Bavinck Review 7 Published

The Bavinck Institute at Calvin Seminary is pleased to release The Bavinck Review 7 (2016) (1.2 MB PDF). See the editorial for an update on the Reformed Ethics project, two additional pending publications, and the formal establishment of the Institute.

Editorial

Articles

Knowledge according to Bavinck and Aquinas by Arvin Vos

In Translation

Herman Bavinck’s Modernisme en Orthodoxie: A Translation by Bruce R. Pass

Pearls and Leaven

An Excerpt on Prayer from Bavinck’s Reformed Ethics by John Bolt

Bavinck Bibliography 2015

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. 

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. 

Take Words with You by Tim Kerr

Pastor Tim Kerr
Pastor Tim Kerr

If you have had the privilege of crossing paths with Bavinck Society member Tim Kerr, it is likely that two things characterized your experience: first, you came away deeply encouraged in the faith; second, you were prayed for sincerely before you departed.

take-words-with-youIn hopes of further multiplying this privilege, the Bavinck Institute is pleased to call your attention to the 5th edition of Pastor Kerr’s Take Words with You: Scripture Promises & Prayers / A Manual for Intercession (2015). In this work Pastor Kerr uses a simple five-step method to help believers to pray regularly, both individually and corporately, according to God’s promises and prayers in Holy Scripture (1 John 5:14).

To borrow a line from Herman Bavinck (RD 4:225), this manual puts into practice the rock solid biblical teaching that believers in Jesus Christ

do not pray in doubt and despair; they do not pray as though they are no longer children of God and again face eternal damnation; [rather] they pray from within the faith as children to the Father who is in heaven, and say Amen to their prayer.

This faith-filled “Amen-ing”—the bold response of a heart whose prayers in Jesus’s name proceed from God, are prayed through God, and return unto God—is the aim of this faith-fueling guidebook.

For an intro to the manual, read Pastor Kerr’s answers to these questions:

  • Why is it needed?
  • Who is it for?
  • How is this book different from similar manuals?

Related elsewhere

Dissertation published: Eine Theologie des Lernens by Hanniel Strebel

Hanniel StrebelThe Bavinck Institute congratulates Society member Hanniel Strebel, whose fine Olivet University PhD dissertation on Herman Bavinck’s philosophy of education has been published:

Hanniel Strebel, Eine theologie des lernensEine Theologie des Lernens: Systematisch-theologische Beiträge aus dem Werk von Herman Bavinck [A theology of learning: systematic-theological contributions from the work of Herman Bavinck] (Bonn: VKW, 2014).

Dr. Strebel provides the following abstract:

This study is the first German dissertation on Herman Bavinck (1854-1921). Thematically, it builds on the place where Bavinck research took its beginning in the 1920s and 30s: with his educational philosophy. Starting with his “Principles of Pedagogy” (1904), three key questions regarding learning are examined: What is the purpose of learning? Who can learn? How does one appropriate human knowledge?

See also Strebel’s recent articles on the same topic:

Germanophone Bavinckians will be interested as well in Strebel’s German Bavinck bibliography.

Herman Bavinck on the imago Dei — Nelson D. Kloosterman

 

Dr Nelson KloostermanDr Nelson D. Kloosterman, director of Worldview Resources International, beloved English translator of many Dutch Reformed theological works, and Bavinck Society member, delivered this lecture on the doctrine of the imago Dei in Herman Bavinck’s thought at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2013 (mp3).

Bavinck Bibliography Updates

We’re busily preparing the 2014 issue of The Bavinck Review. If you have any Herman and/or Johan Herman Bavinck bibliography items to share (i.e., theses, periodicals, books, websites) in any language, please let us know.

Upcoming Dissertation: A Theology of Learning

Student: Hanniel Strebel, Olivet University

Title: Eine Theologie des Lernens. Systematisch-theologische Beiträge aus dem Werk von Herman Bavinck (“A Theology of Learning: Systematic-Theological Contributions from the Work of Herman Bavinck”)

Content: Following the structure of Bavinck’s Principles of Education I outline the why (teleology), the who (anthropology), and the how (epistemology) of learning followed by a critical assessment.

SupervisorThomas K. Johnson