Exciting news for those who can read Dutch: Herman Bavinck’s manuscript for his Amsterdam lectures in Dogmatics , “The Most Important Problems in Dogmatics Today” [“De voornaamste problemen der tegenwoordige dogmatiek”], has been published for the first time. The text was curated, introduced, and annotated by Dr. Dirk van Keulen of the Neo-Calvinism Research Institute at the Theological University Utrecht.
Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) left the Theological School in Kampen in 1902 to teach Dogmatics (Systematic Theology) at the Free University of Amsterdam. This manuscript formed the basis of these lectures in 1903 and 1904, and focus on the history of theology and philosophy. About a decade later (1915–1920), Bavinck again used this manuscript for his lectures in the history of Dogmatics. Thus the text serves as a bridge between the first and second editions of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics.
The book was published by the Archief- en Documentatiecentrum, Kampen.
Here is an overview of the contents:
In addition to an introduction, this part of Bavinck’s lectures (“Historical Overview”) include the following chapters :
- Holy Scripture.
- The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism
- Supernaturalism in Rome
- The Reformation
- Kant, Schleiermacher, and Hegel
- The Development of Theology in the Nineteenth Century
- Most Recent Theology
- Most Recent Theology (continued).
Two further chapters in the appendix deal with “Marxism” and “The Fall.”