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The New College School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam cordially invite you to attend the Edinburgh Bavinck Conference 1-2 September 2010 at the New College. James Eglinton, a New College PhD student who is researching Bavinck’s “use of the ‘organic,'” is facilitating the conference, and the lineup of speakers and topics looks stimulating.

The two-day schedule, which is intentionally patterned after Bavinck’s theology (i.e., theology precedes ethics), is as follows:

Wednesday, September 1st: Bavinck on Theology

Opening Address

by Professor David Fergusson

Bavinck’s use of Wisdom Literature in Systematic Theology

by Professor John Bolt

Bavinck’s concept of the divine call to grace in relationship to Reformed Orthodoxy

by Dr. Henk van den Belt

Bavinck’s employment of Augustine as an antidote to Ritschl

by Dr. Mark Elliot

Bavinck, Barth and the Uniqueness of the Eucharist

by Dr. Paul Nimmo

Thursday, September 2nd: Bavinck on Culture and Ethics

Bavinck and Islam

by Professor George Harinck

Bavinck on ‘The Imitation of Christ’

by Dr. Dirk van Keulen

Bavinck and Christian Certainty

by Professor Donald Macleod

Nationhood in question: Welsh devolution between Rowan Williams and the Dutch Reformed tradition

by Dr. Carys Moseley

Conference Details

• Proposals for short papers from postgraduate students are welcome; Contact James Eglinton.
• Registration is available online.
• Download the conference flyer (.PDF) for full details.

HT: HB.org, Tony, Rodney, Guy

Dr. Ron Gleason, a Bavinck scholar (see Gleason, Ronald N. “The Centrality of the Unio Mystica in the Theology of Herman Bavinck.” Ph.D. Diss., Westminster Theological Seminary, 2001), is publishing the first English biography of Herman Bavinck: Herman Bavinck: Pastor, Churchman, Statesman and Theologian. The new biography is set to be released by P&R in June of this year.

In a pre-release review Joel Heflin provides a concise overview of the new book and gives a hearty recommendation.

Details from P&R Publishing

List: $29.99
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9781596380806
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: June 2010

This is a much needed work on the life and theology of Dr. Herman Bavinck, an increasingly important influence on the church landscape and one of the finest and best theologians that Holland ever produced. Gleason describes Bavinck’s education at Leiden University, his first and only pastoral ministry in the Friesian village of Franeker, his fruitful time in Kampen as professor of the Theological Seminary there, and his eventual transfer to the Free University. This is a thought-provoking portrait of an influential man written by one of the leading authorities on his life and ideas. Gleason takes you on a journey with Bavinck through his whole life until the events surrounding his death in 1921.

View the full P&R Press Release (.PDF)

(HT: HermanBavinck.org, twice!)

Thanks to the assistance of the wonderful IT department at Calvin Seminary, we are pleased to announce the publication of our new web site. Several new features are worthy of note:

1. Follow our latest updates with your favorite blog reader, Twitter account, or e-mail.
2. Connect with fellow scholars, pastors, and students and receive discounts on Bavinck books by joining the Bavinck Society.
3. Discover the latest in Bavinck scholarship by reading our new e-journal, The Bavinck Review.
4. Join the Bavinck Institute Zotero Group to collect the comprehensive Bavinck Bibliography organized by primary and secondary sources.

We have even more great features in the works, so subscribe to our feed for the latest updates.

The Bavinck Institute’s first publication is now in preparation: The J.H. Bavinck Reader: Essays in Missiology and Religious Psychology (not a final title). The new work is being translated by James A. De Jong, President of Calvin Theological Seminary, emeritus. The volume will be edited by John Bolt, James D. Bratt and Paul Visser, and it will be published by the William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

The following writings of Johan Herman Bavinck, the nephew of Herman Bavinck and long-time missionary to Indonesia and professor of missiology in the Dutch Reformed Church, will be included:

1. “Proclaiming Christ among the Nations” (Christusprediking in de Volkerenwereld [Kok, 1940])
2. “General Revelation and the Non-Christian Religions,” Free University Quarterly 4 (1955): 43-55.
3. “Religious Consciousness and Christian Faith” (Religieus Besef en Christelijk Geloof [Kok,1989])
4. Five Chapters from Christus en de Mystiek van het Oosten (Christ and Eastern Mysticism):
   1. Chapter III: God en Wereld (“God and Cosmos”)
   2. Chapter IV: Microcosmos en Macrocosmos
   3. Chapter V: De Wereldorde (“The World Order”)
   4. Chapter VI: Het Wonderlijke Spel van het Menschenleven (“The Amazing Game of Human Life”)
   5. Chapter VII: De Weg der Verlossing (“The Way of Salvation”)

Also included will be a significant introduction to the life and thought of J.H. Bavinck, by Paul Visser, pastor of the Bethlehem Church (Protestant Churches in the Netherlands) in The Hague. Visser is a world authority on J.H. Bavinck and author of Heart for the Gospel, Heart for the World: The Life and Thought of Reformed Pioneer Missiologist Johan Herman Bavinck [1895-1964] (Wipf & Stock, 2003).

This translation project is made possible by equal grants from the Heritage Fund of Calvin Theological Seminary, the Center for Christian Scholarship at Calvin College, and the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. Anticipated publication date: late 2010 – early 2011.

Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary, is a knowledgeable and wise man. So, it is gratifying to take note of his high praise for Herman Bavinck in his September 9, 2009 blog entry.

He speaks of a “Bavinck revival” (of sorts), compares him with his neo-Calvinist contemporary Abraham Kuyper, praises his “kinder and gentler orthodoxy,” notes that his observations on Islam remain relevant and, highlighting Bavinck’s caution to Protestants against excessive critique of Roman Catholic “works righteousness,” cites the following gem from Bavinck’s The Certainty of Faith:

[W]e must remind ourselves that the Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a protestant righteousness by good doctrine. At least righteousness by good works benefits one’s neighbor, whereas righteousness by good doctrine only produces lovelessness and pride. Furthermore, we must not blind ourselves to the tremendous faith, genuine repentance, complete surrender and the fervent love for God and neighbor evident in the lives and work of many Catholic Christians. The Christian life is so rich that it develops its full glory not just in a single form or within the walls of one church.

Mouw concludes:

“If [Bavinck’s] way of being “orthodox Reformed” were to take hold here in North America, we might have a real revival on our hands!”

To that we can only say, “Amen and Amen!”

At its June 5, 2009, meeting faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary approved the establishment of the Bavinck Institute at Calvin Theological Seminary with a mission “to promote Reformed theological scholarship in the Herman Bavinck tradition” and a purpose “to further communication among scholars, teachers, pastors, and students interested in the theology of Herman Bavinck and the Bavinck tradition and to encourage scholarship in it.” Its immediate goals are to establish a web page on the CTS website, begin a Herman Bavinck Society, initiate restricted internet discussion forums on topics of Bavinck scholarship, create an electronic journal, The Bavinck Review, and continue to make Bavinck’s writings in English available online.

This idea for such a web-based vehicle of communication and Bavinck scholarship arose from a meeting of key Bavinck scholars after the “A Pearl and a Leaven: Herman Bavinck for the 21st Century” conference at the Calvin College Prince Center, September 18-20, 2008. There was virtual unanimous agreement among the twenty or so present that the enthusiasm for the conference (just over 200 attendees) and the positive reception of the English translation of the Reformed Dogmatics represented an opportunity for the worldwide Reformed Church and the theological training needed for the 21st century and that the internet was an appropriate vehicle for advancing the cause of good Reformed theology in the Bavinck tradition. The undersigned was given the responsibility to attempt to create such a vehicle and is profoundly grateful to his CTS faculty colleagues and students for their continuing support for this project and my zeal for Bavinck, as well as to the friends and colleagues who indicated a willingness to serve in an unofficial advisory capacity. A hearty thanks also to the CTS IT team, especially to Brian Krygsman, for stellar work.

–John Bolt

Calvin Theological Seminary is undertaking a major overhaul of its entire curriculum including a shift from the quarter system to the semester system.

In the new curriculum, starting in the fall of 2009, a two-semester sequence in Reformed theology, using the four-volumes of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, taught by Professor John Bolt, will be offered annually as a Th.M. elective in systematic theology. The course is open, by permission, to M.Div. and M.T.S. students who may take it as an alternative to the regular two-semester core sequence in systematic theology.