His historical work focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American Reformed theologians, including Jonathan Edwards and William Shedd.

Along with Michael Rea, Crisp has been involved in a rising trend among growing number of theologians known as analytic theology.

As part of this ongoing initiative Crisp and Rea founded the Journal of Analytic Theology in 2013.

His thesis focused on the philosophical theology of Jonathan Edwards and was supervised by Paul Helm.

[citation needed] He is the author or editor of thirty eight books, and has written over a hundred articles, chapters, and essays in theology and philosophy.