bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
Our church's monthly men's fellowship group will be starting a new book in October: the one-volume abridgment of Herman Bavinck's four-volume Reformed Dogmatics. I'm definitely looking forward to this!
Getting Ready to Read Bavinck
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bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
It's the Bolt abridgment. As you say, The Wonderful Works of God is not an abridgment of Reformed Dogmatics, but a completely different book altogether.
bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
Well, we're getting started this week. We meet this Friday as our first meeting with Bavinck's book. Our pastor will email us in a day or so to let us know how many pages we're to read before Friday. The book is 850 pages long, and I think he wants to take it in 100-page chunks, ideally. We'll see.
Definitely looking forward to this.
Definitely looking forward to this.
bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
Here's a nice bit by Bavinck about Augustine. Remember, this is Bolt's abridgement:
But, in Augustine, that grace only works within the boundaries of the visible church and its sacraments. The church is an institution of salvation, a dispenser of grace, the seat of authority, the guarantor of Scripture, the dwelling place of love, a creation of the Spirit - indeed, the very kingdom of God. Augustine sensed, deeply, the importance of community to religion. The church is the mother of believers. It is difficult to harmonize Augustine's doctrines of predestination and grace with this concept of church and sacrament. "Many who seem to be outside are inside, and many who are inside seem to be outside." There are sheep outside the sheepfold and wolves inside it. Both Roman Catholics and Protestants, with some justification, appeal to Augustine. Rome appeals to him for its doctrine of the church, the sacraments, and authority, while the Reformation felt kinship with him in the doctrine of predestination and grace. He is the theologian of the greatest importance for all theological work that comes after him. Every reformation returns to him and to Paul. For every dogma, he found a formula that was taken over and repeated by everyone else. His influence extends to all churches, schools of theology, and sects. Augustine, therefore, does not belong to one church but to all churches together. He is the universal teacher (Doctor universalis). Even philosophy neglects him to its own detriment. And, because of his elegant and fascinating style, his refined, precise, highly individual and, nevertheless, universally human way of expressing himself, more than any other church father, he can still be appreciated today. He is the most Christian as well as the most modern of all the Fathers. Of all of them, he is closest to us. He replaced the aesthetic worldview with an ethical one, the classical with the Christian. In dogmatic theology, we owe our best, our deepest, our richest thoughts to him. Augustine has been and is *the* dogmatician of the Christian church. (p. 38, slightly edited)
But, in Augustine, that grace only works within the boundaries of the visible church and its sacraments. The church is an institution of salvation, a dispenser of grace, the seat of authority, the guarantor of Scripture, the dwelling place of love, a creation of the Spirit - indeed, the very kingdom of God. Augustine sensed, deeply, the importance of community to religion. The church is the mother of believers. It is difficult to harmonize Augustine's doctrines of predestination and grace with this concept of church and sacrament. "Many who seem to be outside are inside, and many who are inside seem to be outside." There are sheep outside the sheepfold and wolves inside it. Both Roman Catholics and Protestants, with some justification, appeal to Augustine. Rome appeals to him for its doctrine of the church, the sacraments, and authority, while the Reformation felt kinship with him in the doctrine of predestination and grace. He is the theologian of the greatest importance for all theological work that comes after him. Every reformation returns to him and to Paul. For every dogma, he found a formula that was taken over and repeated by everyone else. His influence extends to all churches, schools of theology, and sects. Augustine, therefore, does not belong to one church but to all churches together. He is the universal teacher (Doctor universalis). Even philosophy neglects him to its own detriment. And, because of his elegant and fascinating style, his refined, precise, highly individual and, nevertheless, universally human way of expressing himself, more than any other church father, he can still be appreciated today. He is the most Christian as well as the most modern of all the Fathers. Of all of them, he is closest to us. He replaced the aesthetic worldview with an ethical one, the classical with the Christian. In dogmatic theology, we owe our best, our deepest, our richest thoughts to him. Augustine has been and is *the* dogmatician of the Christian church. (p. 38, slightly edited)
RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
My reviews of Bavinck
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
When Matter Becomes Form
This is a review of Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation vol. 4. And so ends the greatest theologian of all time. The following are highlights around the centra…
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
https://tentsofshem.wordpress.com/2021/04/05/bavinck-sin-and-salvation-in-Christ/
Herman Bavinck: God and Creation
As Bavinck in many places is summarizing traditional Reformed teaching, this book is exactly what you would expect on Reformed dogmatics. However, no one ever does theology in a purely Platonic vac…
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
Bavinck on Covenant and Election
or more specifically, the relationship between the covenant of grace and election. Taken from Reformed Dogmatics vol. 3. “The two are not so different that election is particular while the co…
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
Review: Bavinck, Prolegomena
Bavinck’s project consists of drawing upon the strengths of the Magisterial Protestants while formulating theology in response to the modernist crisis of his day. To do so, he realized he could not…
tentsofshem.wordpress.com
bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
I can already see that, once our group is finished with the abridgement, I'm going to have to read the four-volume "real thing."
Yes indeed
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