Reformed Dogmatics - Introduction

Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics – Prolegomena (Baker Academic, 2003) isn’t exactly an easy book to read or summarize. So I'll just summarize the intro and let y'all read the book.

This is the first of a four volume set. The series is edited by John Bolt of Calvin Theological Seminary and translated by the late John Vriend.

The introduction is written by Bolt. Bavinck’s Dogmatics was first published a hundred years ago and represents the high point of four hundred years of Dutch Reformed theological thought. He was also serious about engaging other theological traditions such as Roman Catholicism and modern liberal Protestantism.

Kampen and Leiden

Bolt begins with a brief biography and a short history of the religious and political circumstances surrounding Bavinck’s life. Bavinck was born in 1854. He was indelibly shaped by the deep pietism of Reformed spiritual life, in particular that of the Christian Reformed Church which had seceded from the National Reformed Church in the Netherlands twenty years before his birth.

Although he began his theological training at Kampen Theological School, the seminary of the CRC, he transferred, to his parent’s dismay, to the Univesity of Leiden, the training from which was one of the biggest influences in his theological thinking. His reason was to “become acquainted with the modern theology firsthand” and to receive “a more scientific training than the Theological School is presently able to provide.” His time at Leiden seems to have shaken his faith somewhat. Bavinck wrote: “Will I remain standing in the faith? God grant it.” Bolt writes: “The Leiden experience gave rise to what Bavinck perceived as the tension in his life between his commitment to orthodox theology and spirituality and his desire to understand and appreciate what he could about the modern world, including its worldview and culture.” This tension in his thinking revealed itself in his attempt to reconcile modernity with Reformed pietism.

An example of this tension is found in his creation theology, where he engages the modern philosophy of Kant and Hegel, the scientific theory of Darwin, and the geological theories of his day.

Grace and Nature

It would probably be folly to try to encapsulate Bavinck’s theology in a short statement, but this might work: “His heart and mind sought a Trinitarian synthesis of Christianity and culture, a Christian worldview that incorporated what was best and true in both pietism and modernism, while above all honoring the theological and confessional richness of the Reformed tradition dating from Calvin.”

The framework Bavinck used to do this was Dutch neo-Calvinism, a theological movement propelled by its pioneer, Abraham Kuyper, politician, future Dutch prime minister, journalist, founder of the Free University of Amsterdam, and aggressive adversary of the modern spirit in church and society. Dutch neo-Calvinism set its sights not only on church matters but also on the whole realm of thought, “the arts, the professions, education, culture, society, and politics”. It was, like Bavinck, “appreciative of much in the modern world but not uncritically so.” Bavinck writes, “The thoughtful person places the doctrine of the Trinity in the very center of the full-orbed life of nature and mankind.” His whole theology is shaped by the Trinitarian concept that “grace restores nature.”

Prolegomena

Theological prolegomena deal with “introductory matters of definition and method”. Bavinck defines “dogmatics” as the “knowledge that God has revealed in his Word to his church concerning himself and all creatures as they stand in relation to him.” Bavinck never backed away from honestly engaging modern thought, notably, the Kantian claim that “God cannot be known and the subsequent effort to maintain the study of theology as a form of human religious experience.”

Traditional Reformed theology is organized around six loci (i.e. chief themes or places): the doctrine of God, humanity, Christ, salvation, the church, and last things. Bavinck follows these throughout this work.

Bolt’s words sum up things well: “Dogmatic theology is a science; it is a disciplined, rigorous, systematic study of the knowledge of God. Strictly speaking not every believer is or needs to be a theologian. The long history of theology parallels the life-history of the church but is not identical with it. In that connection, Bavinck’s lengthy discussion of the history of dogmatics has few parallels in any single volume published more recently…though it is a century old, Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics continues to be relevant to many issues still discussed in theology today….it is biblically and confessionally faithful, pastorally sensitive, challenging, and still relevant.”