Merchant Royal Press

First published in 1577, Reformed theologian Girolamo Zanchi’s Five Books on the Nature of God, or On the Divine Attributes is one of the most in-depth and significant treatises on theology proper written during the post-Reformation period. Exegetically driven, informed by cutting-edge scholarship, pastorally focused, and deeply engaged with the long tradition of classical Christian reflection upon God, Zanchi’s work presents and awe-inspiring vision of the who God is and what He is like, especially as He makes Himself known to His people in Christ.

In addition to a historical and theological introduction, this first of five volumes includes modern English translations of Zanchi’s letter to Prince John Casimir, his brief letter to the reader, and the complete first book of The Nature of God, which takes up the divine names as its central topic.

xlvi, 260 pp.

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Endorsements for Zanchi’s On the Nature of God

Girolamo Zanchi was a formative Reformed theologian in the second half of the 16th century. He was widely read and appreciated in his own time and in the seventeenth century and beyond. De natura dei is one of his more important works. We are in Patrick O’Banion’s debt for this excellent translation of this work and for his careful introduction, which itself is of considerable value. This translation is a model for the rest of us to follow and highly recommended to anyone interested in the sources of Reformed theology.

~ R. Scott Clark, Professor Emeritus of Church History and Historical Theology, Westminster Seminary California, and President, Heidelberg Reformation Association

Girolamo Zanchi is one of those gems of the Reformed tradition that has not yet been polished enough for us to recognize his brightness. His On the Nature of God or on the Divine Attributes is a massive exploration of classical theism from a Reformed perspective in connection to the purity of the church. Patrick O’Banion’s very fine translation of its initial sections finally gives readers access in English to this important work for consideration, study, and reflection.

~ Harrison Perkins, Pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC)

 

Girolamo Zanchi represents the best of the Reformed tradition: philosophically sophisticated, historically minded, and ruthlessly exegetical. This first volume of Zanchi’s five-volume work on theology proper puts his prowess on full display. In this book, Zanchi carefully and thoughtfully works through Holy Scripture’s various names for God, convincingly demonstrating that the classical theism the Reformers confess with the best of the Medieval schoolman and the Church Fathers is none other than confession in the God of the Bible: the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Patrick O’Banion is doing a great service to Christ’s Bride by translating and republishing the works of this great pastor-theologian. Zanchi deserves to be named among other significant Reformed theologians like Calvin, Bucer, Virmigli, Hooker, and Turretin. I pray this book and the books that follow get a wide readership.

~ Samuel G. Parkison, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, Church History, and Philosophy at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College