Herman Bavinck: Selected Shorter Works

by Herman Bavinck, John Hendryx (Editor)

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Table of Contents

The Origin, Essence, and Purpose of Man
Development of the Doctrine of Predestination
Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism
The Knowledge of God
The Divine and Human Nature of Christ
The Fall
Death
The Covenant of Grace
The Divine Trinity The Greatness of God
The Greatness and Miserableness of Man
The Present State of the World
Calvin and Common Grace

Genres: Theology

235 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) succeeded Abraham Kuyper as professor of systematic theology at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1902.

His nephew was Johan Herman Bavinck.

Reviews

[Douglas Domer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 19th century theologian that deserves to be on the desk of many 21st century theologians. He was a Dutch reformed theologian and was influence by Abraham Kuyper, who should also be read by contemporary theologians.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very edifying collection of essays and selections from his larger works. I think the ones I enjoyed the most were The Origin, Essence, and Purpose of Man, Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism, and The Divine and Human Nature of Christ.

Here are a few good quotes from the work:

Bavinck, on natural revelation in man:
"Reality, however, teaches something quite different. Man can make himself believe, if he wants to, that he has done everything himself and that he is bound by nothing. But in every respect he remains a dependent creature. He cannot do as he pleases. In his physical existence, he remains bound to the laws laid down for respiration, the circulation of the blood, digestion, and procreation. And if he runs counter to these laws and pays no attention to them, he injures his health and undermines his own life. The same is true of the life of his soul and spirit. Man cannot think as he pleases, but is bound to laws which he has not himself thought out and laid down, but which are implied in the very act of thinking and come to expression in it. If he does not hold to those laws of thought, he snares himself in the net of error and falsehood. Nor can man will and act as he pleases. His will is under the discipline of reason and conscience; if he disregards this discipline and degrades his willing and acting to the level of arbitrariness and caprice, then there is sure to be self-reproach and self-indictment, regret and remorse, the gnawing and the compunction of the conscience.
The life of the soul, therefore, no less than the life of the body, is built on something other than caprice or accident. It is not a condition of lawlessness and anarchy but is from all sides and in all its activities determined by laws. It is subject to laws of truth and goodness and beauty and so it demonstrates that it has not generated itself. In short, man has from the very beginning his own nature and his own essence and these he cannot violate with impunity. And so much stronger is nature in these matters than theory that the adherents of the doctrine of evolution themselves keep talking of a human nature, of immutable human attributes, of laws of thought and ethics prescribed for man, and of an inborn religious sense. Thus the idea of the essence of man comes into conflict with the idea of his origin.
In Scripture, however, there is perfect agreement between the two ideas. There the essence of man corresponds to his origin. Because man, although he was formed from the dust of the earth according to the body, received the breath of life from above, and was created by God Himself, he is a unique being, has his own nature. The essence of his being is this: he exhibits the image of God and His likeness."

Fascinating quote on animals as symbols of our virtues and vices:
"Moreover, how rich the animal world is in moral significance for man! The animal points to the boundary beneath, above which man must raise himself, and to the level of which he must never sink. Man can become an animal and less than an animal if he dulls the light of reason, breaks the bond with heaven, and seeks to satisfy all his desire in the earth. Animals are symbols of our virtues and our vices: the dog shows us the image of loyalty, the spider of industry, the lion of courage, the sheep of innocence, the dove of integrity, the hart of the soul thirsting for God; and, just so too, the fox is the image of cunning, the worm of misery, the tiger of cruelty, the swine of baseness, the snake of devilish guile, and the ape, who most nearly resembles the form of man, declares what an impressive physical organization amounts to without spirit, the spirit that is from above. In the ape man sees his own caricature."

The Divine and Human Nature of Christ:
"It is true that the disciples could not reconcile these Messianic claims of Jesus with His approaching passion and death (Matt. 16:22). But through the resurrection, and after it, they learned to know also the necessity and the meaning of the cross. Now they recognized that God had by the resurrection made this Jesus, whom the Jews had destroyed. to be Lord and Christ and had exalted Him to be a Prince and Savior (Acts 2:36 and 5:31). This does not mean to say that before His resurrection Jesus was not yet Christ and Lord, and that He became this only after the resurrection, for Christ had proclaimed Himself as the Christ beforehand and He was then also acknowledged and confessed as such by the disciples (Matt. 16:16). But before the resurrection He was Messiah in the form of a servant, in a form and shape which concealed His dignity as Son of God from the eyes of men. In the resurrection and after it He laid aside that form of a servant, He re-assumed the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5), and was therefore appointed as Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness that dwelt in Him (Rom. 1:3)."

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkably irenic collection from a learned teacher. I first encountered Bavinck several years ago, while thinking through the logic and doctrine of inspiration. I still have questions on this topic, but Bavinck's ideas and arguments are a class above most protestant polemic.

At the time I didn't know much scholastic philosophy at all. It was therefore a joy to find, in these essays, Bavinck sounding like a Thomist (cf. some of the presuppositions and definitions in the first essay). On occasion (esp. in the final, light essay on Calvin) I groaned at his characterization of Roman Catholicism, but it is never mean-spirited.

This may sound incredible, but the essay "Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism" is a delight.

And here's a wonderful moment, also from the final essay: "The pagan world, especially in its philosophy, is a pedagogy unto Christ; Aristotle, like John the Baptist, is the forerunner of Christ” ("Calvin and Common Grace").

[William Schrecengost · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of some of Bavinck's essays and parts of his other works. Many selections were from his book "Our Reasonable Faith"