Bavinck: A Critical Biography, James Eglinton

Baker Academic, 2020, 450pp

Even if you think Dogmatics is the name of the dog in Asterix the Gaul, you should probably read this book. That's Dogmatix to you, anyway. If you are a Christian who is struggling to hold fast to the faith in rapidly changing times, (and who isn't?) you will find a soul mate in good old Herman. If you are theologically aware enough to know that Dogmatics is not in fact the canine companion of Asterix, this biog is certainly just the thing for you. 

It took me seven years of on/off reading, to finish reading the English translation of Herman Bavinck's magisterial four volume Reformed Dogmatics. I appreciated the depth of Bavinck's scholarship, admired his orthodox yet original theological vision and valued his attempt at bringing Reformed theology into dialogue with the concerns of the modern world. Yes, Bavinck was a Presbyterian and I'm a Reformed Baptist, so there were points of disagreement, but I won't hold that against him. Catholic-spirited of me, I know. 

But what of the man himself? The English translation of Reformed Dogmatics carries a biographical sketch, which is a handy guide. In 2010 Ron Gleason published Herman Bavinck: Pastor,  Churchman, Statesman and Theologian. The Gleason effort was defective in a number of respects, leaving me hoping for a biography that would offer a more compelling portrait of its subject. See my review here.  Cue James Eglinton's Bavinck: A Critical Biography. 

It's a 'critical' biography not because the author keeps having a go at Bavinck, but because the work is based on a fresh reading of the original source materials, rather than being a rehash of earlier Dutch biographies. The picture that has emerged from previous accounts of Bavinck's life is of a somewhat conflicted figure. He was the product of the highly conservative Christian Reformed Church and yet he also desired to be a man of the modern world, moving ever closer to the centre of Dutch society. 

Eglinton challenges that take. The separatist Christian Reformed Churches had been coming in from the cold for some time. The beginning of the modern era in Dutch national life was signalled in 1848 when toleration was granted to other church groupings beyond the established Dutch Reformed Church. The life of Bavinck's father, Jan straddled the pre-modern and modern periods in Holland. He began his pastoral ministry in 1848. Members of the Christian Reformed Church no longer faced discrimination. Some Separatists welcomed the opportunities that their new-found freedom offered, Jan Bavinck was one. Others worried that their orthodox stance would come under pressure should they engage too closely with the modern world. 

Herman Bavinck began his theological training in the Christian Reformed Church's own Theological School in Kampen. It was not to his liking. He wanted to broaden his horizons and study under the modern theologians at the University of Leiden. Some more conservative, not to say reactionary members of his own denomination criticised him for the move. But with his father's support Bavinck enrolled at Leiden, while remaining a student at Kampen. Bavinck excelled in his studies, where he faced the challenge of maintaining his Reformed faith in an academic environment dominated by a critical attitude to the Bible and a revisionist approach to doctrinal orthodoxy. Friendships struck at Leiden were to endure throughout Bavinck's lifetime. 

The move to Leiden did not signal a move away from the Christian Reformed Church on Bavinck's part. On completing his studies both at Leiden and Kampen Herman accepted the call to pastor the denomination's congregation at Franeker, where he served from 1881-82. Following that short spell in pastoral ministry Bavinck was appointed to teach at the Theological School in Kampen, where he remained until 1902. It was during his time there that Bavinck wrote the original editions of his Reformed Dogmatics, which he continued to edit and revise over the years. His time at Leiden acquainted Bavinck with the modern philosophical and theological ideas with which he wrestled in his Dogmatics. That gives the theologian's writings a fresh feel, as he engaged with a wide range of thinkers, while maintaining an orthodox Reformed standpoint. His approach was that of 'theological theology', where the discipline justified itself on its own terms as faith seeking understanding of God's self-revelation in Holy Scripture.   

In the early phase of his teaching ministry Bavinck sought to advance Reformed distinctives over and against alternative versions of the Christian faith. He viewed Dutch society and culture as Reformed in nature, unlike America, where he did not see Reformed theology taking off in a big way. As Dutch society became increasingly secular under the influence of Friedrich Nietzsch and others, Bavinck shifted his emphasis. He urged the churches to engage in evangelism and devoted himself to defending the Christian faith understood more broadly, rather than simply championing the distinctive aspects of Reformed theology. 

Even before he became a Professor at Kampen Bavinck had come to the attention of Abraham Kuyper, who had established his Free University on Reformed principles in Amsterdam. Over the years Kuyper made several attempts at luring Bavinck to the University. It was only when Bavinck became weary of the tensions between fellow lecturers at Kampen that he eventually succumbed, taking up the position of Professor of Theology at Amsterdam. By that time the Christian Reformed Church had merged with the Doleantie churches associated with Kuyper to form the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. Attempts at bringing together the Theological School and the Free University to form a single educational institution ended in failure, much to the frustration of all involved. Bavinck included.  

Kuyper and Bavinck were united in their quest to reshape Dutch society in line with a Christian worldview. Bavinck was active in the Antirevolutionary Party under which Kuyper became Prime Minister of Holland from 1901-05. Eglinton describes Kuyper as a Zeus-like figure, who viewed the world from a lofty Olympian perspective, confident of his ability to to reorder human affairs. Bavinck was ever the careful scholar, journeying like Odysseus from a starting point to the truth. He lacked Kuyper's political skills and did not make a success of his role as chairman of the Antirevolutionary Party. Bavinck was not always in theological agreement with Kuyper. He carefully distanced himself from the latter's stance on the presumptive regeneration of baptised infants and justification from eternity. Kuyper was very much a man of affairs. Even his death was a public event, while Bavinck was a deeply private character. 

That fact makes Eglingon's biography all the more impressive an achievement. His use of Bavinck's dagboeks (private journals) and correspondence enabled him to get under the theologian's skin. We feel for him as the young Bavinck falls in love with Amelia den Dekker. Any hopes of him marrying his beloved Amelia were dashed by her unyielding father. Bavinck later to marry Johanna Adriana Schippers, which whom he had a daughter. Bavinck had an enlightened view of the place of women in society and championed female suffrage in the face of opposition from Kuyper. He was capable of maintaining close friendship with people whose views were far different to his own, such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje. They became friends when they were students at Leiden. Snouck was a liberal skeptic who secretly converted to Islam. He questioned how Bavinck could hold to conservative views, given what he had learned under the liberal lecturers at university. Bavinck defended his position, but without alienating his freethinking friend. In polarised times like our own the two men provide a model of of critical, yet cordial engagement between people with wildly different views.

Herman Bavinck was born in 1854, just as the Secession Churches were adjusting the new-found freedoms offered by the modern world. He ended his life a scholar garlanded with academic honours and a statesman elevated to the Upper House of the Dutch Parliament. All the while Bavinck felt the ground moving under his feet as Dutch society became increasingly post-Christian in outlook. He sought to engage with the challenges of the modernity, rather than retreating into a ghetto mentality, a strategy favoured by some Separatists. Bavinck maintained his Kuyperian vision of a culture shaped in all its parts by the Christian faith, but he realised that Christianised society could not be achieved without Christians. Over the course of his lifetime theologian witnessed the Dutch element of Christendom becoming progressively estranged from the faith. With that in mind the older Bavinck rallied the churches to the cause of evangelism, which he defined as "the proclamation of the evangel (the good news of salvation in Christ) to Jews and gentiles." (p. 317). 

Eglington has produced a well-written and rounded account of Herman Bavinck's life set in the context of his rapidly changing times. By going back to the original sources the biographer corrects some of the inaccuracies present in previous biographies. Especially that the subject was painfully torn between his Seceder roots and the modern Dutch society in which he found himself. The author presents a compelling portrait of the man behind the voluminous writings. He was no conflicted soul, but a Reformed Catholic, faithful to the Calvinistic doctrinal heritage of his Church, yet concerned to address the challenges raised by modern thought. In fact as Bavinck claimed, "modern culture and Christianity are inseparable", a point ably demonstrated by Tom Holland in his Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind. 

Kuyper's all-embracing vision may be summed in his famous words, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Bavinck agreed. The two men poured a huge amount of effort into reshaping Dutch society in line with a Christian worldview. Meanwhile, Dutch society was drifting away from the faith. Bavinck saw, perhaps too late, that the great need of the hour was for the church to engage in evangelism. If that was the case in the early years of 20th century Europe, how much more urgent is the call to herald the evangel in the early years of the 21st century. 

Beyond renewed evangelistic endeavour, if lost ground is to be recovered for the gospel in the 'post-Christian' West, what is needed is a mighty outpouring of the Spirit in revival power. Bavinck seemed to be a little circumspect about revivals and the strange phenomena sometimes associated with them (see this post on Herman Bavinck and Evan Roberts). But he knew well enough that the preaching of the word needs to be accompanied by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit,  ‘[The Holy Spirit] always works through the word but not always in the same way…Hence the subjective activity of the Spirit has to be added to the objective word. In the nature of the case it cannot be enclosed in the word; it is another activity, an additional activity, a subjective activity, not through but along with the word’. (Reformed Dogmatics, Volume Four: Holy Spirit, Church, And New Creation, Herman Bavinck, Grand Rapids, Baker, 2008, 459-460). Yes, we need to apply the Word of God to the whole of life and herald the gospel of salvation. But if we would see whole societies transformed, the church needs to be revived and the preaching of the gospel of empowered by the Spirit so that multitudes sinners are converted to Christ. 

If Bavinck was too optimistic in his expectation that Dutch society would maintain its Reformed character, he was too pessimistic in thinking that America would have little time for  Reformed theology. The publication of his Reformed Dogmatics in English translation by an American publishing house has led to renewed interest in Bavinck's life and thought both in the USA and on this side of the Pond. James Eglingon has done a great service in producing this excellent account of the life and times of Herman Bavinck, whom he describes as 'an orthodox Calvinist, a modern European and a man of science'. 

* Most importantly, I get a footnote all to myself, n 13 on p. xx and a mention in the Bibliography, p. 428. 

Herman Bavinck, a prophet of the secular age

I'm enjoying reading Bavinck: A Critical Biography by James Eglinton. It is a very fine piece of work. A far superior account of the theologian's life than Ron Gleason's effort. A key theme in the biography is Bavinck's attempt to remain faithful to his Seceder roots, while accommodating himself to the challenges of the modern world. 

In the early phase of his career Bavinck had championed Calvinism over and against other forms of Christian expression. He assumed that Calvinism would prevail, for it was an essential aspect of the Dutch national character. Things had changed by the the early 1900s. Bavinck now shifted his attention to defending Christianity more broadly against the onslaughts of outright unbelief. The age of Nietzsche in which 'God is dead' called for a different kind of apologetic. 

During Bavinck's lifetime Dutch society had become less distinctively Calvinistic and then less Christian altogether. A new God-free era beckoned. In an address to the Free University, Amsterdam, where Bavinck taught theology entitled Learnedness and Science, he foresaw the dawning of the secular age in which we live. 

If God falls, everything  falls - truth, science, art, nature and history, the state, society, and the family. if there is no God. there is also no idea, no more thought in which things can rest and by which they are knowable.... Everything that we receive from the past is old and outmoded, not only in religion and Christianity, but also morality and art, all the wisdom and civilisation of antiquity. Everything must be reformulated on the basis of modern culture: school and science, marriage and the family, state and society, religion and morality. There is no shortage of reformers [in our day]. (Bavinck, Eglinton, p. 236) 

Is not that a prescient description of our own times? When Christians in the UK campaigned against the redefinition of marriage, arguments based on the Bible or 1000's of years of tradition were swept aside as 'old hat'. Modern society was moving in only one direction and opponents of same-sex marriage were on the 'wrong side of history'. In Bavinck's day, whether women should get the vote was a matter of discussion. Now the very idea of what constitutes a woman is at the centre of the controversy raging around 'trans rights'. Mothers and Fathers are being relabelled, 'gestational parent' and 'non-birthing parent'. Bavinck was right. If God falls, even the basic facts of human biology have no secure place to rest. There is no shortage of 'reformers' in our day too. 

On finishing reading 'Reformed Dogmatics' by Herman Bavinck

Working my way through Bavinck's mighty four volume Reformed Dogmatics (Volumes 1-4, Baker Academic) has been my big long term reading project. The other day I finished the final volume. Looking back through the blog I notice that the set was delivered in May 2008 (see here). Didn't realise that it's taken me over seven years to get through the whole thing. Although I must admit that my progress has been rather fitful, with months sometimes passing between reads. That said, Bavinck's work needs to be absorbed rather than skimmed if you're going to get the best out of it.

Reformed Dogmatics is easily the best systematic theology I've yet encountered. It puts Berkhof and Reymond in the shade and is far better than Hodge. Right across the whole gamut of systematics  RD is marked by fresh and insightful exegesis, sensitivity to the flow of biblical revelation, awareness of the doctrinal heritage of the church, and deep theological reflection. The work is an organic whole; a mighty exposition of the being, persons, will  and acts of the triune God. 

In an era of the theology tweet and bite sized books for busy pastors, Bavinck offers something substantial, profound and satisfying. His approach is thoroughly presuppositional. Bavinck begins with God and ends with him. He is presented as the Alpha and Omega of theology, it's self-revealing source and ultimate goal. Here is a work of theology as faith seeking understanding that is designed to shape our minds in the light of God's Word, move our hearts to worship in response to God's Ways, and stir our wills to be about God's Work. If pastors aspire to be pastor-theologians for the sake of the people of God, they would do well to study Reformed Dogmatics. Let the man himself define what he means by dogmatic theology:  

Dogmatics is the system of the knowledge of God as he has revealed himself in Christ; it is the system of the Christian religion. And the essence of the Christian religion consists in the reality that the creation of the Father, ruined by sin, is restored in the death of the Son of God and re-created by the grace of the Holy Spirit into a kingdom of God. Dogmatics shows us how God, who is all-sufficient in himself, nevertheless glorifies himself in his creation, which, even when torn apart by sin, is gathered up again in Christ. (Eph 1:10). It describes for us God, always God from beginning to end - God in his being, God in his creation, God against sin, God in Christ, God breaking down all resistance through the Holy Spirit and guiding the whole of creation back to the objective he decreed for it: the glory of his name. Dogmatics, therefore, is not a dull science. It is a theodicy, a doxology of all God's virtues and perfections, a hymn of adoration and thanksgiving, a "glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14). (RD Volume 1, p. 112)

From Volume 1-4 Bavinck unfolds the great drama of creation, ruin, redemption and renewal. He constantly returns to the thought that God in his grace has not abandoned the world that he made in rescuing it from sin. Rather, by grace he redeems, restores, and perfects it. The climax of his eschatological vision is not the believer dying and going to heaven, but the new creation.

The state of glory will be no mere restoration of the state of nature, but a re-formation that, thanks to the power of Christ, transforms all matter into form, all potency into actuality, and presents the entire creation before the face of God, brilliant in unfading splendor and blossoming in a springtime of eternal youth. (RD Volume 4, p. 720).   

See here for blog posts on various aspects of RD.  My next 'big read' will be The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way, by Michael Horton, Zondervan. Our people bought me this to mark my 10th anniversary in the pastorate in 2013, but I've been keeping it until I'd finished reading Bavinck. It's always good to have a 'biggie' on the go. In my formative years as a preacher I read Preaching and Preachers,  by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I was struck by his counsel,  

Time must be found for reading, and we turn now to the more intellectual type of reading. The first is theology. There is no greater mistake than to think that you finish with theology when you leave a seminary. The preacher should continue to read theology as long as he is alive. The more he reads the better and there are many authors and systems to be studied. I have known men in the ministry, and men in various other walks of life who stop reading when they finish their training. They think they have acquired all they need; they have their lecture notes, and nothing further is necessary. The result is that they vegetate and become quite useless. Keep on reading; and read the big works. (Preaching and Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Hodder and Stoughton, 1985, p. 177).

You can't get much bigger or grander in scope and scale than Herman Bavinck's great magnum opus. Delve into his Reformed Dogmatics. Don't just take my word for it. It's Doctor's orders and will do you good. 

Long time no see, Herman

You know what it's like. You've got an old friend. You keep meaning to meet up with them, but life and stuff keeps getting in the way. Maybe you glance at their Facebook status every now and again. You reminisce about the good old days. Occasionally you almost remember to send them an email, but that's about it. You kind of miss them, but the thought of doing something about it doesn't lodge for long enough in the brain for you to take action. 

I think you know what I mean. Well it's been a bit like that with me and Herman Bavinck of late. At least with me and his Reformed Dogmatics. I've been making good progress and have advanced to the final volume in the set. The bookmark is currently resting at the beginning of chapter 3 Justification, and it hasn't moved from there for months, probably. I've read stuff in the meantime, but RD has been sadly neglected. 

The frivolity of summer is not conducive to reading Bavinck. You can't take a weighty volume of  RD to the beach. The dogmatician doesn't do small, bitesize chapters you can read in chunks here and there. You have to make time to for some deep, prayerful and meditative study if you are going to get the best out of Bavinck's work.

And that's what I'm going to try and do. It's about time I was reacquainted with the Dutch divine.

 "Hey, Herman you were saying about justification....".

"Oh yes..." '...justification...that gracious judicial act of God by which he acquits humans of all the guilt and punishment of sin and confers on them the right to eternal life... But this benefit - the complete forgiveness of sin - is so immense that the natural human intellect cannot grasp and believe it.'

"It's been too long, old friend, too long."

Herman Bavinck on Evan Roberts

For some years my big reading project has been Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics. I'm now on Volume Four, which is the biggest of the lot, weighing in at 944 closely printed pages. The theme of this fourth and final tome in the series is Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. I'm nearing the end of chapter two on Faith and Conversion. It's good stuff, typical of Bavinck's thoughtfully biblical approach to systematics. His paedobaptist predilections are beginning to intrude a little more than a Baptist would like, but you can't have everything. 

The theologian has a section on 'feeling sin and loving God' in conversion. He wisely rejects the tendency of some Pietists to insist on the need for a long penitential struggle prior to conversion. Bavinck laments that under the influence of that kind of thinking, "a great many Christians...year after year complain about their sins but almost never enjoy the heartfelt joy in God through Christ nor ever arrive at a peaceful and quiet life of gratitude." (p. 158). That experience is all to common in Gospel Standard Baptist Churches, where great attention is given to conviction of sin, but poor sinners are offered little by way of encouragement to trust in Christ for themselves. 

Bavinck then reflects on the Methodist view of conversion, where a long penitential struggle is replaced by an acute crisis of misery over sin followed by the ecstasy of forgiveness. This crisis is often accompanied by loud exclamations, tears and dancing and leaping with joy. Wesley and Whitefield were relaxed about that kind of thing, notes Bavinck, but Jonathan Edwards was more circumspect. I think the theologian is being a little hard on Wesley and Whitefield here. They did not take emotional outbursts as a stand-alone indicators of  new life. Both men looked for lasting fruit following conversion. 

It is at this point that Evan Roberts gets a mention, together with the 1904 Welsh Revival. Bavinck  mentions certain ecstatic and visionary phenomena that occurred among the Camisards and during the Nijkerk disturbances under G. Kuypers. I don't know what he's referring to here, but evidently the theologian perceived a link between these strange 'disturbances' and the ministry of Evan Roberts. He says, "And when the revival in Wales under Evan Roberts produced the same psychological and physical abnormalities and sparked them in other countries...opinions again strongly diverged." (p. 159).

That's it, really. It seems that Bavinck was a little suspicious of the 1904 Welsh Revival, impacted at it was by some strange goings on under Evan Roberts' ministry. Whether there was any room in Bavinck's theology for a doctrine of revival, I'm not really sure. But his treatment of conversion is full of biblical understanding and sound pastoral wisdom. While all conversions involve hatred for sin and love for God, there is no such thing as a stereotypical conversion experience. We avoid subjecting people to penitential despair by not proclaiming the threatenings of the law apart from the consolations of the gospel. 

True conversion, grief over sin, and genuine restoration to God and his service, therefore are brought about not just by the law but even to a much higher extent by the gospel... Law and gospel, accordingly, work together in human conversion. The law points pedagogically to Christ; but the gospel also sheds its light on the law. (p. 163).

 So, there we are. Herman Bavinck on Evan Roberts. Who'd have thought it?

Herman Bavinck on Regeneration in Christ

I recently finished reading Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 3: Sin and Salvation in Christ. His treatment of Christ's person and work is biblically insightful, theologically orthodox and spiritually enriching. Bavinck places his discussion of christology (the doctrine of Christ) and soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) in the context of the covenants of redemption and grace (see here). He constantly draws attention to the trinitarian dimensions of God's saving grace. "All the benefits of salvation that the Father has awarded to the church from eternity and the Son acquired in time are at the same time gifts of the Holy Spirit." (p. 593).

Towards the end of the final chapter of Volume 3, entitled The Order of Salvation, Bavinck touches on the relationship between regeneration and union with Christ (p. 591f). There is sometimes a lack of clarity on this issue in Reformed Theology. Some argue that the Spirit's work of regeneration, or at least effectual calling, of which regeneration is a component, is what unites us savingly to Christ. John Murray argues for that view in his Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 165. Robert Reymond hardly says a word about regeneration and union with Christ in his New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, p. 708-710. He concentrates almost solely on the proper ordering of regeneration and faith in the process of salvation. With more insight, others insist that regeneration is the work of God by which sinners are made alive in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Consider the words of Sinclair Ferguson 

"Every facet of the application of Christ's work ought to be related to the way in which the Spirit unites us to Christ himself, and viewed directly as issuing from personal fellowship with him. The dominant motif and architectonic principle of the order of salvation should therefore be union with Christ in the Spirit." (Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, Contours of Christian Theology, IVP, 1996, p. 100).

In his discussion of the subject Bavinck makes careful distinctions between salvation decreed, salvation accomplished and salvation applied. For that reason he disagrees with the notion of 'eternal justification' (p. 591). Nevertheless, he is at pains to insist that all the benefits of salvation are have their foundation in the eternal counsel of God (p. 590). "Hence already in eternity an imputation of Christ to his own and of the church to Christ took place. Between them an exchange occurred  and a mystical union was formed that underlies their realization in history, indeed produces and leads to them"(p. 590).

This governing thought enables Bavinck to stress that all the blessings of the covenant of grace, granted to the church by God in eternity are bestowed by Christ, on the basis of his redeeming work. He asks, "How else could we receive the Holy Spirit, the grace of regeneration, and the gift of faith, all of which were acquired by Christ and are his possession?" Then the dogmatician says, "It is not therefore the case that we first repent or are reborn by the Holy Spirit and receive faith without Christ, in order to go to with them to Christ, to accept his righteousness, and thus are justified by Christ. But just as all the benefits of grace come to us from the good pleasure of the Father, so they now proceed from the fullness of Christ (p. 590)."

Regeneration, then proceeds from Christ, who unites his people to himself and gives them new life by his Spirit. This is not to say that the child of God is eternally regenerate any more than he is eternally justified. Bavinck acknowledges this, saying, "Yet just as earlier we made a distinction between the decree and its fulfilment, so here we must make a distinction between the acquisition and the application of salvation (p. 591). "The application of salvation by Christ is effected in this world of time as the Saviour gives life to those who were formerly dead in sin by his regenerating power. 

This emphasis on regeneration in Christ is also found in the Irish Articles (1615), the principal author of which was James Ussher. Article 33 reads, 

All God's elect are in their time inseparably united unto Christ by the effectual and vital influence of the Holy Ghost, derived from him as from the head unto every true member of his mystical body. And being thus made one with Christ, they are truly regenerated and made partakers of him and all his benefits.

In his series on Great Doctrines of the Bible, Volume 2, D. M. Lloyd-Jones has a chapter on A Child of God and in Christ. Arguing from Ephesians 1:3 and John 1:16 he reasons that,

 we are constrained to say that even regeneration itself...is, logically, an outcome of our union with Christ (p.103). You cannot be born again without being in Christ; you are born again because you are in Christ. The moment you are in Him you are born again (p. 106).

Reformed theology at its best has insisted in the words of the apostle Paul that in regeneration God "made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5) by the power of the Holy Spirit. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). 

Herman Bavinck: Pastor, Churchman, Statesman and Theologian by Ron Gleason

Herman Bavinck: Pastor, Churchman, Statesman, and Theologian,

Ron Gleason, New Jersey: P&R Publishing Company, 2010, xvi + 511pp.

Readers of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, recently published in English translation will understandably want to acquaint themselves with the man behind those four majestic volumes of theology. However, apart from the biographical sketch that forms part of the introduction to each volume of Reformed Dogmatics, little information on Bavinck’s life has been available in English. Ron Gleason has made good on that lacuna with this full-length biographical study.

Gleason delves into Herman Bavinck’s family background in an attempt to discover the factors that shaped his life and thought. His father, Jan Bavinck was a Separatist pastor, serving various Christian Reformed Church congregations over the course of his ministerial career. When the time came for Herman to undertake theological study it was expected that he would enrol at the Separatist Theological Seminary in Kampen. But he caused something of a stir in Separatist circles by electing instead to study at Leiden University, a bastion of theological liberalism.

How did Bavinck manage to leave Leiden with his Reformed faith intact? Gleason suggests that his upbringing among the Separatists gave him a thorough grounding in the Scriptures and Reformed theology. This is no doubt true, but the situation was a little more complicated than that. Gleason makes no mention of the crisis of faith that Bavinck experienced while at Leiden. It would have been interesting to learn how Bavinck recovered from this so that he emerged from his theological studies capable of exposing the failings of liberalism in the light of historic the Reformed faith. His ability in this area is amply displayed in Reformed Dogmatics.

After graduating from Leiden with a theology doctorate, Bavinck became pastor of a Separatist congregation in Franeker. He was only in pastoral ministry for a year, but his time as pastor had a formative influence on his work as a theology professor. Bavinck served at the Separatist seminary in Kampen from 1882-1902 and then at the Free University Amsterdam from 1902 until his untimely death in 1921.  

Much of the biography is taken up with Bavinck’s role in the ecclesiastical politics of his day. 1892 saw the union of the Christian Reformed Church and the Doleantie Churches. The Doleanite Churches were a reformist grouping in the Dutch Reformed State Church. Under the leadership of Abraham Kuyper they took a strong line against the liberalising tendencies of their denomination. But the union was not a happy one.  There were differences of emphasis in the two bodies that formed the united Church. Strong characters on both sides vied for supremacy in the newly formed body. A particularly intractable issue was the proposed merger of the theological seminary at Kampen and the Free University in Amsterdam. Bavinck was heavily involved in the tortuous and ultimately futile negotiations.

The undisputed hero of this book is Herman Bavinck. This is his biography after all. But Abraham Kuyper is cast as something approaching the villain of the piece. Apart from an occasional lapse, Bavinck is presented as a man of patient integrity and godly wisdom. Kuyper is not without his virtues, but he comes over as a slightly sinister figure. An unflattering picture emerges of Kuyper as a man who was capable of high handed imperiousness and low political cunning. Although Bavinck and Kuyper often worked closely together, they became increasingly uneasy allies and eventually fell out over Bavinck’s scheme for the merger of the Theological Seminary and Free University. While Kuyper undoubtedly had his faults, Gleason’s account seems a little one sided at times.

Gleason concentrates on Bavinck the ecclesiastical politician and gives few glimpses of his interior life. Little is said about Bavinck as a husband and father, or his personal walk with God. Readers of Reformed Dogmatics might have liked to know how the theologian went about writing his magnum opus. While this is not a theological biography, it is a biography of a theologian. More discussion of Bavinck’s special contribution to Reformed theology and an account of his key theological ideas would not have gone amiss. A good biography will give readers the feeling that they have come as near as possible to getting know the subject personally. A compelling psychological portrait will bring the subject to life as the pages turn. Gleason gets close, but he doesn't quite get under Bavinck’s skin.

In places the work suffers from an inelegant style and poor editing. Gleason’s attempts at humour are sometimes ill-judged, such as the “joke” about the discovery of gin bottles belonging Bavinck’s alcoholic predecessor as pastor at Franeker. The occasional Americanism may grate, such as “slam dunk” (p. 92) and “However, this was a huge however…” (p. 246). Gleason intimates that he will say something about the death of Herman’s brother, Johan Gerrit in chapter 7 (p. 152). But an account of Johan’s passing is held off until chapter 8, (p. 203) The exact words used by Gleason to describe Bavinck’s mindset on page 172 are repeated in the context of Kuyper’s advice to Bavinck on the following page. The writer sometimes lapses into cliché, “Both sides had thrown down the gauntlet; a line had been drawn in the sand.” (P. 253). Such blemishes detract from the reader’s enjoyment of the book.  

Gleason’s effort is currently the only one on offer when it comes to a full-length Bavinck biography in English. His carefully researched work provides a wealth of detailed biographical information. But perhaps one could have wished for a slightly more insightful and better written account of the life of the great Dutch Reformed dogmatician. 

* Reviewed for the European Journal of Theology. 

Conference: Neo-Calvinism and the French Revolution

From The Bavinck Institute:

The French Revolution was the scene of much intellectual and social upheaval. Its impact touched a wide range of subjects: the relationship of the church to the state, social relationships, science, literature, fashion, philosophy and theology. Although the French Revolution’s momentum was felt across Europe and North America, it met a particularly interesting response in the Netherlands, at that time the scene of a burgeoning neo-Calvinist movement. In that context, the likes of Groen van Prinsterer, Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck responded to the French Revolution’s ideals and influence in a variety of intellectual and practical ways.

This conference (at the American Church in Paris, on 23–24 August 2012) will focus on the historical and theological aspects of this neo-Calvinist response to the French Revolution.

Thanks to James Eglinton for the heads up. 

Herman Bavinck on the Covenant of Redemption

The idea that the Father entered into a 'covenant of redemption' with the Son in eternity is a staple of Reformed covenant theology. As typically expressed, the Father appointed the Son Mediator and Surety of the covenant of grace and promised him a glorious reward on completion of his redemptive work. This construction is found in the work of early covenant theologian, Johannes Cocceius, seventeenth century Orthodox Reformed divines, old Princeton theologians, Charles and A. A. Hodge, and more recently, Louis Berkhof. 

However, Robert Letham complains that as traditionally explained the 'covenant of redemption' is open to a number of criticisms. It seems to entail the eternal subordination of the Son to the Father, and as the pactum salutis (pact of salvation) is taken only to concern the Father and the Son, with little or no mention of the Holy Spirit, it is sub-trinitarian.  Indeed, in his The Work of Christ, (endnote 34, p. 254), Letham points out that in his Outlines of Theology, (p. 371-372), A. A. Hodge makes no reference at all to the Holy Spirit in his discussion of the covenant of redemption. More promisingly, Charles Hodge defends the notion of the Father entering into a pre-temporal pact with the Son by invoking the doctrine of the Trinity (Systematic Theology Volume 2, p. 359). But, once more, when it comes to the substance of the 'covenant of redemption', the doctrine is unfolded in terms of an arrangement between the Father and the Son. The Father is said to give the Holy Spirit to the Son to facilitate the work of redemption, but that is about as far as it goes. Louis Berkhof's treatment of the 'covenant of redemption' likewise pays scant attention to the role of the Holy Spirit, (Systematic Theology, p. 265-271). He defines the compact thus, the agreement between the Father, giving the Son as Head of the elect, and the Son, voluntarily taking the place of those whom the Father had given Him. (Italics original, p. 271). As Berkhof's definition makes no mention of the Holy Spirit, it clearly falls foul of the principle that both the external acts of the Trinity are undivided. On this basis the 'covenant of redemption' in its traditionally stated form is highly problematic.

Now we come to Herman Bavinck. The Dutch dogmatician is critical of some aspects of the construction of the pactum salutis found in Orthodox Reformed divines such as Cocceious. But he nevertheless sees a clear biblical basis for the idea that in eternity the Father appointed the Son as Mediator (amongst other texts, he cites: Isaiah 42:1, John 6:38-40, 10:18, 1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8). As he develops his teaching on the 'covenant of redemption', Bavinck is keen to set out the trinitarian character of the doctrine,

The pact of salvation makes known to us the relationships and life of the three persons in the Divine Being as a covenantal life, a life of consummate self-consciousness and freedom. Here, within the Divine Being, the covenant flourishes to the full.... The greatest freedom and the most perfect agreement coincide. The work of salvation is an undertaking of three persons in which all cooperate and each performs a special task... It is the triune God alone, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who together conceive, determine, carry out and complete the entire work of salvation. (Reformed Dogmatics Volume 3, p. 214-215).

The pact of salvation between the persons of the Trinity in eternity is the foundation of the saving acts of the triune God in the history of redemption. 

All the grace that is extended to the creation after the fall comes to it from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The Son appeared immediately after the fall, as Mediator, as the second and final Adam who occupies the place of the first, restores what the latter corrupted and accomplishes what he failed to do. And the Holy Spirit immediately acted as the Paraclete, the one applying the salvation acquired by Christ. (RD. 3, p. 217). 

And so it is that under both Old and New Testament dispensations that the Father saves his people by the redeeming work of the Son, applied to them by the Holy Spirit. "There is one faith, one Mediator, one way of salvation, and one covenant of grace." (RD. 3, p. 217).  

Bavinck's treatment of the 'covenant of redemption' is thoroughly grounded in Scripture. He takes into account the trinitarian dimensions of the doctrine, relating the eternal pactum salutis between Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the historical fulfilment of the work of redemption. John Murray is not altogether happy in speaking of pre-temporal 'covenant' between the persons of the Trinity, preferring the designation 'inter-trinitarian economy of salvation.' (Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume 2, p. 130). But, as his suggested rewording implies, he is in full agreement with Bavinck's trinitarian emphasis, 

The title ['inter-trinitarian economy of salvation'] is inclusive enough to comprise all aspects of the economy, eternal and temporal, pre-temporal design and fulfilment in time and in the ages to come... After all, our study of the plan of salvation will not produce abiding fruit unless the plan captivates our devotion to the triune God in the particularity of the grace which each person bestows in the economy of redemption, and in the particularity of the relationship constituted by the amazing grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The fellowship of the living God is the fellowship of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (CW. 2, p. 131). 

As set out by Bavinck and Murray (despite the latter's reservations concerning the use of covenant language when it comes to the pactum salutis), the 'covenant of redemption' demands a place in biblically faithful Reformed theology. In eternity and time salvation is of the Father, by the Son and through the Holy Spirit.