Theopedia

Geoffrey W. Bromiley

Overview

Geoffrey William Bromiley (1915 - August 7, 2009) was an English-born church historian and historical theologian who translated and edited Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics into English and general-edited the revised International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.12 He spent nearly three decades as professor of church history and historical theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.2

Life and Ministry

Bromiley contributed to the Evangelical Quarterly as a young scholar in the years before World War II, alongside other future names in Reformed and evangelical theology such as Cornelius Van Til, Edward J. Young, T. F. Torrance, and T. H. L. Parker.1 Ordained in the Church of England, he served as Rector of St. Thomas’s Church, Edinburgh, from 1951 to 1958, having earned his MA at Cambridge and his PhD, DLitt, and DD at Edinburgh University.3 In 1958 he was appointed Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, a post he held until his retirement in 1987.23

Theological Contribution

Translator and editor of Barth’s Church Dogmatics

Bromiley served as co-editor, with T. F. Torrance, and as principal translator of Karl Barth’s thirteen-part, four-volume Church Dogmatics.4 His English edition (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956-1977) is cited across library-held scholarship engaging Barth’s theology, including his doctrine of the Word of God and his account of reconciliation.56

General editor of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Bromiley served as general editor of the fully revised International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, published in four volumes by Eerdmans between 1979 and 1988.7 The reference work is cited across subsequent theological scholarship for entries such as Charles Hodge’s “Imputation” and D. Freeman’s “Divorce in the OT.”89

Historical Theology and other editorial work

In Historical Theology: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), Bromiley wrote a one-volume account of Christian doctrine’s development; Matthew Barrett cites it for the Council of Carthage’s 418 condemnation of Pelagius.10 Bromiley also co-edited the Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology with Everett F. Harrison and Carl F. Henry, contributing its “Concupiscence” entry himself. There he summarized the difference between the Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions on the sinfulness of remaining concupiscence in the regenerate:

While allowing that it is sinful in the unregenerate, medieval and Romanist theologians argue that it is only the testing scar and combustible material of sin in the baptized, in whom original sin is supposed to be abolished. But Reformation theology does not accept this distinction or its presupposition. Although not imputed, original sin remains in believers, and therefore concupiscence may and must be said to have “of itself the (true and proper) nature of sin.”11

Elsewhere, commenting on Calvin’s doctrine of union with Christ, Bromiley argued that Calvin “presented a comprehensive view of Christian salvation and the Christian life in a way which brings out the full relationship of justification and sanctification.”12 He also edited and translated Henry Bullinger’s “Of the Holy Catholic Church” for the Library of Christian Classics volume Zwingli and Bullinger (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1953), and later translated Oswald Bayer’s Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).1314

Historical Significance

Bromiley’s translation gave English-speaking evangelical and Reformed scholars direct access to Barth’s Church Dogmatics, and it is the edition cited across library-held dissertations and monographs engaging Barth’s theology.5615 His own Historical Theology and his International Standard Bible Encyclopedia are cited in turn, in works ranging from a 2011 dissertation on monergism to a 2020 introduction to Christian ethics.1089

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Kenneth J. Stewart, “Hardier than Supposed: The Resurgence of Calvinism Across the 20th Century,” Themelios 50, no. 2 (2025): 293-94: “We also see numerous contributions from the young Geoffrey Bromiley (1915-2009), who would later make a name as a historical theologian at Fuller Seminary and as a translator of Barth.” ↩ ↩2

  2. Jared Heath Moore, A Biblical and Historical Appraisal of Concupiscence with Special Attention to Same-Sex Attraction (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2019), 77, identifying Bromiley as “late Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. “Fuller Mourns the Loss of Geoffrey Bromiley,” Fuller Theological Seminary, http://www.fuller.edu/news-and-events/news/bromiley-passing.aspx. ↩ ↩2

  4. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, ed. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance, trans. G. W. Bromiley et al., 4 vols. in 13 parts (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956-1977). ↩

  5. Jonathan Goad, “Trinitarian Grammars: The Doctrine of the Trinity as Analyzed Through the Grammar of Perichoresis, Person, and Relations” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2010), citing Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, ed. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance, vol. 1, The Doctrine of the Word of God, pt. 1, trans. G. W. Bromiley, 2nd ed. (London: T&T Clark, 1975). ↩ ↩2

  6. Carol Man Fen Chen, “A Historical, Biblical, and Theological Interpretation of Covenants: Unconditionality and Conditionality in Relation to Justification and Sanctification” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2019), 159, citing Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, vol. 4, pt. 1, ed. Geoffrey William Bromiley and Thomas F. Torrance (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010), 1-78. ↩ ↩2

  7. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, gen. ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed., 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979-1988). ↩

  8. Matthew Michael Barrett, “Reclaiming Monergism: The Case for Sovereign Grace in Effectual Calling and Regeneration” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2011), citing Charles Hodge, “Imputation,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 2:812. ↩ ↩2

  9. Ken Magnuson, “8. Divorce and Remarriage,” in Invitation to Christian Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2020), citing D. Freeman, “Divorce in the OT,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979-1988), 1:975. ↩ ↩2

  10. Barrett, “Reclaiming Monergism,” 66n29, citing Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Historical Theology: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 117. ↩ ↩2

  11. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, “Concupiscence,” in Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology, ed. Everett F. Harrison, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Carl F. Henry (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999), 133, quoted in Moore, “A Biblical and Historical Appraisal of Concupiscence,” 77. ↩

  12. Chen, “Historical, Biblical, and Theological Interpretation of Covenants,” 53. ↩

  13. G. W. Bromiley, introduction and trans., “Of the Holy Catholic Church,” by Henry Bullinger, in Zwingli and Bullinger, Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1953), 283-87. ↩

  14. Oswald Bayer, Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification, trans. Geoffrey Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), cited in Micah John McCormick, “The Active Obedience of Jesus Christ” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2010), 40n32. ↩

  15. Alex Charles Tibbott, “De Impassibilitate Et Satisfactione: An Examination of the Methodological Implications of Trinitarian Classical Theism for the Doctrine of the Atonement” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024), citing Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, ed. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance. ↩