bavinck recipe for theological cake.pdf

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CT/45 (2010): 11-17

The Bavinck Recipe forTheological Cake

John Bolt

A classic commercial for Alka Seltzer shows a moderately overweight man inobvious gastro-intestinal discomfort saying in a pained voice, "I can't believe I atethe whole thing." I understand the sentiment. Minus the upset stomach, I look atthe four volumes oí Reformed Dogmatics, shake my head, and say to myself, "I can'tbelieve I edited the whole thing." It has been a privilege and honor to spend theamount of time I did with Bavinck's masterwork, and I believe I have some idea nowof what all went into it. Keeping the food imagery intact, in this article, I want toshare Herman Bavinck's recipe for theological cake. I speak οι cake rather than, say,bread because neither Bavinck nor I believe that theology, even good or great theol-

ogy, is essential to our diet of faith. Theology is cake—dessert, tasty—and if one fol-lows mother's advice, it can also be nourishing. It all depends on the ingredients. So,

with no apologies to Marie Antoinette, here is Bavinck's recipe for theological cake.

Pastoral Scholasticism

The first ingredient is one cup of fine flour, highly refined and then refinedagain—the flour of pure Reformed theology (ground by the millstones of Richard

A. Muller's capable friends in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), theProtestant Scholastics. When one glances at the cumulative index of names inthe fourth volume of Reformed Dogmatics, it is striking that the name with themost references (after Calvin and Thomas Aquinas) is the Cocceian theologianCampegius Vitringa (1659 1722), whose eight volume Doctrina christianae religionis, assembled by his son Martin, was posthumously published between 1761 and1786. 1 Bavinck, we must also remember, was the editor of the sixth and final editionof the Leiden Synopsis purioris theologiae, published in 1881 while he served theChristian Reformed Church in Franeker, Friesland. In his editor's introduction,

Bavinck praises the four Leiden professors, Johannes Polyander, Andreas Rivetus, Antonius Walaeus, and Antonius Thysius, for their unity in Reformed orthodoxy



CALVIN THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Churches. 2 In addition, he observes that though the Synopsis fell into disfavor inthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, replaced among other things by the theological direction of Johannes Cocceius, now, two hundred years after the fifth edition (1658), the time may be ripe for a renewal of the theology represented by the

Synopsis. Why? "Because the same principles of doctrine (eadem doctrina principia)that have for some time been confessed in our nation in the Secession ReformedChurches (Ecclesia Reformata Separata) are now also beginning to be revived beyondit." The sixth edition, he adds, was prepared and is sent out to help others becomebetter acquainted with this body of doctrine because it is a safe and reliable guide(certe ac summa fide dignae ducts) to the doctrines of Dordt. 3

I accent Bavinck's continuity with the Protestant Orthodoxy of the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries to praise his Scholasticism—not to bury it. That is not a

standard response. Even Cornelius Van Til, who was very fond of Bavinck, nonetheless lamented the vestiges of Scholasticism he detected, especially in his episte-mology. 4 Others, equally fond of Bavinck, also prefer to see some distance ratherthan continuity. Acknowledging regrettable lapses into Scholasticism, they love tothink in terms of two Bavincks, 5 and set the good "biblical," "reformational," and"modern" theologian over against the nasty "Scholastic" one. 6 Bavinck's biographer,Valentijn Hepp, may have contributed to this with his portrait of the last years ofBavinck's life. Hepp portrays a man who became disillusioned with the church,quietly telling his students that while regular politics is often dirty, ecclesiasticalpolitics is always dirty, 7 got rid of his stuffy old Scholastic theology books "because Ihave no further need of them," 8 and became increasingly open to the modern worldand its challenges. Jack Rogers and Donald McKim appeal to this more "progressive" Bavinck in their volume, The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible? as do theauthors of the 1979 GKN's Synodical Study Report on Scripture, "God met ons." 10

I am not going to expand now on this matter of the modern Bavinck. I wouldnote, however, that twentieth-century fans of Bavinck have also tried to defend him

2 H . Bavinck, "Praefatio," in Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (Leiden: Donner, 1881), v-vii.

3 Bavinck, "Praefatio," v-vii.

4 C. Van Til, "Herman Bavinck as a Theologian," Westminster Theological Journal 24.1 (1961): 48-64.

51 have dealt with this matter of the two Bavincks in greater detail in "Grand Rapids Between Kampenand Amsterdam: Herman Bavincks Reception and Influence in North America," Calvin Theobgical

Journal 38.2 (2003): 26 3- 80 .

6 See, for example, R. H. Bremmer, Herman Bavinck ah Dogmaticus (Kampen: Kok, 1961).

7 V. Hepp, Dr. Herman Bavinck (Amsterdam: W. Ten Have, 1921), 322.



THE BAVINCK RECIPE FOR THEOLOGICAL CAKE

from the accusation of being a fundamentalist, perhaps a not altogether successfulattempt. In a 1985 publication, J. A. Montsma defended this plausible propositionin his oral defense: "The synodical study report of the GKN on the authority ofScripture ('God with Us') incorrectly claims that Kuyper and Bavinck, on close

inspection, should not be considered as fundamentalists."11

Thinking of Bavinck asa fundamentalist also illumines the hateful and truly astounding claim made by C.B. Hylkema in a review of Bavinck's Gereformeerde Dogmatiek: "What a mountainof learning, but also what a soul less pile of stone... . This fat book of Prof. Bavinckalso contrasts sharply with a living faith such as Calvin's Institutes was rooted in itstime." 12 Apparently, like too many reviewers, Hylkema had his mind made up andthe review written before reading the book.

I defend Bavinck, not as a fundamentalist, but as a good Scholastic, capable of and

inclined to making careful distinctions in the service of doctrinal truth. Two examples will serve, and the first is Bavinck's discussion of justification. 13 Bavinck is remark-ably up to date as a Luther scholar, aware of the recently published manuscripts ofLuther's 1515 1516 "Lectures on Romans," discovered by Johannes Ficker in 1899,and making effective use of them as he enters the complex world of Lutheran discus-sions about justification. 14 Bavinck takes the reader carefully and clearly throughthis maze, pointing out strengths and lapses in clarity and consistency. When weare finished reading, he has led us to firm ground with clear distinctions betweenfaith as necessary means but not grounds for justification, the need for understanding

justification as being forensic and not ethical, the necessity of distinguishing activeand passive justification to ward off nomism on one side and antinomianism onthe other, the necessity of imputing Christ's active and passive obedience, and theproper relationship between justification and sanctification. Bavinck the Scholastichas much to teach those evangelicals currently involved in the bitter disputes about

justification, the new Paul, and the so called federal vision. 15

The second example, closely tied to the first, is Bavinck's more popular articleon regeneration, specifically addressed to controversies in the Dutch Reformed

11

Jan Albert Montsma, De Extraterritoriale Openbaring (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1985), as cited by G.C. Berkouwer, Zoeken en Vinden (Kampen: Kok, 1989), 60. De Extraterritoriale Openbaring is Montsmapublished dissertation.

12 C. Β. Hylkema, Oud en Nieuw Calvinisme: Een Vergelijkende Geschiedkundiuge Studie (Haarl

1911), 187, as cited by C. Augustijn, "Bavinck ter Vergadering der Moderne Theologen 1912," in InRapport met de Tijd: HonderaJaar Theohgie aan de Vrije Universiteit (Kampen: Kok, 1980), 9Ini7.

13 Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4.176 229.14 Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4.189 90.




Churches at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century and published in asingle volume, Roeping en Wedergeboorte. 16 As he describes and wrestles with theconflicting challenges and claims arising from ecclesiastical conflicts with AbrahamKuyper and his eccentric views of regeneration, Bavinck shows us how pastorali)/

useful carefully reasoned, biblically oriented distinctions and nuances are. On itsown, this little gem is sufficient to show that a great Scholastic mind combined witha pastor's heart is a blessing to the church.

Scripture and Human Experience

The second ingredient in Bavinck's recipe requires two cups of the finest wholewheat flour, milled but retaining all its nutritional value and good taste. These twocups are (1) the Bible as understood, believed, and lived by the holy, catholic church,and (2) the universal human experience of living before God in his creation. Bavinckgrounded his theology in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. There wasa time, when I was quite immature as a scholar, that I would look at the cited passages in Bavinck or Louis Berkhof and sneeringly dismiss them as mere proof texts.After all, my historical-critical exegesis of a cited passage often seemed ill-suitedfor defending the doctrinal proposition being set forth. I am still not always sureexactly why a certain text is listed at a particular point, but now I feel an obligationto explore further. Now I realize that these citations come with a longer history of

exegesis and interpretation, and I must take into account the church s exegesis andinterpretation. I still wonder about Hosea 6:7 as a proof for the covenant of works,but I am now interested in why it became a locus classicus. Bavinck's rootedness inHoly Scripture was a foundation in Scripture as the book of the church. Listen to theopening sentences from his foreword to the first edition of the Reformed Dogmatics:

The dogmatic theologian no less than the ordinary believer is obliged to confess thecommunion of the saints. How wide and long, how high and deep the love of Christis. A love that surpasses all knowledge, can only be grasped with all the saints in

communion. It is first of all in and by means of their fellowship that a theologianlearns to understand the dogmas of the church that articulate the Christian faith.Above everything else, the communion of the saints provides empowering strengthand superb comfort. 17

Bavinck, however, is neither a fideist nor a biblicist; he regularly relates the gospelmessage, the revelation of God given to Israel and in Christ, to broader universalexperience—the second cup of whole wheat flour. His chapters on the person andwork of Christ in volume 3 all begin with some acknowledgment that mediation,guilt and atonement, sacrifice, and so forth, are human experiential realities foundin varying degrees in all religions. The gospel is distinctive not in its character as




something alien to human experience but as the restoration of the truly human; thegrace of God does not eradicate nature, it heals, restores, and elevates it. 18 The bestexample of Bavinck s insistence on linking the particulars of the gospel to broaderexperience—so essential for faithful cross-cultural communication—is found in

volume 3 where Bavinck listens carefully, but critically, to the insights from modern studies in the psychology of religion. Our understanding of the ordo salutis, heinsists, especially with respect to conversion, must pay attention to the tumultuousyears of psycho-sexual development in adolescents, a claim similar to one he madein The Philosophy of Revelation wherein he acknowledges "that dogmatics, especiallyin the doctrine of the ordo salutis, must become more psychological, and must dealwith religious experience." 19

Contemporary Piety

We have the main ingredients now, but three cups of flour needs somethingmoist to bind it all together; one can bake loose flour on its own but a functionaland tasty cake it will not be. A collection of loose theologoumena may serve as auseful reference book; it is not a book of theology. The milk and eggs that bind theflour of the Reformed Dogmatics together into a serviceable batter is a Holy Spirit-inspired faith or piety that is contemporary. Faith is the starting point for Bavinckthe believer and Bavinck the theologian. Recall the statement from the foreword to

the first edition of the Reformed Dogmatics to the end that the theologian begins infaith, a faith born in the womb of the church: "The dogmatic theologian no less thanthe ordinary believer is obliged to confess the communion of the saints." It is here"that a theologian learns to understand the dogmas of the church that articulate theChristian faith." There is no room for autonomy of spirit that leads to speculation;revelation, revelation that is received in faith must come first:

God cannot be known by us apart from his revelation and ... the knowledge of himwe aim at in dogmatics can only be a transcript of the knowledge God has revealed

concerning himself in his Word .... And because revelation is of such a nature that itcan only be truly accepted and appropriated by a saving faith, it is imperative that thedogmatician be active as a believer not only in the beginning but also in the continuation and at the end of his work. The theologian can never arrive at knowledge that ishigher than the faith. 20

This faith must be a contemporary faith; it must address contemporary challengesand meet contemporary spiritual needs. One of the striking features about the

Reformed Dogmatics is the degree to which Bavinck tackles late-nineteenth- and

18 According to both Eugene Heideman and Jan Veenhof, "grace restores nature" is the central theme




early-twentieth-century challenges. He signaled this in the foreword: "For that reason this work of dogmatic theology is eager to carry the imprint of its own time.It would be an unending task to loosen one's ties to the present; but it would alsonot be pleasing to God who speaks to us as seriously and loudly as to previous

generations."21

Note that last phrase carefully, "God ... speaks to us as seriouslyand loudly as to previous generations." Bavinck was not timid in the face of modernchallenges to the Christian religion. He regularly engages the great modern philosophical tradition, particularly Kant, Hegel, Schelling, and even Schopenhauer butalso the modern naturalism in science and cosmology found in works such as ErnstHaeckel's The Riddle of the Universe. To this list, we can add names such as Darwin,Nietszche, and William James. Bavinck faced contemporary challenges head on,not in fear but in anticipation. God still speaks today, and Bavinck in his forewordindicates his willingness to confront and contradict modern thought where necessary. Nevertheless, he also adds: "But even then I strive to appreciate what is goodwhere it is found. Frequently this study will set forth newly discovered relationshipsthat initially may seem not to exist." 22 While confidently clear in his repudiation ofmodernism and his own stand with Christian orthodoxy, he remained appreciativeof what God was doing in the modern world. Whe n he expressed his wonder aboutthe new modern world and its remarkable changes, "a world altogether differentfrom that of our ancestors," he was not at all negative about it: "We do not know,either, what greater changes still lie in store. We are likely not at the end but at the

beginning of developments. We do not know what triumphs in science and technology still await, what new conditions these will bring about in society and state.Still, there is reason to expect wonderful things." Then follows this remarkable sentence: "God is busy doing great things in these days." 23 The milk and eggs that turnloose flour into usable batter is a contemporary faith, a faith that is confident firstof all not in its intellectual acuity to meet the challenges of faith's learned detractors but a faith that is confident in God—an extraordinarily valuable example forus today.

Reformed Flavor

A brief final word must be made about the flavor. A memorable cake includesa key ingredient that distinguishes it from other cakes—generic white cakes donot cut it the way chocolate, or lemon, or walnut and banana, or carrot cakes do.This is the easiest of Bavinck s ingredients to list. In his own words, again from theforeword to the first edition:

21




This work of dogmatic theology is especially tied to the type of Christian religionand theology that arose in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, notably inSwitzerland. Not because this tradition claims to be an exclusively true expression ofthe truth but because the author is convinced that it is relatively the purest statementof the truth. In no other confession does the Christian faith in its religious, ethical,and theological character come as clearly into its own; nowhere else is it acknowledgedas deeply and broadly, so widely and freely, is it so truly catholic, as in the churches ofthe Reformed tradition. 24

There is no surprise here. Bavinck has a Reformed flavor. However, Bavinck isopposed to mere repristination; he grants deformation as well as progress in theReformed tradition and insists that a dogmatic theologian "distinguish kernel fromhusk in the history of Reformed theology. To cherish the ancient simply because itis ancient is neither Reformed nor Christian. A work of dogmatic theology shouldnot simply describe what was true and valid but what abides as true and valid. It isrooted in the past but labors for the future." 25

There is the recipe: A cup of Protestant Orthodoxy, two additional cups of flour,one of Scripture as understood by the church and the other of universal religiousexperience, moistened and stirred into a rich batter by a deep contemporary piety,and flavored by the Reformed confessional and theological tradition—a usefulrecipe.

Cake batter has to be mixed in a bowl and baked in a pan. The bowl and panthat made it possible for Bavinck to mix his ingredients and provide a good shapeto the cake as it baked in the oven was a realist metaphysics following the greattradition of Augustine and Thomas. Science was possible, he believed, because theuniversals that exist in re (not ante rem) are the creation of the eternal LOGOS whoalso created us in his image, with a lower case /, logos capable of discerning thoseuniversals in reality. Our mind forms true concepts of the external world becausewe are created by God for such understanding and service in his creation. Bavinckis a wonderful antidote to the pestilence of antirealism and the annoying flu of

postmodernism that stalk our civilization. In my opinion, for his insistence thatfaith seeking understanding cannot be a fideistic exercise but must take metaphysicsseriously, and for his brilliance and faithfulness in carrying it out, Herman Bavinck

joins Wolfhart Pannenberg as one of the two greatest theologians of the twentieth century and eminently worthy of emulation. Of course, I admit that I am notentirely unbiased in that judgment.



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