Bavink, is it worth Getting?

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puritansound

puritansound

Puritan Board Freshman
Friends,
I have systematics from Hodge, Turretin, Berkoff, Grudem, Calvin, Erickson, and Giesler. Is it worth picking up Bavincks also? what will he add? What about his Essays on Religion and the new one coming out in a few months on the Holy Spirit. Any thoughts are appreciated
 
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Bavinck is worth getting not only for his excellent insights, but also for his historical surveys on different dogmatic questions. That would be his greatest strength, in my opinion. And if you want to understand Van Til and how he developed his "copernican revolution" in apologetics, you need to read Bavinck.
 
I echo Guido's remarks, and would say that he is one of the few systematics in the modern period that really understands the post-Reformation tradition and makes positive use of it. Hodge did understand it as well, but made less use of it than Bavinck does. And he is necessary for understanding Van Til (see the excellent article in the Spring 2008 WTJ on this).
 
By all means get Bavinck. Much of Reformed theology in the 20th century was a popularization of Bavinck's seminal insights and mastery of post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. In this sense, Berkhof is derrivative, Bavinck is original. I would not sell ANY of your books (possible exception of Geisler - grrrrrrr). But, just as Turretin fills an important place following Calvin and Beza, and Grudem and Erickson will bring you up to date, you need Bavinck to read alongside Hodge to fill in the blanks between Protestant scholasticism and the current crop of dogmaticians.
 
It has been said that Bavinck was the greatest Reformed theologian since Calvin. Need I say more?
 
Thanks all. I believe I should pick up the set. Best price I have found is WTSbooks.com for $98.99 & $4 shipping. They package books great and are super fast.
I also have Muller's Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics which I love. Any thoughts on how the scholarship of Muller matches up with Bavinck?
 
puritansound said:
Thanks all. I believe I should pick up the set. Best price I have found is WTSbooks.com for $98.99 & $4 shipping. They package books great and are super fast.
I also have Muller's Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics which I love. Any thoughts on how the scholarship of Muller matches up with Bavinck?
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They are both great masters in the post-Reformation tradition. Muller is engaged in a more descriptive enterprise, whereas Bavinck in a much more prescriptive enterprise. Nevertheless, I think it is fairly clear that they have a very similar take on the post-Reformation tradition.
 
I would get bavinck as well. Allso look at getting Shed's Dogmatic theology as well, another fin book I must say
 
I know I am echoing the sentiment of the others, but I highly recommend Bavinck. He is a required read at PRTS. When it comes to Systematics, Bavinck should not only be required, but essential.
 
puritansound said:
Friends,
I have systematics from Hodge, Turretin, Berkoff, Grudem, Calvin, Erickson, and Giesler. Is it worth picking up Bavincks also? what will he add? What about his Essays on Religion and the new one coming out in a few months on the Holy Spirit. Any thoughts are appreciated
Click to expand...


I have heard quotations from Bavinck that sounded antithetical to the idea that Christians can have any true knowledge of God at all. That "adequate knowledge of God does not exist" and the suchlike. He does not think that God can be defined, and that "he has no name". Such sentiments do not sound anything like our confessions, or (more importantly) like the Sacred Scriptures themselves, which give us "all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue."

Anywho, this is all that I have ever heard of Bavinck, and I'm sure he was just trying to be pious, but I can't comment on the rest of his Systematic.

Cheers,

Adam
 
Christusregnat said:
I have heard quotations from Bavinck that sounded antithetical to the idea that Christians can have any true knowledge of God at all. That "adequate knowledge of God does not exist" and the suchlike. He does not think that God can be defined, and that "he has no name". Such sentiments do not sound anything like our confessions, or (more importantly) like the Sacred Scriptures themselves, which give us "all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue."

Anywho, this is all that I have ever heard of Bavinck, and I'm sure he was just trying to be pious, but I can't comment on the rest of his Systematic.

Cheers,

Adam
Click to expand...


I may be wrong, but i believe Bavinck speaks particularly of the incomprehensibility of the very nature of God.
 
Defining God

While we may discern something of the nature and attributes of God from His revealed Word, we as finite creatures CAN NOT with absolute certainty and thoroughness DEFINE all that God is.

Our thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. God is incomprehensible, yet He has condescended to reveal somethings about about Himself in the Holy Scripture.

I believe Bavinck is simply warning of the dangers of trying go beyond God's revealed truth. While it is permissible and possible to "describe God" (as He Has revealed Himself in His Word), it is not possible to "ultimately DEFINE God," for we are limited by what He has revealed about Himself. To go beyond that revelation is neither right or safe!

:2cents:




larryjf said:
Christusregnat said:
I have heard quotations from Bavinck that sounded antithetical to the idea that Christians can have any true knowledge of God at all. That "adequate knowledge of God does not exist" and the suchlike. He does not think that God can be defined, and that "he has no name". Such sentiments do not sound anything like our confessions, or (more importantly) like the Sacred Scriptures themselves, which give us "all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue."

Anywho, this is all that I have ever heard of Bavinck, and I'm sure he was just trying to be pious, but I can't comment on the rest of his Systematic.

Cheers,

Adam
Click to expand...


I may be wrong, but i believe Bavinck speaks particularly of the incomprehensibility of the very nature of God.
Click to expand...
 
More on "defining God"

Bavinck writes:

We may therefore speak of the "system of truth" contained in Scripture only if we are careful to note that its various doctrines are not to be obtained by way of deduction from some master concept. There is no doubt consonance between the "doctrine of God," the "doctrine of man," and the "doctrine of Christ" as found in Scripture But even when conjoined and seen in their fullest hamony, these and other doctrines together do not begin to exhaust the riches of God's revelation to man through Christ and his Spirit.
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(from: Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, page 161).

There is no truth nor system of truth over God.We know nothing of God, but that which He has revealed to us!

As Rushdoony has it:

To speak of the sovereignty of God means also to speak of His incomprehensibility. Because God is sovereign, omnipotent, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all His perfection, it means that to talk of such a God is to speak of one who is incomprehensible to man. Man the creature can never comprehend or know exhaustively such a God. He can, however, know God truly, although not exhaustively. God's perfections make Him totally self-consistent, and God's revelation of Himself in His written word and in the incarnate Word give us a true knowledge of God. To grasp the totality of His nature and being exhaustively would require a mind equal to God, an impossibility. Our knowledge of God increases as we grow in faith and obedience, but, because He is infinite and eternal, His incomprehensibility never diminishes.
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(from: Rousas John Rushdoony, Systematic Theology, page 181).

Presbyterian Deacon said:
While we may discern something of the nature and attributes of God from His revealed Word, we as finite creatures CAN NOT with absolute certainty and thoroughness DEFINE all that God is.

Our thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. God is incomprehensible, yet He has condescended to reveal somethings about about Himself in the Holy Scripture.

I believe Bavinck is simply warning of the dangers of trying go beyond God's revealed truth. While it is permissible and possible to "describe God" (as He Has revealed Himself in His Word), it is not possible to "ultimately DEFINE God," for we are limited by what He has revealed about Himself. To go beyond that revelation is neither right or safe!

:2cents:




larryjf said:
Christusregnat said:
I have heard quotations from Bavinck that sounded antithetical to the idea that Christians can have any true knowledge of God at all. That "adequate knowledge of God does not exist" and the suchlike. He does not think that God can be defined, and that "he has no name". Such sentiments do not sound anything like our confessions, or (more importantly) like the Sacred Scriptures themselves, which give us "all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue."

Anywho, this is all that I have ever heard of Bavinck, and I'm sure he was just trying to be pious, but I can't comment on the rest of his Systematic.

Cheers,

Adam
Click to expand...


I may be wrong, but i believe Bavinck speaks particularly of the incomprehensibility of the very nature of God.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Presbyterian Deacon said:
While we may discern something of the nature and attributes of God from His revealed Word, we as finite creatures CAN NOT with absolute certainty and thoroughness DEFINE all that God is.

Our thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. God is incomprehensible, yet He has condescended to reveal somethings about about Himself in the Holy Scripture.
I believe Bavinck is simply warning of the dangers of trying go beyond God's revealed truth. While it is permissible and possible to "describe God" (as He Has revealed Himself in His Word), it is not possible to "ultimately DEFINE God," for we are limited by what He has revealed about Himself. To go beyond that revelation is neither right or safe!

:2cents:




larryjf said:
Christusregnat said:
I have heard quotations from Bavinck that sounded antithetical to the idea that Christians can have any true knowledge of God at all. That "adequate knowledge of God does not exist" and the suchlike. He does not think that God can be defined, and that "he has no name". Such sentiments do not sound anything like our confessions, or (more importantly) like the Sacred Scriptures themselves, which give us "all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue."

Anywho, this is all that I have ever heard of Bavinck, and I'm sure he was just trying to be pious, but I can't comment on the rest of his Systematic.

Cheers,

Adam
Click to expand...


I may be wrong, but i believe Bavinck speaks particularly of the incomprehensibility of the very nature of God.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


Yes, as I understand it, in a strict sense, we know God only by what he has been so gracious to reveal to us of Himself. As finite creatures it is not possible to know God as he knows Himself. That is not to say that what we know of God is deficient (meaning in error) in some way, but the fullness of our knowledge limited.
Click to expand...
 
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