The Institute’s audio archive has been restored and refreshed. All audio files from the following events are now in stream- and download-friendly MP3 format:
“The Context of Bavinck’s 1908 Princeton Stone Lectures” by James Bratt
Professor Emeritus James Bratt delivered this plenary lecture at the the 2008 Bavinck Conference at Calvin Seminary.
In the lecture Professor Bratt unpacks the historical context of Herman Bavinck’s 1908 Stone Lectures.
He builds upon a twofold motif first suggested by Professor George Harinck as a summary of the tensions evident in Bavinck’s life and thought: movement from the outside world to the inside, and from the inside to the outside. This double movement highlights a key note in Bavinck’s Reformed catholic theology generally and within the Stone Lectures in particular: the conciliation between modern life and ancient faith.
The lecture was published as “The Context of Herman Bavinck’s Stone Lectures: Culture and Politics in 1908,” Bavinck Review 1 (2010): 4–24 (PDF).
“Herman Bavinck and the Pearl-Leaven Imbalance in Contemporary Youth Ministry” — Syd Hielema
Professor Syd Heilema delivered this lecture on how Bavinck might have approached contemporary youth ministry at the the 2008 Bavinck Conference at Calvin Seminary.
Related publications
Syd Hielema, “Herman Bavinck’s Eschatological Understanding of Redemption,” ThD diss., Toronto: Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology, 1998 (PDF).
“Herman Bavinck and Reformed Epistemology” by Nicholas Wolterstorff
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School, delivered this plenary lecture at the the 2008 Bavinck Conference at Calvin Seminary.
In the lecture Professor Wolterstorff
- explains what Reformed epistemology is,
- articulates the places in Herman Bavinck’s thought where related themes appear (at ~39:45),
- and points out the affinities between Bavinck’s thought and contemporary Reformed epistemology (at ~64:00).
The lecture was published as “Herman Bavinck—Proto Reformed Epistemologist,” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (2010): 133–46.
Related publications
Michael S. Chen, “‘To See Darkness, To Hear Silence’: Herman Bavinck and Augustine on Epistemology,” Bavinck Review 2 (2011): 96–106.
Steven J. Duby, “Working with the Grain of Nature: Epistemic Underpinnings for Christian Witness in the Theology of Herman Bavinck,” Bavinck Review 3 (2012): 60–84.
Jacob Klapwijk, “Rationality in the Dutch Neo-Calvinist Tradition,” in Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition, edited by Hendrik Hart, Johan Van der Hoeven, and Nicholas Wolterstorff (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983), 113–131.
Bruce R. Pass, “Herman Bavinck and the Problem of New Wine in Old Wineskins,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 17, no. 4 (2015): 432–49, doi:10.1111/ijst.12118.
Bruce R. Pass, “Herman Bavinck and the Cogito,” Reformed Theological Review 74, no. 1 (2015): 15–33.
Alvin Plantinga, “The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology,” in Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition, edited by Hendrik Hart, Johan Van der Hoeven, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, 363–83. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983.
David S. Sytsma, “Herman Bavinck’s Thomistic Epistemology: The Argument and Sources of His Principia of Science,” in Five Studies in the Thought of Herman Bavinck, A Creator of Modern Dutch Theology, ed. John Bolt (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2011), 1–56.
Arvin Vos, “Knowledge according to Bavinck and Aquinas,” Bavinck Review 6 (2015), 9–36.
Albert M. Wolters, “Dutch Neo-Calvinism: Worldview, Philosophy and Rationality,” in Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition, edited by Hendrik Hart, Johan Van der Hoeven, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, 113–31. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983.
“Herman Bavinck Speaks Today” — John Bolt, Gordon Graham, J. Mark Beach
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
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.
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.
Neo-Calvinism and Islam, Istanbul: Call for papers
Conference: “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.
“Religion, Mission, and Kingdom: A Comparison of Herman Bavinck and Johan Herman Bavinck” by 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
- 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).
- 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.”
- 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).
- Paul J. Visser, “Religion in Biblical and Reformed Perspective,” Calvin Theological Journal 44, no. 1 (2009): 9–36.
Interview with John Bolt regarding Bavinck on the Christian Life
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]).
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
“Neo-Calvinism: A Theology for the Global Church in the 21st Century” by Richard Mouw
On 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.
The outline of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics
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. ↩