CT/45 (2010): 11-17

The Bavinck Recipe for Theological Cake

John Bolt

A classic commercial for Alka Seltzer shows a moderately overweight man in obvious gastro-intestinal discomfort saying in a pained voice, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." I understand the sentiment. Minus the upset stomach, I look at the four volumes o Reformed Dogmatics, shake my head, and say to myself, "I can't believe I edited the whole thing." It has been a privilege and honor to spend the amount of time I did with Bavinck's masterwork, and I believe I have some idea now of what all went into it. Keeping the food imagery intact, in this article, I want to share Herman Bavinck's recipe for theological cake. I speak cake rather than, say, bread because neither Bavinck nor I believe that theology, even good or great theology, is essential to our diet of faith. Theology is cakedessert, tastyand if one follows 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 refined againthe flour of pure Reformed theology (ground by the millstones of Richard A. Muller's capable friends in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), the Protestant Scholastics. When one glances at the cumulative index of names in the fourth volume of Reformed Dogmatics, it is striking that the name with the most references (after Calvin and Thomas Aquinas) is the Cocceian theologian Campegius Vitringa (1659-1722), whose eight-volume Doctrina christianae religionis, assembled by his son Martin, was posthumously published between 1761 and 1786.1 Bavinck, we must also remember, was the editor of the sixth andfinaledition of the Leiden Synopsis purioris theologiae, published in 1881 while he served the Christian 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 and for their clarity and fairness in dealing with opponents. He also delights in the ascendency of the Synopsis for more than a half century in the Dutch Reformed

1 Campegius Vitringa, Doctrina christianae rehgionis, per aphorismos summatum descripta, 8 vols. (Arnheim: Johannes Melman, 1761-1786).

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Churches.2 In addition, he observes that though the Synopsis fell into disfavor in the 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 Reformed Churches (Ecclesia Reformata Separata) are now also beginning to be revived beyond it." The sixth edition, he adds, was prepared and is sent out to help others become better 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 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to praise his Scholasticismnot 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 epistemology.4 Others, equally fond of Bavinck, also prefer to see some distance rather than continuity. Acknowledging regrettable lapses into Scholasticism, they love to think 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 of Bavinck's life. Hepp portrays a man who became disillusioned with the church, quietly telling his students that while regular politics is often dirty, ecclesiastical politics is always dirty,7 got rid of his stuffy old Scholastic theology books "because I have no further need of them,"8 and became increasingly open to the modern world and 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 the authors 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 would note, however, that twentieth-century fans of Bavinck have also tried to defend him

2 3 4 5

H . Bavinck, "Praefatio," in Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (Leiden: Donner, 1881), v-vii. Bavinck, "Praefatio," v-vii. C . Van Til, "Herman Bavinck as a Theologian," Westminster Theological Journal 24.1 (1961): 48-64.

1 have dealt with this matter of the two Bavincks in greater detail in "Grand Rapids Between Kampen and Amsterdam: Herman Bavincks Reception and Influence in North America," Calvin Theobgical Journal38.2 (2003): 263-80.
6 7 8 9

See, for example, R. H. Bremmer, Herman Bavinck ah Dogmaticus (Kampen: Kok, 1961). V. Hepp, Dr. Herman Bavinck (Amsterdam: W. Ten Have, 1921), 322. Reported by Hepp, Dr. Herman Bavinck-, 317-18.

Jack B. Rogers and Donald K. McKim, The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible: An Historical Approach (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979).
10 Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, Generale Synode, God met ons : over de aard van het Schrifigezag (1979). English translation, God with Us: On the Nature of the Authority of Scripture, trans. Secretariat of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod (Grand Rapids: Reformed Ecumenical Synod, 1982).

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from the accusation of being a fundamentalist, perhaps a not altogether successful attempt. In a 1985 publication, J. A. Montsma defended this plausible proposition in his oral defense: "The synodical study report of the GKN on the authority of Scripture ('God with Us') incorrectly claims that Kuyper and Bavinck, on close inspection, should not be considered as fundamentalists."11 Thinking of Bavinck as a fundamentalist also illumines the hateful and truly astounding claim made by C. B. Hylkema in a review of Bavinck's Gereformeerde Dogmatiek: "What a mountain of learning, but also what a soul-less pile of stone... . This fat book of Prof. Bavinck also contrasts sharply with a living faith such as Calvin's Institutes was rooted in its time."12 Apparently, like too many reviewers, Hylkema had his mind made up and the 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 remarkably up-to-date as a Luther scholar, aware of the recently published manuscripts of Luther'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 discussions about justification.14 Bavinck takes the reader carefully and clearly through this maze, pointing out strengths and lapses in clarity and consistency. When we are finished reading, he has led us to firm ground with clear distinctions between faith as necessary means but not grounds for justification, the need for understanding justification as being forensic and not ethical, the necessity of distinguishing active and passive justification to ward off nomism on one side and antinomianism on the other, the necessity of imputing Christ's active and passive obedience, and the proper relationship between justification and sanctification. Bavinck the Scholastic has 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 article on 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 Montsmas published dissertation. 12 C. . Hylkema, Oud- en Nieuw-Calvinisme: Een Vergelijkende Geschiedkundiuge Studie (Haarlem, 1911), 187, as cited by C. Augustijn, "Bavinck ter Vergadering der Moderne Theologen 1912," in In Rapport met de Tijd: HonderaJaar Theohgie aan de Vrije Universiteit (Kampen: Kok, 1980), 9Ini7. 13

Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4.176-229. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4.189-90.

14

See, inter alia, Guy Prentiss Waters, Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul: A Review and Response (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2004); idem., The Federal Vision and Covenant Theobgy:A Comparative Analysis (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2006); R. Scott Clark, ed., Covenant, Justification and Pastoral Ministry (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2007); Gary L. W. Johnson and Guy P. Waters, eds., By Faith Akne: Answering the Challenges to the Doctrine of Justification (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007); Cornells P. Venema, The Gospel of Free Acceptance in Christ (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2006).

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Churches at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century and published in a single volume, Roeping en Wedergeboorte.16 As he describes and wrestles with the conflicting challenges and claims arising from ecclesiastical conflicts with Abraham Kuyper and his eccentric views of regeneration, Bavinck shows us how pastorali)/ useful carefully reasoned, biblically oriented distinctions and nuances are. On its own, this little gem is sufficient to show that a great Scholastic mind combined with a 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 whole wheat flour, milled but retaining all its nutritional value and good taste. These two cups 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. Bavinck grounded his theology in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. There was a 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-suited for defending the doctrinal proposition being set forth. I am still not always sure exactly why a certain text is listed at a particular point, but now I feel an obligation to 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 and interpretation. 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 in Holy Scripture was a foundation in Scripture as the book of the church. Listen to the opening 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 the communion of the saints. How wide and long, how high and deep the love of Christ is. 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 theologian learns to understand the dogmas of the church that articulate the Christian faith. Above everything else, the communion of the saints provides empowering strength and superb comfort.17 Bavinck, however, is neither a fideist nor a biblicist; he regularly relates the gospel message, the revelation of God given to Israel and in Christ, to broader universal experiencethe second cup of whole wheat flour. His chapters on the person and work of Christ in volume 3 all begin with some acknowledgment that mediation, guilt and atonement, sacrifice, and so forth, are human experiential realities found in varying degrees in all religions. The gospel is distinctive not in its character as

16 Now available in English as, Herman Bavinck, Saved by Grace: The Holy Spirits Work in Calling and Regeneration, ed. J. Mark Beach, trans. Nelson D. Kloosterman (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008).

H. Bavinck, "Voorbericht," in Gereformeerde Dogmatiek (Kampen: Bos, 1895), l.iii; now published in English in this issue of CTJ, see pp. 9-10.

17

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something alien to human experience but as the restoration of the truly human; the grace of God does not eradicate nature, it heals, restores, and elevates it.18 The best example of Bavinck s insistence on linking the particulars of the gospel to broader experienceso essential for faithful cross-cultural communicationis 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, he insists, especially with respect to conversion, must pay attention to the tumultuous years of psycho-sexual development in adolescents, a claim similar to one he made in The Philosophy of Revelation wherein he acknowledges "that dogmatics, especially in the doctrine of the ordo salutis, must become more psychological, and must deal with religious experience."19 Contemporary Piety We have the main ingredients now, but three cups of flour needs something moist to bind it all together; one can bake loose flour on its own but a functional and tasty cake it will not be. A collection of loose theologoumena may serve as a useful reference book; it is not a book of theology. The milk and eggs that bind the flour of the Reformed Dogmatics together into a serviceable batter is a Holy Spiritinspired faith or piety that is contemporary. Faith is the starting point for Bavinck the 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 in faith, a faith born in the womb of the church: "The dogmatic theologian no less than the 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 the Christian 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 him we 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 it can only be truly accepted and appropriated by a saving faith, it is imperative that the dogmatician 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 is higher than the faith.20 This faith must be a contemporary faith; it must address contemporary challenges and 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 in Bavincks theology; E. Heideman, The Relation ofRevelation and Reason in E. Brunner and H. Bavinck (Assen: Gorcum, 1959), 191-96; J. Veenhof, Revehtie en Inspiratie: De Openbarings- en Schriftbeschouwing van Herman Bavinck in Vergelijking met die der Ethische Theologie (Amsterdam: Buijten & Schipperheijn, 1968), 346-65.
19

H. Bavinck, The Philosophy ofRevelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), 209. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1.42.

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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 also not 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 seriously and loudly as to previous generations." Bavinck was not timid in the face of modern challenges to the Christian religion. He regularly engages the great modern philosophical tradition, particularly Kant, Hegel, Schelling, and even Schopenhauer but also the modern naturalism in science and cosmology found in works such as Ernst Haeckel'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 foreword indicates his willingness to confront and contradict modern thought where necessary. Nevertheless, he also adds: "But even then I strive to appreciate what is good where it is found. Frequently this study will set forth newly discovered relationships that initially may seem not to exist."22 While confidently clear in his repudiation of modernism and his own stand with Christian orthodoxy, he remained appreciative of what God was doing in the modern world. When he expressed his wonder about the new modern world and its remarkable changes, "a world altogether different from 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 turn loose flour into usable batter is a contemporary faith, a faith that is confident first of all not in its intellectual acuity to meet the challenges of faith's learned detractors but a faith that is confident in Godan extraordinarily valuable example for us today. Reformed Flavor A brief final word must be made about the flavor. A memorable cake includes a key ingredient that distinguishes it from other cakesgeneric white cakes do not 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 the foreword to the first edition:

21 22

Bavinck, "Voorbericht," iv.

See, for example, Herman Bavinck, Modernisme en Orthodoxie (Kampen: Kok, 1911); also see a discussion in R. H. Bremmer, Herman Bavinck ah Dogmaticus (Kampen: Kok, 1961), 115-50; this confident stance is also found in his 1912 address to modern theologians; see, C. Augustijn, "Bavinck ter Vergadering van Moderne Theologen 1912," 88-110. Bavinck, Modernisme en Orthodoxie, 11.

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This work of dogmatic theology is especially tied to the type of Christian religion and theology that arose in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, notably in Switzerland. Not because this tradition claims to be an exclusively true expression of the truth but because the author is convinced that it is relatively the purest statement of 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 acknowledged as deeply and broadly, so widely and freely, is it so truly catholic, as in the churches of the Reformed tradition.24 There is no surprise here. Bavinck has a Reformed flavor. However, Bavinck is opposed to mere repristination; he grants deformation as well as progress in the Reformed tradition and insists that a dogmatic theologian "distinguish kernel from husk in the history of Reformed theology. To cherish the ancient simply because it is ancient is neither Reformed nor Christian. A work of dogmatic theology should not simply describe what was true and valid but what abides as true and valid. It is rooted 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 religious experience, moistened and stirred into a rich batter by a deep contemporary piety, and flavored by the Reformed confessional and theological traditiona useful recipe. Cake batter has to be mixed in a bowl and baked in a pan. The bowl and pan that made it possible for Bavinck to mix his ingredients and provide a good shape to the cake as it baked in the oven was a realist metaphysics following the great tradition of Augustine and Thomas. Science was possible, he believed, because the universals that exist in re (not ante rem) are the creation of the eternal LOGOS who also created us in his image, with a lower case /, logos capable of discerning those universals in reality. Our mind forms true concepts of the external world because we are created by God for such understanding and service in his creation. Bavinck is a wonderful antidote to the pestilence of antirealism and the annoying flu of postmodernism that stalk our civilization. In my opinion, for his insistence that faith seeking understanding cannot be a fideistic exercise but must take metaphysics seriously, 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 not entirely unbiased in that judgment.

Bavinck, "Foreword," 9 above. Bavinck, "Foreword," 10 above.

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