Loraine Boettner

Loraine Boettner
Born	(1901-03-07)March 7, 1901 Linden, Missouri
Died	January 3, 1990(1990-01-03) (aged 88)
Nationality	American
Years active	1933-1990
Notable work(s)	The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, Roman Catholicism
Theological work
Era	20th Century
Tradition or movement	Reformed
Main interests	Catholic Polemics

Loraine Boettner (March 7, 1901 – January 3, 1990) was an American theologian, teacher, and author in the Reformed tradition. He is best known for his works on predestination, Roman Catholicism, and Postmillennial eschatology.

Biography

Boettner was born in Linden, Missouri. He received a Th.B. (1928) and Th.M. (1929) from Princeton Theological Seminary, and he received the honorary degrees of Doctor of Divinity (1933) and Doctor of Letters (1957). He was a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. For eight years he taught Bible at Pikeville College in Kentucky, and in 1937 he began working at the Library of Congress and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

While his daily vocation was not theology or Biblical studies, he continued to write and publish books until near his death, the most successful of which were The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination and Roman Catholicism, Boettner's critical commentary on the Roman Catholic faith. This book has been called by its critics "The Anti-Catholic Bible" because of the author's aim to antagonize the Catholic Church, which, according to them, "has gravely compromised his intellectual objectivity". A recent doctoral study claims that the research done by Boettner in Roman Catholicism "is simply flimpsy" and makes use of old and refuted anti-Catholic clichés.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination and Immortality were translated into Chinese by Charles H. Chao (1952, 1962), into German by Ivo Carobbio, and into Japanese.

Works

• The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932) ISBN 978-0-87552-112-1
• Harmony of the Gospels (1933) (1976) ISBN 978-0-87552-132-9
• A Summary of the Gospels (1934)
• The Inspiration of the Scriptures (1940)
• The Person of Christ (1943)
• Studies in Theology (1947) ISBN 978-0-87552-115-2
• Immortality (1956) ISBN 978-0-87552-146-6
• The Millennium (1957) revised ed. (1984) ISBN 978-0-87552-128-2
• Roman Catholicism (1962) revised ed. (1966) ISBN 978-0-85151-082-8
• The Mass (1966)
• Divorce (1972) ISBN 978-0-87552-126-8
• The Reformed Faith (1983) ISBN 978-0-87552-122-0
• The Atonement
• The Christian Attitude Towards War (1985) ISBN 978-0-87552-118-3

External links

• The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
• Loraine Boettner Papers manuscripts held at the PCA Historical Center
• Writings by Boettner
• The Anti-Catholic Bible Criticism of Boettner's writings about the Catholic Church