Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics: A Vital Luxury

After I received my degree from Regent College I thought, “Finally! I have time for Bavinck!” Recently I’ve formed a small study group to explore volume 3 of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, as our primary text. Our plan is to produce a series of summary readings in Bavinck, in an effort to encourage others to take on the work of this great theologian.

Bavinck’s Prolegomena: Outset

The outset of Bavinck’s dogmatics is highly sensitive to the relationships between Scripture and Church Confessions, and other branches of systematic theology. The whole enterprise of dogmatic theology rests on the proposition that “God has said it” and must conduct its work within the wider social elements of the church (confessions, etc.) and never be left to private judgment or opinion. Dogmatics is an ‘objective science’ and arrives at certainly on the authority of Scripture; if it were subjective, the content of religion is solely human in origin, and not universal truth. For Bavinck, objectivity gives theology both its scientific character and a social aspect, keeping dogmatics from being crusty or aloof from the vital life of the Church.

Bavinck’s ‘organic relations’ between ourselves and Scripture takes into account our different communities, locations, times, culture, and place in history. We all have various backgrounds, and that is a good thing, because it contributes to our personalities, and ultimately the social settings in which we interact with the world around us. Theology is aided by our personal experience and our personalities. However, Bavinck cautions, it becomes a total bummer when we make our experiences the rule of theology, which tend to minimize the results and deaden the impact of our spiritual labor. The goal of Bavinck’s theology is to see the church, and the theologian work together under the guidance of Scripture, through the Holy Spirit. Faith is personable: God reveals himself in a way that is intended to generate faith in our hearts, “and place us in a proper relationship to God … to give us the knowledge of faith” (Vol. 1: 91). I’ve found this social/organic element in Bavinck quite beneficial for engaging his work. In many ways it draws the reader into a historically long and daunting conversation, which Bavinck handles with relatively simple ease.