On the Way to the Living God

A Cathartic Reading of Herman Bavinck and

An Invitation to Overcome the Plausibility Crisis of Christianity

Willem J. de Wit

VU University Press

De Boelelaan 1105

1081 HV Amsterdam

The Netherlands

E-mail: info@vu-uitgeverij.nl

Website: www.vu-uitgeverij.nl

© 2011 Willem J. de Wit

Website: willemjdewit.wordpress.com

Cover: Mushroom and Chicken, White Desert, Egypt

ISBN 978 90 8659 586 0

NUR 700

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

Scripture quotations marked “ESV” are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; used by permission; all rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked “NET” are from The NET Bible®, copyright © 2005 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C., www.netbible.com; used by permission; all rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked “NIV” are from HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society; used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. Scripture quotations marked “NRSV” are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.; used by permission; all rights reserved. Unmarked quotations use wordings that are common to (at least) the English Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version.

To my parents

Contents

Preface

1 On the Way to the Living God in Post-Christian Amsterdam

A Sevenfold Invitation to Overcome the Crisis of the Church

Part One: Post-Christian Amsterdam

1.1 The Location, Statistics, and Question of Post-Christian Amsterdam

1.2 The Threefold Plausibility Crisis of the Church

1.3 Answering the Post-Christian Condition

Part Two: A Sevenfold Invitation

1.4 The Existential Invitation: Understand the Desire of the Heart as a Desire for the Living God

1.5 The Theological Invitation: Believe in the Living God Only

1.6 The Anthropological Invitation: Live on the Way to the Living God

1.7 The Ethical Invitation: Walk the Way in Love and Liberty

1.8 The Christological Invitation: See Christ as a Glorious Accident and as Sacramentally Present

1.9 The Hermeneutical Invitation: Read Scripture in Relationship to the Living God

1.10 The Ecclesiological Invitation: Base the Actuality of the Church on the Actuality of the Living God

2 “Will I Remain Standing?”

A Cathartic Reading of Herman Bavinck (1)

Part One: Overcoming by Prayer and Faith

2.1 A Tragic Hero of Faith

2.2 “For the Sake of Conscience”

2.3 “Trying to Understand the Opponent”

2.4 “The Innocence of a Child’s Faith … That Is What I Have Lost”

2.5 “An Unspoken Desire That Scripture Might Not Be True”

2.6 “In Prayer He Does Not Seek Himself but ...