“The Context of Bavinck’s 1908 Princeton Stone Lectures” by James Bratt

James Bratt
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

Prof. Syd Hielema
Prof. 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
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

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.

“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.

“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

“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.

“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.

“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.