Year: 2024
Type: editorial
Abstract: Herman Bavinck has become a towering figure in Reformed theology in the Anglophone world over the past two decades as a result of the translation of his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics into English (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008).Few readers realize that he also had an abiding interest in ethics, evidenced as early as his doctoral thesis on the ethics of Ulrich Zwingli.With the publication of these volumes of his Reformed Ethics (two have been published at this point, with the final volume forthcoming), it is likely that this general unawareness will be redressed, and Bavinck will earn his rightful place as a leading voice in Reformed moral theology.The editorial team-led by John Bolt and composed of Jessica Joustra, Nelson D. Kloosterman, Antoine Theron, and Dirk van Keulen-has uncovered a 1100-page handwritten manuscript that was never before published.The material in this manuscript was originally presented in lectures during his professorship at Kampen.The editors make their case, corroborated by two sets of student notes, that this manuscript was likely written in the academic years of 1884-1886 and 1894-1895.In parallel format to the Reformed Dogmatics, a précis prepared by editors is supplied at the beginning of each chapter.This offering elegantly orients the reader.Beyond these introductions, almost every page includes illuminating editorial footnotes that provide comments about Bavinck's marginalia or further historical information about figures and concepts discussed in the body of the text.At points, the editors note they located a quote that was not cited (or even set apart in quotation marks) by Bavinck in his original manuscript.And beyond these informative footnotes, the editors sometimes flag that they have supplied material in the body of the text that was lacking in the manuscripts but which reflects Bavinck's own thinking and further fleshes out his arguments (see especially footnote 95 on page I:183 for an excellent example of this editorial effort).The editors have performed impressive labor, going above and beyond the average work of translation.Bavinck's manuscript likely remained unpublished because it is incomplete.Bavinck originally planned a three-part series, which he was unable to finish.Bavinck outlined the series with the first part focusing on humanity before conversion, the second on converted humanity, and the third on regenerated humanity in the spheres of family, vocation, society, state, and church.His final remarks abruptly end in the middle of his exposition of the duties of the converted in the family sphere.We can extend our gratitude to the editors for making sure this masterful, though partial, presentation of Reformed ethics was not lost to the dustbin of history.Those familiar with Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics will find substantial similarities in style and methodology with this work.In both projects, Bavinck grounds and norms all his reflections first and foremost in Scripture.Working with the biblical data, he then seeks to systematize his arguments according to a Reformed hermeneutic.But again, like in Reformed Dogmatics, a hallmark of Bavinck's method in Reformed Ethics is his remarkable ability to synthesize biblical-theological exposition with learned historical-theological analysis while describing how the themes under discussion have been developed and adopted in the history of the church in its various permutations.Bavinck is never content to remain in purely descriptive mode (as evidenced even in his preference for the term "dogmatics" in the title of his systematic series), but he develops his analysis in view of normative and contextual teaching for the church in the modern world.Thus, he also regularly engages important modern philosophers and theological contemporaries.Maybe more than any other Reformed theologian, he consistently weaves biblical, systematic, and historical theology together into coherent exposition.This approach is reflected in his ethics just as much as in his dogmatics, with particular emphasis on practical theology in the former volumes.
Source: Religious Studies Review
DOI: 10.1111/rsr.17084
Author: James R. Wood
Institution: Redeemer University
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4396563264