Bavinck’s Prolegomena: Fresh Light On Amsterdam, Old Princeton, and Cornelius Van Til -- By: Donald Macleod

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 68:2 (Fall 2006)
Article: Bavinck’s Prolegomena: Fresh Light On Amsterdam, Old Princeton, and Cornelius Van Til
Author: Donald Macleod


Bavinck’s Prolegomena:
Fresh Light On Amsterdam, Old Princeton,
and Cornelius Van Til

Donald Macleod

Donald Macleod is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Free Church of Scotland College, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Herman Bavinck’s Prolegomena is the work of an outstanding theological architect who devoted the best years of his life to designing and erecting one of the most imposing intellectual edifices in the whole Reformed tradition. When completed, the project consisted of the four massive volumes of the Gereformeerde Dogmatiek,1 but hitherto those of us who do not read Dutch have been limited to gazing at them with awe on our library shelves. We did have access, of course, to the first part of volume 2, translated by William Hendricksen and published by Eerdmans in 1951 under the title, The Doctrine of God. Bavinck’s Stone Lectures, delivered during the 1908–1909 academic year at Princeton, have remained available in English.2 The entire field of the Dogmatiek was also covered in popular, and somewhat superficial, form in Our Reasonable Faith, a translation of Bavinck’s Magnalia Dei, first published in 1909.

Now, thanks to the efforts of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society, the entire Dogmatiek is almost within our grasp. The first part to be published was the eschatology section, a decision prompted by the longing “for a sane, biblical voice” amid the apocalyptic fever of the 1990s.3 Volume 1, the Prolegomena, appeared in 2003.4 Volume 2, God and Creation, followed in 2004.5

While the Prolegomena is part of a larger project it is also a most impressive edifice in its own right. It consists of five floors. Part 1 is an Introduction to Dogmatics. Part 2 covers its History and Literature. Part 3 deals with the Foundations of Dogmatic Theology, Part 4 with its External Principle (Revelation), and Part 5 with its Internal Principle (Faith). Within this overall structure Bavinck pays meticulous attention to detail, and the translators and editors of this

English edition have done him proud by their own scrupulous thoroughness, particularly in relation to bibliographical information.

I. Edinburgh, Princeton, and Amsterdam

There can be no denying Bavinck’s magnificent intellectual rigor, but for those familiar with the history of Reformed theology over ...

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