Posted on

“Herman Bavinck Speaks Today” — John Bolt, Gordon Graham, J. Mark Beach

Professor John Bolt
John Bolt

This plenary session panel discussion (MP3; 70 MB) with Professors John Bolt, Gordon Graham, and J. Mark Beach is from the 2008 Bavinck Conference at Calvin Seminary.

  • Professor Bolt’s lecture, “Herman Bavinck’s recipe for theological cake,” begins at ~16:00.
  • Professor Graham’s lecture, “Bavinck’s Philosophy of Revelation,” begins at ~42:00.
  • Professor Beach’s lecture, “Can’t We All Just Get Along? Herman Bavinck as a Pastoral Polemicist,” begins at ~59:15.

Related publications

Gordon Graham
Gordon Graham

Bavinck, Herman. Saved by Grace: The Holy Spirit’s Work in Calling and Regeneration. Edited by J. Mark Beach. Translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008.

Beach, J. Mark. “Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and ‘The Conclusions of Utrecht 1905’.” Mid-America Journal of Theology 19 (2008): 11–68.

———. “Can’t We All Just Get Along? Herman Bavinck as a Pastoral Polemicist.” Mid-America Journal of Theology 24 (2013): 73–79.

Bolt, John. “The Bavinck Recipe for Theological Cake.” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (2010): 11–17.

J. Mark Beach
J. Mark Beach

Graham, Gordon. “Bavinck, Nietzsche, and Secularization.” In The Kuyper Center Review, Volume 2: Revelation and Common Grace, 14–26. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011.

———. “Bavinck’s Philosophy of Revelation.” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (April 2010): 44–50.

Posted on

Neo-Calvinism and Islam, Istanbul: Call for papers

The KabaConference: “Another Religion? Neo-Calvinism and Islam”

When: 25–26 August 2016

Where: Istanbul, Turkey

Plenary speakers:

  • Prof. George Harinck, Theological University Kampen
  • Prof. Kees van der Kooi, VU University Amsterdam
  • Prof. Richard J. Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena

Sponsors:

  • The Historical Documentation Centre at the Free University Amsterdam
  • The New College, University of Edinburgh
  • The Theologische Universiteit Kampen

See the conference brochure (PDF 127 KB) for more on the conference theme and instructions for paper propsals.

Posted on

“Religion, Mission, and Kingdom: A Comparison of Herman Bavinck and Johan Herman Bavinck” by Paul Visser

Ds. Paul Visser
Ds. Paul Visser

The Rev. Ds. Paul J. Visser, pastor of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and chairman of the Foundation for the Promoting of Reformed Missiology and Ecumenics, delivered the following lecture at the 2008 Bavinck Conference: “Religion, Mission, and Kingdom: A Comparison of Herman Bavinck and Johan Herman Bavinck” (MP3).

Visser’s lecture was published as “Religion, Mission, and Kingdom: A Comparison of Herman and Johan Herman Bavinck,” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (2010): 117–32.

The respondent is the Rev. Dr. Allan Janssen. Starting at ~66:00, Janssen provides an intriguing foray into the recently published lectures of A. A. van Ruler on natural and revealed theology as an additional point of comparison between H. and J. H. Bavinck.

Related resources

  1. Paul J. Visser, Heart for the Gospel, Heart for the World: The Life and Thought of a Reformed Pioneer Missiologist, Johan Herman Bavinck, 1895-1964 (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2003).
  2. Johan Herman Bavinck, The J. H. Bavinck Reader, ed. John Bolt, James D. Bratt, and Paul J. Visser, trans. James A. De Jong (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013); see also “Announcing the J. H. Bavinck Reader.”
  3. Paul J. Visser, “Reformed Principles as Remaining Roots,” in Shirley J. Roels, ed., Reformed Mission in an Age of World Christianity: Ideas for the 21st Century, 37–44 (Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin Press, 2011).
  4. Paul J. Visser, “Religion in Biblical and Reformed Perspective,” Calvin Theological Journal 44, no. 1 (2009): 9–36.
Posted on

Interview with John Bolt regarding Bavinck on the Christian Life

Bavinck on the Christian Life — by John BoltToday, 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]).

Bolt answers questions about:

  • who Bavinck was
  • his own interest in studying Bavinck’s theology
  • the grace-restores-nature theme in Bavinck’s thought
  • Bavinck’s significant other writings besides the Reformed Dogmatics
  • Bavinck’s vision for practical piety and Christian discipleship in the modern world
  • and where in Bavinck’s corpus are good entry points for new readers.

See also “What Bavinck Taught Me” by John Bolt

Posted on

“Neo-Calvinism: A Theology for the Global Church in the 21st Century” by Richard Mouw

Prof. Richard MouwOn 1 June 2015 Prof. Richard Mouw delivered the first Bavinck Lecture at TU Kampen: “Neo-Calvinism: A Theology for the Global Church in the 21st Century” (watch on Vimeo).

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.

Dr. James K. A. Smith will deliver the second Bavinck Lecture at TU Kampen later this year.

Posted on

The outline of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics

View Bavinck’s original outline for the Gereformeerde dogmatiek (PDF; 89 KB) 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

  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. ↩
Posted on

The outline of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics

View Bavinck’s original outline for the Gereformeerde dogmatiek (PDF; 89 KB) 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

  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. ↩
Posted on

“Herman Bavinck on Catholicity” by Barend Kamphuis

Prof. Dr. Barend Kamphuis
Prof. Dr. Barend Kamphuis

Prof. Dr. Barend Kamphuis delivered the following lecture at the 2008 Pearl and Leaven Bavinck conference: “Herman Bavinck on Catholicity” (MP3).

The lecture is published as Barend Kamphuis, “Herman Bavinck on Catholicity,” Mid-America Journal of Theology 24 (2013): 97–104.

Related elsewhere

Posted on

Bavinck: “Love Is the Law of His Kingdom”

Bavinck: “Love is the law of his kingdom”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.

Continue reading at Letters to the Exiles. . . .