For these lectures scholars are invited who share Bavinck’s love for Reformed theology, are enthusiastic about his take on grace as a transforming force in both personal life, society and culture, and who in there academic work reflect his deep and catholic view on the Christian faith. They are asked to answer important questions in their lectures concerning the value of Reformed theology in a postmodern world for church and society.
A reader of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume recently asked me how to correlate the text of the abridgement with the unabridged translation. After mulling it over, I concluded that combining the subparagraph numbers and Bavinck’s original outline for the Gereformeerde dogmatiek (PDF; 89 KB) provided both a good answer to this practical question and a boon to understanding the Dogmatics as a whole. The outline itself is refreshingly simple: three main points, traditional loci, traditional order. I share it here with the simple hope that it might provide a useful tool for enjoying the abridged or unabridged Dogmatics as an organic whole, a body of divinity.1
For more on Bavinck’s view of dogmatics as a synthetic whole, see his “The Pros and Cons of a Dogmatic System,” translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman, Bavinck Review 5 (2014): 90–103. ↩
A reader of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume recently asked me how to correlate the text of the abridgement with the unabridged translation. After mulling it over, I concluded that combining the subparagraph numbers and Bavinck’s original outline for the Gereformeerde dogmatiek (PDF; 89 KB) provided both a good answer to this practical question and a boon to understanding the Dogmatics as a whole. The outline itself is refreshingly simple: three main points, traditional loci, traditional order. I share it here with the simple hope that it might provide a useful tool for enjoying the abridged or unabridged Dogmatics as an organic whole, a body of divinity.1
For more on Bavinck’s view of dogmatics as a synthetic whole, see his “The Pros and Cons of a Dogmatic System,” translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman, Bavinck Review 5 (2014): 90–103. ↩
We are seeing a universal pursuit of equality, a yearning to eliminate all distinction based on birth or property and not on personal value, a strong push for independence and freedom. In church and state, in family and society, in vocation and business, each person wants to see their own rights defined, wants to cast their own vote, and wants to stand up for their own interests.
Van den Belt surveys the similarities and differences between Bavinck and Warfield on the nature of Holy Scripture and the certainty of faith. He develops these themes at length—beginning with Calvin and proceeding to the Reformed Orthodox period and then Warfield and Bavinck—in his Authority of Scripture in Reformed Theology(Brill, 2008).
Also note Prof. Van den Belt’s other essays on Herman Bavinck:
“De Autonomie van de Mens of de Autopistie van de Schrift,” in Ontmoetingen Met Herman Bavinck, ed. George Harinck and Gerrit Neven, Ad Chartas-Reeks 9 (Barneveld: De Vuurbaak, 2006), 287–306.
“Herman Bavinck and Benjamin B. Warfield on Apologetics and the Autopistia of Scripture,” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (2010): 32–43.
“An Alternative Approach to Apologetics,” in The Kuyper Center Review, Volume 2: Revelation and Common Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), 43–60.
“De Katholiciteit van de Kerk Als Kwaliteit van Het Christendom: De Visies van Herman Bavinck En Hendrikus Berkhof,” Theologia Reformata 54, no. 3 (2011): 270–87.
“Herman Bavinck and His Reformed Sources on the Call to Grace: A Shift in Emphasis towards the Internal Work of the Spirit,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 29, no. 1 (2011): 41–59.
“Herman Bavinck on Scottish Covenant Theology and Reformed Piety,” Bavinck Review 3 (2012): 164–77.
Professor George Harinck’s eight-part documentary on Abraham Kuyper’s journey into the Mediterranean Islamic world is now available with English subtitles. In this intriguing series, produced by Martin Maat and Hans Hermans, Professor Harinck follows Kuyper’s footsteps through 16 countries around the Mediterranean Sea, examining the roots of present-day religious and socio-political conflict in light of Kuyper’s observations a century ago.
Today, Books at a Glance published an interview with Professor John Bolt regarding his latest book, Bavinck on the Christian Life: Following Jesus in Faithful Service (Crossway, 2015; excerpt [PDF 2.8 MB]).
