Status Updates From The Philosophy of Revelation

Such an important work of Bavinck’s! Apparently the second most important to his Reformed Dogmatics. Excellent lectures on the necessity of God’s existence, knowability, and revelation for the intelligibility of everything.

Most helpful chapters so far have been "Revelation and Philosophy" parts 1 and 2, "Revelation and Religious Experience" (nice interaction with religious psychology), "Revelation and Religion", and "Revelation and history".

A bit dry, atm.

Revelation and history section summary:
Every historian weaves a story based on his presuppositional value judgements. Every historian has a worldview to see the idea and whole process of history. Hegels, Marxs, and essentially any other worldview limits the complexities of history and humans in it, as they fail to see the unity in diversity of history's unfolding and later composition. No Triune God, no history.

Understanding about 30% of it, but that 30% is great!

"The scepticism into which Greek philosophy has issued had lost, together with God and the world, also the self-certainty of man. But when the Christian religion revealed to us the greatness of God's heart , and in the day-spring from on high visited us with his tender mercy, it at the same time cast its light on man and on the riches and value of his soul. It imparted to him a new certainty, the certainty of faith.

This is great so far ...

What a second hand find. Only 1.5

So far it’s classic Bavinck. Which means I’m only understanding about 50% of what I’m reading.

A LOT of great nuggets already.

“In creation, God manifests the power of his mind; in revelation, which has redemption for its center, he discloses to us the greatness of his heart.”

Characteristic of what I saw in Christian Worldview so far. Bavinck is more sympathetic toward the Western philosophical tradition than many thinkers in the Neo-Calvinist tradition -- it is interesting to read him back to back with Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven, as he appears far less systematic.