E-Book, Englisch, 272 Seiten
Bolt / Taylor Bavinck on the Christian Life
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4335-4077-6
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
Following Jesus in Faithful Service
E-Book, Englisch, 272 Seiten
Reihe: Theologians on the Christian Life
ISBN: 978-1-4335-4077-6
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
John Bolt (PhD, University of St. Michael's College) is professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author and editor of several books. John and his wife, Ruth, have three children and nine grandchildren.
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INTRODUCING BAVINCK: “A WORTHY FOLLOWER OF JESUS”
Photographs of Herman Bavinck—whether the best-known formal headshot or the less familiar pose of the scholar sitting at a desk in his study—portray a serious, perhaps even stern, man. Making allowances for the conventions of Victorian-era portraiture, the impression given by these photographs is clearly still that of a dedicated, determined, focused, no-nonsense man, one not likely given to frivolity or even leisure.
“Serious” is the right word. One might even be forgiven for perpetuating a stereotypical image by describing him as a somber-looking “Puritan.” Familiarity with the secessionist Christian Reformed1 community his father, Jan, served as a minister and in which young Herman was nurtured would seem to confirm this judgment; it was a community that had separated itself from the National Dutch Reformed Church2 out of a double concern for doctrinal orthodoxy and proper worship. Like the Puritans, these devoted Jesus followers were passionate about purity of doctrine and holiness of life. Consequently, they were members of a marginalized community characterized by a certain level of flight from the world. One biographer of Bavinck used the term Kulturfeindlichkeit (a posture of hostility toward culture) to describe the character of the Bavinck home.3 Bavinck’s childhood and lifelong friend Henry Dosker, who immigrated to the United States and eventually became a professor at the Presbyterian Seminary of Kentucky in Louisville, shares this assessment in the following description of Herman’s parents:
I knew both the parents of Dr. Bavinck intimately. They were typical of their environment and cherished all the puritanical and often provincial ideas and ideals of the early Church of the Separation. Simple, almost austere in their mode of life, exhibiting something of what the Germans call Kulturfeindlichkeit, pious to the core, teaching their children more by example than by precept, the mother uncommonly clear-visioned in her ideas and never afraid to express them, the father diffident, aroused only with difficulty, but then evincing rare power. Such were the parents of Dr. Herman Bavinck.4
The Bavinck Home
In recent years, other biographers have disputed the claim that the Bavinck home was largely characterized by a separatist hostility to culture.5 These biographers appeal to the description of the family home given by one of Bavinck’s own students, J. H. Landwehr, shortly after Bavinck’s death in 1921. Landwehr took special note to defend the family from all accusations of legalism and moralism.
A truly Christian spirit dominated in the house of the old pastor. One did not find there command upon command and rule upon rule; but, being bound to the Word of the Lord, there was a Christian freedom that was pleasing to behold. This was the rule in the Bavinck home: simplicity is the hallmark of that which is true.6
Another biographer surmises that Valentijn Hepp may have confused this simplicity for cultural hostility and “failed to see it as the way [those who are] genuinely civilized from within express themselves.”7
The questions that face us here—What was the Bavinck home really like? Did its simplicity indicate hostility to all culture or only to certain aspects of Dutch nineteenth-century culture? Did the absence of all legalism suggest a degree of openness to the good aspects of culture?—all these questions and more need not, and likely cannot, be answered with a simple yes or no. Bavinck’s close friend Dosker finds him to be something of a riddle: “I will admit at once that in some respects, viewed from the standpoint of his parentage, Dr. Bavinck is a conundrum. He was so like and yet so absolutely unlike his parents.”8 As Dosker proceeds with a brief description of the elder Bavinck, however, it appears that the father also exhibited characteristics that give evidence of his own ambivalence on the matters of piety and culture.
Jan Bavinck (1826–1909) came from the little German village of Bentheim, near the Dutch border, and was a member of the German Alt-Reformierten Kirche (Old Reformed Church), a group known for its piety and strong adherence to the traditions of the Reformed faith as set forth at the Synod of Dort.9 Jan was only three years old when his father died, and he was brought up by a courageous and devout Christian widow who “raised her [six] children to love God, to exhibit a Christian character, and to possess biblical honor and integrity as she faithfully instructed her children at home and in the school.”10 In his autobiography, Jan recounted that his upbringing had been rather formal and lacked “the internal life of Christian faith.”11 This all changed for him at the age of sixteen when his uncle Harm took him to hear an open-air preacher, Jan Berend Sundag.
As a young man Sundag had become disillusioned by what he deemed the spiritual deterioration of church life in Germany and developed a relationship with Secession leader Hendrick de Cock, who mentored him in the study of theology. Returning to Germany after his studies with De Cock were completed, Sundag tried to rouse the leaders of the church for revival but was rebuffed. Sundag began preaching outdoors and gathered a small following, including Jan Bavinck, who was deeply impressed and eventually led to leave the National Dutch Reformed Church. His childhood longing to become a minister of the Word returned with that step; however, owing to a lack of finances, the path to that goal seemed remote.12
The story of Jan Bavinck’s path to ministry in the Secession Christian Reformed Church provides an important window into the man and his community. In this denomination, the regional authority is known as the classis, equivalent to the presbytery in Presbyterian church government. The classis was evenly divided concerning a request from Sundag for assistance in his heavy workload. Sundag had asked for “a candidate from the churches to receive instruction in theology with a view to preparation for service in pastoral ministry.” To break the tie vote, the assembly “knelt in prayer and asked the Lord’s guidance in casting a lot to decide the matter.”13 Five candidates had expressed interest in pursuing the study for ministry, and after the lot in favor of proceeding was cast, the group was eventually pared down to two, with Jan Bavinck as one of the two men left standing. Once again, the vote between them was a tie, and a young woman who was working in the kitchen to help prepare the meals pulled out a slip of paper with the lot-determined answer. The answer had been “for” the first time; the name “Bavinck” was chosen the second time.14 This would not be the last time that Jan Bavinck’s “fate” was determined by “lot,” and the procedure reflects a profound sense of and submission to God’s providential leading in the Seceder community. Humility, even undue modesty, was to characterize both father Jan and son Herman Bavinck throughout their lives and ministries.
By all accounts, Jan was “a dedicated and precocious student.”15 According to Dosker, “he must have been a phenomenal student, and must also have enjoyed considerable earlier advantages, for in the small theological seminary at Hoogeveen, where he went, he took over the classes in Latin, Greek and Hebrew.” Later, he assisted in the training of ministerial candidates for the Christian Reformed Church, and when the church decided to establish its own theological school at Kampen in 1854, “the elder Bavinck was the first to be nominated by the General Synod, as one of the professors.” Uncertain what to do, Jan once again “made the lot settle the matter and declined the call.” Why? Dosker also wonders: “Was it his innate modesty, his underestimate of his own powers, that pessimistic view of things, which ever sees lions in the way, of which his illustrious son also had a share?”16
The portrait we have drawn thus far shows us a deeply pious man, concerned about the welfare of the National Reformed Church, attracted to revivalist preaching, and profoundly submissive to God’s leading. We also see someone who is himself well educated and committed to teaching for an educated ministry. Furthermore, though he shared the pietistic sympathies of his Christian Reformed colleagues in ministry, and his preaching included the typical emphases on introspection and warnings about God’s judgment, his son C. B. Bavinck (1866–1941) reported that his “father’s clarity of mind preserved him from sickly excesses.”17
In short, Jan Bavinck was a man characterized by a healthy piety and openness to the best of human learning and culture. We find confirmation of this openness in the elder Bavinck’s response to Herman’s declared intention in 1874 to study theology at the modernist University of Leiden rather than at the Christian Reformed Church’s theological school at Kampen, a move that scandalized the church: young Herman’s father and mother both finally supported this move. In response to criticism, father Jan confessed, “I trust in God’s grace which is powerful enough to protect my child,” adding that “the best church teachers had often...
