dickson - Truth's Victory Over Error (1649)

The most unique thing about this commentary is the manner in which it is formatted. It is structured toward the goal of refuting theological errors and follows a standard format throughout every chapter.

Each chapter contains several questions. The opening question is usually a simple yes/no question. The answer is followed by a formulaic response: “Well, then do not the _________________ err who maintain __________________? This is followed by the formulaic response: “By what reasons are they confuted?” This is then followed by a series of biblical and theological arguments.

For example, in chapter one we read:

Question: “Are the light of nature and the works of creation and providence sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary to salvation?”

No (1 Cor. 1:21; 2:13–14)

“Well, then do not the Socinians err who maintain ‘That men living according to the law and light of nature may be saved’?”

Yes.

By what reasons are they confuted?

[Six reasons listed]

I find this structure helpful, especially since Dickson is writing in the same era as the assembly itself and is, therefore, highly aware of the theological errors current in his own day.

Robert Shaw - The Reformed Faith (1845)

When I grab all of my commentaries on the WCF, Shaw is usually the first one I read on a particular section of the Confession. His commentary is written as more of a straightforward exposition. It reads much like a systematic theology text. He will quote one or more sections of each chapter of the Confession and then comment before moving to the next section. The expositions are usually quite thorough.

A. A. Hodge - The Westminster Confession (1869)

Hodge is usually the second or third commentary I read. Hodge opens this volume with two introductory chapters: one on the history of creeds and confessions and one on the origins of the Westminster standards. He then turns to a chapter-by-chapter exposition of the content of the confession. Like Shaw, Hodge will deal sometimes with one and sometimes with more than one section of a chapter at a time. He lists the truths taught in the section(s) and then expounds on each of those truths. At the end of each chapter there are a number of study questions.

Francis Beattie - The Presbyterian Standards (1896)

Beattie’s work differs from the previous ones in that he expounds the entirety of the Westminster Standards and not only the Confession. The order of topics follows the Shorter Catechism and is supplemented by the Larger Catechism and Confession. I include it here simply because it is so good and many people are unaware of its existence.

G. I. Williamson - The Westminster Confession of Faith (1964, 2004)

Originally published in 1964, this may be the most widely used and most popular commentary on the Westminster Confession in the United States. Although there is much that is helpful here, I find this commentary to be the least useful of the seven I own. The problem is that Williamson has been so thoroughly indoctrinated by his seminary professor, Cornelius Van Til, that the commentary often reads as if he's simply parroting Van Til - or else adapting his lecture notes. The first section on the doctrine of Scripture, for example, reads like it was transcribed word for word from a Van Til lecture. For those who think Van Til defines what it is to be Reformed, this will probably be a selling point for this commentary. For those who understand that Van Til actually forced his students and readers to choose between his idiosyncratic teaching and the Reformed tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries, it will be more of a problem.

R.C. Sproul - Truths We Confess (2006, 2019)

I actually had the distinct privilege of hearing these chapters when they were originally delivered in spoken form. In 2006, they were transcribed and published in three volumes as Truths We Confess. The 2019 edition is now available in one large volume. This is by far the largest of the commentaries on this list, yet it is one of the most readable simply because of the way in which it was produced.

Chad Van Dixhoorn - Confessing the Faith (2014)

Chad Van Dixhoorn's commentary on the Westminster Confession is the newest of the seven listed here. One of the unique features of Van Dixhoorn’s commentary is the fact that he comments primarily on the critical text of the confession set forth in John Bower’s book (see above), but he also comments on the modern version of the text and notes the American revisions where they exist. [NOTE: Van Dixhoorn is one of the editors of the series in which Bower's volume appears. Apparently it was completed several years before its 2020 publication by RHB. Van Dixhoorn mentions it on page xxiii in the Introduction to Confessing the Faith, and in his comment, he says the book has an expected publication date in 2014. That explains how a text published in 2020 can be used in a book published in 2014].

I can't really rank these commentaries (aside from the fact that I find Williamson's the least useful for the reason stated above). They all offer unique insights. When I am studying a chapter or section of the Confession, I take them all off the shelf and read the relevent chapters of each. I usually start with Shaw, but I work through all of them eventally. If you can gradually get all of them, I would recommend that.