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The Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics

The Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics is an English translation of a series of lectures delivered by Herman Bavinck at the Free University of Amsterdam after he had moved there in 1902. These previously unpublished lectures have now been made available in English for the first time thanks to the editing and translation by Gert de Kok and Bruce R. Pass. It can be ordered from the publisher, Lexham Press ($44.99), or from booksellers like Amazon ($44.99) and Christian Books ($36.99).

Bruce R. Pass is a noted Bavinck scholar who serves as Adjunct Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Trinity College Queensland (Australian College of Theology) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Pass is also the author of The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck and the editor and translator of On Theology: Herman Bavinck’s Academic Orations. Gert de Kok is a pastor at the Dutch Reformed church of Nunspeet and Hulshorst, Netherlands.

The publisher notes that in these essays, “Bavinck identifies the primary challenges confronting Protestant theologians in the early twentieth century. Since the main difficulties do not concern specific heads of doctrine but arise in theological method, Bavinck’s focus narrows to the act of faith. Bavinck demonstrates the necessity of viewing faith as knowledge rather than mere trust, recounting the development of doctrine from the biblical authors through the dawn of the twentieth century. This book provides a unique window into Bavinck’s thought, as he speaks candidly about the limitations and failures of Reformed theology and the relative merits of modern thinkers.”

Henk van den Belt, professor of systematic theology at the Free University Amsterdam and the Theological University of Apeldoorn, remarks: “Herman Bavinck was a theologian of the Holy Spirit par excellence. The hidden power of his teaching lay in the conviction that the Spirit enlightens the mind so that we understand the Scriptures and our own context. We are thankful for this fine translation of his dogmatic lectures in Amsterdam.”

CONTENTS

Introduction
Holy Scripture
The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism
Roman Supernaturalism
The Reformation
Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel
The Course of Development in Nineteenth-Century Theology
The Most Recent Theology (Part 1)
The Most Recent Theology (Part 2)

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Herman Bavinck: Centenary Essays

A new volume of essays commemorates the centenary of the death of Herman Bavinck (1854–1921). The volume is published by Brill in the Studies in Reformed Theology series, and is available from the publisher or at online booksellers.

The volume is edited by a leading Bavinck scholar, Bruce R. Pass. Bruce Pass is Adjunct Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Trinity College Queensland (Australian College of Theology) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland.

In addition to writing the introductory chapter and serving as editor of the volume, Pass contributed the essay “Bavinck and the Foremost Problem of Theology.” According to this essay, Bavinck identifies the act of faith as central in determining the future direction of theology. The chapter compares Bavinck’s understanding of the act of faith as a foundational doctrine with that of the influential Reformed theologian of a subsequent generation, Karl Barth, highlighting similarities and subtle differences.

The chapter “Bavinck’s Use of Scripture” is written by Koert van Bekkum. The essay goes beyond examining Bavinck’s doctrine of Scripture to explore his use of Scripture with respect to biblical proof texts, biblical-theological “stepping-stones,” and more extended exegetical remarks. Koert van Bekkum is Professor of Old Testament and Vice Dean for Research at the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven, and also teaches at the Theological University Kampen / Utrecht.

The second chapter, “Bavinck’s Use of Reformed Sources,” is written by Henk van den Belt. The essay shows how Bavinck creatively and sometimes ambiguously and critically embraced various theological legacies of the Reformed tradition such as Reformed Orthodoxy. Henk van den Belt is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and also lectures at the Theological University of Apeldoorn. He is also the director of the Vrije Universiteit’s Herman Bavinck Center for Reformed and Evangelical Theology.

Andrew Errington contributed an essay on “Bavinck and Ethics.” Errington investigates how Bavinck applied—or attempted to apply—his heilsgeschichtliche mode of biblical interpretation to ethics as conceived in the subject’s traditional Reformed categories. Errington is Rector of Newton Erskineville Anglican Church, Sydney, Australia and Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Theology of Charles Sturt University.

“Bavinck and Philology” was written by William A. Ross, Associate Professor of Old Testament in Charlotte, North Carolina. Nineteenth-century scholarship saw giant strides in the fields of language studies and philology, and the question arises how Bavinck’s theological anthropology shaped his appropriation of some of these scholarly advances. Ross shows how Bavinck’s use of new philological insights was sophisticated and eclectic, informed by his theological and interdisciplinary insights.

Michael Bräutigam wrote the essay “Bavinck and Psychology.” Bräutigam examines the extensive work of Bavinck in the then emerging discipline of psychology. Bavinck aimed to navigate a theistic course through competing schools of thought, occasionally in the process even anticipating future developments in the field of psychology. Michael Bräutigam is Lecturer in Theology and Director of the Center for Theology and Psychology at Melbourne School of Theology.

The final chapter, “Bavinck and Pedagogy,” was written by George Harinck. Bavinck’s contribution to Christian education has been much overlooked in recent scholarship, Harinck observes—yet this was his contribution that shaped much of his immediate legacy. Harinck explores Bavinck’s keen insights as well as his occasional blind spots in the field of pedagogy. Harinck is Professor of the History of Neo-Calvinism at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and serves as director of the Neo-Calvinism Research Institute at the Theological University Kampen / Utrecht.

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Wonderful Works of God — Magnalia Dei

The Wonderful Works of God, a new edition of the English translation of
Herman Bavinck’s Magnalia Dei

The Wonderful Works of God, an English translation of Herman Bavinck’s Magnalia Dei, is now widely available. Magnalia Dei has long been prized as a faithful one-volume summary of systematic theology. This English translation by Henry Zylstra was originally published in 1956 under the title Our Reasonable Faith. The new edition contains many enhancements: Bavinck’s original foreword (previously unavailable in English), an introduction by R. Carlton Wynne, and a useful scripture and subject index. The typesetting has also been updated.

You can buy The Wonderful Works of God from the publisher, Westminster Seminary Press, from Reformation Heritage Books for $27 , or from online sellers like Amazon.

The book has received several favorable reviews. For example, in his review Brian Mattson describes Magnalia Dei as perhaps “the best single-volume Reformed systematic theology ever produced.“

The Dutch edition of Herman Bavinck’s Magnalia Dei
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Bavinck Review 10 (2019) Published

The Bavinck Institute at Calvin Seminary is pleased to publish the Bavinck Review 10 (2019).

Contents

Editorial

Articles

Kuyper and Bavinck on Natural Theology by Richard A. Muller
Nicolaus Steffens on Christianity as a Remedial Scheme by George Harinck

Translations

Herman Bavinck’s Foreword to Unbelief and Revolution by Andrew Kloes and Harry Van Dyke
W.B. Kristensen’s “On Herman Bavinck’s Scientific Work” by Laurence O’Donnell
Herman Bavinck’s Notebook on Calvin’s Doctrine of Sin by Gregory W. Parker Jr.

Pearls and Leaven

“Collision of Duties” by Herman Bavinck

Review

Herman Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, ed. Cory Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto by Eduardo Echeverria

Bavinck Bibliography 2018–2019

Contributors

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Bavinck’s Reformed Ethics available

Bavinck’s Reformed Ethics Vol.1: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity

Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Ethics Vol. 1: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity is now widely available for sale.

The price is about $37 from Amazon and Christianbook, slightly more at Baker Book House , and $32 from Reformation Heritage Books (RHB also sell Bavinck’s Essays for $24).

In a recent review, Brian Mattson describes it as a “timely work” and a “treasure trove,” valuable for scholars and theologians but also promising “deep spiritual profit” for believers who read it.

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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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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