Essays on Religion, Science, and Society - by Herman Bavinck (Paperback)

About the Book

Mature reflections from one of the greatest Reformed theologians address issues such as science, ethics, education, politics, and aesthetics. Now in paper.

Book Synopsis

Herman Bavinck, the premier theologian of the Kuyper-inspired, neo-Calvinistic revival in the late-nineteenth-century Netherlands, is an important voice in the development of Protestant theology. This volume, now in paper, is the capstone of his distinguished career. These seminal essays offer an outworking of Bavinck's systematic theology as presented in his Reformed Dogmatics and engage enduring issues from a biblical and theological perspective. The collection presents his mature reflections on issues relating to ethics, education, politics, psychology, natural science and evolution, aesthetics, and philosophy of religion. Pastors, students, and scholars of Reformed theology will value this work.

From the Back Cover

"I have long admired Bavinck as a major systematic theologian, but in these essays I discovered a Bavinck I never knew. He moves easily--and brilliantly--through adolescent psychology, conceptions of the unconscious, Islam, social contract theory, evolutionary thought, philology, and aesthetics, to name only a few of a broad set of topics. Here an amazing nineteenth-century Calvinist mind addresses with much wisdom a twenty-first-century intellectual agenda!"
--Richard J. Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary

"In these essays readers will find Bavinck's interaction with a variety of important topics. This evidences a remarkable breadth of knowledge and wisdom as well as a profoundly consistent engagement of these issues from a Christian perspective. . . . All the essays repay the reader handsomely for the investment of time. Bavinck writes with a rare insightful clarity. . . . This book is an excellent example of how Christian theology integrates with other disciplines. It is an outstanding source and resource, a model for theological engagement, and implicitly issues a challenge for contemporary theologians to carry on this task. Pastors, missionaries, educators, students, and others interested in the intersection of the Christian faith and culture, the intersection of Christianity and creation, and the intersection of special and general revelation should read this book."
--Glenn R. Kreider, Bibliotheca Sacra

"The writings of Bavinck deserve both translation and wide dissemination, and the Dutch Reformed Translation Society is providing a great service to the theological world in this regard. Bavinck is a careful and engaged scholar whose work in the realm of religion, science, and society is still fruitful for Christian reflection."
--Malcolm B. Yarnell III, Southwestern Journal of Theology

"To read [these essays] is to be forcefully reminded that Bavinck was not merely a theologian in the narrow sense, but a broad Christian thinker active in the academy, the church, and the state. . . . Here is the record of a keen mind, an irenic spirit, and a methodical laborer, grounded in the Scriptures and applying it to a host of questions."
--Cliff L. Blair, New Horizons

About the Author

Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) succeeded Abraham Kuyper as professor of systematic theology at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1902. John Bolt (PhD, University of St. Michael's College) is professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This volume was translated under the auspices of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society by Harry Boonstra and Gerrit Sheeres.