I can speak as a student of Dr. Geisler's. I am currently in one of his Systematic Theology classes, via extention. Here's an overview.
Norman Geisler is one of the few true "classical" theologians today, in the sense that he has read and digested and evaluated every single theologian, philosopher, and major teacher in history. Therefore, he takes a view that tries to be extremely comprehensive. He covers much more ground than almost any other theologian.
His speciality in life has been apologetics, in a very broad sense......in his life, he has defended orthodox Christianity from every conceivable attack, from both outside and inside the church. Therefore for each point of his theology, he not only says what is true, but also says WHY it is true, what the major disagreements and heresies have been over the centuries, why their views are false, and what the major orthodox theologians have said. I know of no other work that has done this.
Further, since he is a student of philosophy, he knows that most heresies start with poor philosophy. He therefore deals with the philosophical issues in theology. Besides the formal philosophical foundations, he also covers such as issues as hermeneutics, linguistics, methodology, proofs for God, etc.
In theology proper, he attempts to create an exhaustive list of every attribute of God, a total of about 2 dozen attributes of God. And again, for each, he deals with biblical support, major disagreements, and historical perspective.
In short, I know of no other theology that has the breadth and depth of his. Geisler deals with every major issue that has ever arisen in theology. He's human, and it's not perfect.....on a few points I'm not sure I agree. As for readability, you'll find some portions easy to read and others difficult. The philosophical and apologetic parts will be unusual to you if you're not accustomed to such things. Overall, I'd say it's a very, very good work. I highly recommend it.
As for eschatology, he is dispensational. However, I've read the first two volumes, and skimmed the third, and off the top of my head I can't remember anywhere that he deals with this in the first three volumes. All the end times stuff is in Vol. 4, which was the last to be published, and was supposed to be available only just in the last few weeks. So whether you disagree with his eschatology or not, I promise you the rest will be beneficial. And regardless, if Vol. 4 follows the pattern of the first three, it will include an exhaustive list of end times views and an evaluation of each.
In general, people who criticize Norman Geisler often do not realize the significance of his classical theology and philosophical perspectives. He does not always approach issues using the same terms and systems that theologians have used in the last 100 to 300 years. Further, much of what he's fighting is the theological battle that will arise in the next decade, based on trends he sees in cutting edge thinkers.
Hope this helps.
