Pastor's Blog

"There is no room in dogmatic theology for a system that attempts to deduce the truths of faith from an a priori principle, say, from the essence of religion, from the essence of Christianity, from the fact of regeneration, or from the experience of the devout. This is speculation and must be resisted. Dogmatic theology is a positive science that gathers its material from revelation and does not have the right to modify or expand that content by speculation apart from that revelation. When because of limitations or weakness a theologian is faced with the choice either of simply letting the truths of faith stand alongside each other or, in the interest of maintaining the systematic form, fail to do justice to one of them, we must let the system go. Theologians must resist the temptation to let a system rule. But such dilemmas occur because we theologians are finite and limited. There is no conflict in God; God's thoughts cannot be opposed to one another; they are necessarily an...

As you can see to the left, one of the books I'm currently reading is Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics ...not the full four volume set, but the recently published abridged version. Bavinck (1854-1921) succeeded Abraham Kuyper as professor of systematic theology at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1902. He is regarded as one of the leading lights among Dutch Reformed theologians. I have read a little Bavinck here and there over the years and have always greatly benefitted from what I read. I was very pleased to see that his four volume work had been abridged by John Bolt into a single hefty tome of 848 pages. I ordered it back in January but there were some delays in its publication and so I didn't actually receive it until last week. It was worth the wait! Judging by the first 150 pages, I just may have to break down and purchase the entire four volume set. He was a rare man, combining profound thought, true godliness, and a simple child-like faith.