The Philosophy of Revelation Herman Bavinck 9780988125209 Books
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The renowned Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) explores the relationship between revelation and philosophy, nature, history, religious experience, culture and Christianity. This seminal early 20th century work has been edited to make it more accessible to 21st century readers.
The Philosophy of Revelation Herman Bavinck 9780988125209 Books
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The Philosophy of Revelation Herman Bavinck 9780988125209 Books Reviews
Fantastic book. This should be a must read for every seminary student.
This is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read. It contains the Stone Lectures delivered by Dr. Bavinck at Princeton Seminary in 1908 and 1909, ten years after Dr. Kuyper gave his famous "Lectures on Calvinism". Dr. Bavinck was the Professor of Theology who succeeded Kuyper at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and whose multi-volume "Reformed Dogmatics" is widely regarded as the premier product of systematic theology in the twentieth century of the orthodox Reformed tradition. It is interesting that his "Dogmatics" has waited so long to be translated, but thankfully it is done, and perhaps its ready availability in English will generate more interest in some of his lesser known work. I think it is also noteworthy that this book was translated, at least in part, by Dr. Geerhardus Vos of Princeton, and its publication was prepared and supervised by Vos and Warfield in the same year the lectures were finished. These two certainly kept themselves busy with their own studies and writings, so it strikes me as significant that they thought this book was important enough to see it translated and published so quickly after the lectures were delivered.
In these lectures, Bavinck discusses the importance of revelation in the major fields of human investigation, including philosophy, nature, history, religion, Christianity, religious experience, culture, and the future. He shows that in each of these areas, people have in various ways attempted to reduce the explanation of the phenomena to one original, universal principle (monism). However, as long as they ignore and deny the reality of God's revelation, they must seek this original, universal principle within the world. In each case Bavinck shows that these attempts end in futility and an inability to explain and understand the diversity of phenomena, which can only be understood intelligibly on the basis of the reality of revelation from God. In this context he considers a vast number of different theories that have been advanced in these fields by various thinkers. It is interesting how often the concept of evolution, which Bavinck notes has "become a magic formula", was championed in many fields outside of biology as the cornerstone of intelligibility. The chapter on religious experience is also of paramount interest in the context of the contemporary church and its obsession with personal experience, almost always with an (at best) tenuous association with objective revelation. Those who are familiar with Van Til will readily recognize the line of thought in Bavinck leading in that direction, and will happily find this volume much easier to read and understand. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Bavinck argues that a monistic account of the world cannot ground unity or diversity. By contrast, the Christian revelation can account for a unity and a diversity that is not located within the phenomenal realm. Bavinck traces the idea of revelation in its form and content and how it correlates with the rest of life (Bavinck 18). Accordingly, and perhaps truistically, philosophy of revelation takes its starting point from its object revelation.
Bavinck then gives a tour-de-force of modern philosophy. While he firmly rejects these philosophies, he doesn't give hysterical reductions of everything to Pantheism, Hegelianism, Darwinism, Insert-Bad-Guy-ism. He sees clear advances they make against other secular alternatives.
idealism correct in that reality is mediated by consciousness. False when it infers from that the object of perception is within the mind itself (36). Idealism confounds act with content.
self-consciousness the unity of real and ideal being. We know it immediately. Here Bavinck anticipates later Reformed Epistemology self-consciousness is a properly basic belief. We do not know it by reasoning from prior beliefs.
Christian revelation imparts a new kind of certainty (40). This certainty is a confidence in God’s promises.
Augustine’s claim on knowing God and the self
a. Augustine descended beyond thought alone life precedes thought; faith, knowledge
b. the essence of the soul is not simply thought alone. He found ideas, norms, laws of certainty, truth.
c. Memoria, intellectus, voluntas.
Echoing later neo-Calvinist themes, Bavinck sees that each branch of knowledge (science, theology) has a barrier around it, not a boundary. Each branch must respect its own object of knowledge and character. Kant unwittingly showed that when science tries to peer into the “essence” of things, it creates antinomies (57).
The only way unity can preserve true differentiation is when it includes and enfolds the entire world seen as the product of divine wisdom (57-58).
Evaluation
Bavinck, like Van Til after him, was incapable of giving a precision strike against a target. Sometimes the chapters seemed to go on and on. On the other hand, Bavinck, like Van Til, was able to carpet bomb and thoroughly cover an entire area.
Some pages were simply beautiful. Bavinck has a magnificently stirring section contrasting the Bible with Babylonian magick (112ff). He writes, "The Bible did not come from Babylon, but in its fundamental thought is in diametrical opposition to Babylon, and made an end to Babylon's spiritual dominion over the peoples." That last clause is crucial Babylon was never merely a political oppressor, but brought to bear her demonic, albeit immaterial personalities to its politics.
While brief, this book is not particularly easy reading. Bavinck assumes that you are relatively familiar with continental philosophy in the 18th and 19th centuries. Further, most of his footnotes are in German, Dutch, or Latin. Finally, my edition (AlevBooks) has larger pages and more words on a page than you would normally expect.
Excellent Book
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