HERMAN BAVINCK

THE FOREMOST PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY DOGMATICS

ON FAITH, KNOWLEDGE, AND THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY BRUCE R. PASS AND GERT DE KOK

The Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics: On Faith, Knowledge, and the Christian Tradition

Copyright 2024 Gert de Kok and Bruce R. Pass

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Print ISBN 9781683598084

Digital ISBN 9781683598091

Library of Congress Control Number 2024938095

Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, Claire Brubaker, Paul Robinson, Mandi Newell

Cover Design: Jonathan Myers

CONTENTS

Editors’ Preface

Introduction

1) HOLY SCRIPTURE

2) THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY OVER PAGANISM

3) ROMAN SUPERNATURALISM

4) THE REFORMATION

I. The Essence of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism

I.i The Religious Relation in Roman Catholicism

I.ii The Religious Relation in Protestantism

II. The Development of Protestantism

II.i Natural Theology

II.ii The Testimony of the Holy Spirit

II.iii Faith

III. Rationalism and Pietism

III.i Rationalism

III.ii Pietism

5) KANT, SCHLEIERMACHER, HEGEL

I. The Critical Path of Reconciliation: Kant

I.i Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

I.ii Critique of Practical Reason (1788)

I.iii Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone (1793)

II. The Mystical Path of Reconciliation: Schleiermacher

II.i On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers (1799)

II.ii The Christian Faith (1821, 1831)

II.iii Summation

III. The Speculative Path of Reconciliation: Hegel

III.i The Phenomenology of Mind (1807)

III.ii Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (1832)

IV. Conclusion

6) THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY THEOLOGY

I. The First Period: The Legacy of Hegel

II. The Second Period: Vermittlungstheologie

III. The Third Period: Neo-Kantianism

7) THE MOST RECENT THEOLOGY, PART 1

I. The Arts

I.i Naturalism

I.ii Symbolism

I.iii Pessimism

II. Science

II.i Physics and Chemistry

II.ii Biology

II.iii Evolution

8) THE MOST RECENT THEOLOGY, PART 2

I. Objections to Ritschl

II. The New Trend (History of Religions)

III. Objections to Troeltsch

IV. The Revival of Metaphysics

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Bibliography

Names Index

Scripture Index

EDITORS’ PREFACE

The Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics is a series of lectures composed by Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) shortly after he moved to Amsterdam in 1902. While this work is apparently incomplete and remained unpublished during his lifetime, the sizable torso that has been preserved in the Bavinck Archive for the last hundred years presents an important reiteration of and elaboration on some of the leading themes of Gereformeerde dogmatiek. As the title plainly suggests, Bavinck’s concern is what he perceives to be ...