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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. ↩
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“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

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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. . . .

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“Autopistia, the Self-Convincing Character of Scripture in H. Bavinck and B. Warfield” by Henk van den Belt

Prof. Dr. Henk van den Belt
Prof. Dr. Henk van den Belt

Prof. Dr. Henk van den Belt delivered the following lecture at the 2008 Bavinck Conference at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan: “Autopistia, the Self-Convincing Character of Scripture in Herman Bavinck and Benjamin Warfield” (MP3). Dr. Raymond Blacketer is the respondent.

TheAuthorityOfScripture_VanDenBeltVan 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:

  1. “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.
  2. “Herman Bavinck and Benjamin B. Warfield on Apologetics and the Autopistia of Scripture,” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (2010): 32–43.
  3. “An Alternative Approach to Apologetics,” in The Kuyper Center Review, Volume 2: Revelation and Common Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), 43–60.
  4. “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.
  5. “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.
  6. “Herman Bavinck on Scottish Covenant Theology and Reformed Piety,” Bavinck Review 3 (2012): 164–77.
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Around the Old World Sea with English subtitles

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.

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Bavinck Review 6 published

TBR6 Front CoverThe Bavinck Institute is pleased to release The Bavinck Review 6 (2015) (1.8 MB PDF).

The editorial includes an update on the Reformed Ethics translation project, an excerpt of which is included in pearls and leaven.

Editorial

Articles

Knowledge according to Bavinck and Aquinas by Arvin Vos

A Christian Mondrian by Joseph Masheck

In Translation

The Natural Knowledge of God, by Abraham Kuyper, translated and annotated by Harry Van Dyke

Conscience by Herman Bavinck, translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman

Pearls and Leaven

Bavinck on Religion by John Bolt

Bavinck Bibliography 2014 

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“God’s Word in Servant Form” by Richard Gaffin

Richard Gaffin
Richard Gaffin

Rev. Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, Emeritus Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, delivered the following lecture (MP3) at the 2008 Bavinck Conference: “God’s Word in Servant-Form: Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck on Scripture.”

GodsWordinServantFormIn the lecture Gaffin summarizes his published analysis of Rogers and McKim’s proposals regarding Holy Scripture’s nature using a comparison of the thought of Kuyper and Bavinck. He also briefly remarks on the relevance of these 20th-century Dutch neo-Calvinists for Evangelical theology today.

Rev. Dr. Ron Gleason responds beginning at 49:00.

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“Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms in the Thought of Herman Bavinck” — VanDrunen, Kloosterman

Nelson Kloosterman
Nelson Kloosterman
David VanDrunen
David VanDrunen

Rev. Prof. David VanDrunen and Rev. Dr. Nelson Kloosterman delivered the following lecture (MP3) at the 2008 Pearl and Leaven Bavinck Conference. Their papers appeared in published form:

  1. David VanDrunen, “‘The Kingship of Christ Is Twofold’: Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms in the Thought of Herman Bavinck,” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (April 2010): 147–64.
  2. Nelson D. Kloosterman, “A Response to ‘The Kingship of Christ Is Twofold’: Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms in the Thought of Herman Bavinck by David VanDrunen,” Calvin Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (April 2010): 165–76.

Professor Bolt added a Society discussion guide and an essay on this same topic:

  1. The VanDrunen-Kloosterman Debate on Natural Law and Two Kingdoms in the Theology of Herman Bavinck
  2. “Herman Bavinck on Natural Law and Two Kingdoms: Some
    Further Reflections,”     Bavinck Review 4 (2013): 64–93.

Though not directly related to the VanDrunen-Kloosterman lecture, it is worth noting Dr. Theodore G. Van Raalte’s prize-winning essay from the same conference: “Unleavened Morality? Herman Bavinck on Natural Law,” in Five Studies in the Thought of Herman Bavinck, A Creator of Modern Dutch Theology, ed. John Bolt (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2011), 57–100.