The four volumes cover a range of theological teaching from the historic, Reformed point of view.
It’s difficult to disagree with a friend when he declares that reading the four volumes of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics (Baker Academic, 2003-2008; 2,500 pages of text) is a sure cure for insomnia. They are not for the faint of heart.
For someone who teaches or preaches, however, they are valuable reference. The books cover a wide range of Christian theological teaching, or dogmatics, from the historic, Reformed point of view. If you want to know how a particular topic was handled by theologians, philosophers and diverse Christian movements and denominations, you will probably find helpful information here. And perhaps more important, you may discover how a particular matter should not be treated!
To ease the initial burden of TMI (Too Much Information), it would be good to start with only a few chapters from each volume. In Volume 1, the theoretical chapters 1 and 9 provide a sample of Bavinck’s basic approach. The former explains why dogmatics is a science that serves the Church, and how it differs from religious studies and ethics. The latter is the initial chapter of several dealing with God’s revelation and Scripture, a key to much of Bavinck’s thought. Volume 2 has three interesting chapters, 3, 4 and 5, on the names and attributes of God. Chapter 14 discusses Deism and Pantheism, two alternatives to Reformed theology’s doctrines that Bavinck often opposes in his writings.
Volume 3’s chapter 1, on the origin of sin, introduces a lengthier consideration of sin. Chapter 9, on salvation, lays out for us the alternative, subjectivist views of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Friedrich Schleiermacher (pronounced Sh-lie-er-mocker; 1768-1834). Bavinck interacts with these two thinkers frequently. Volume 4’s chapters 5 and 6 on the Church’s spiritual essence and on its spiritual government are useful. The last seven chapters of this volume deal with many subjects involved with Last Things, and are fun to browse.
As background reading that will help you to follow Bavinck’s arguments, it would be beneficial to look at Christianity and Liberalism (1923) by J. Gresham Machen (available free at ccel.org). It outlines some of the issues with which Bavinck was dealing. In that same vein, reading a few pages of Kant’s writings on religion and ethics, and his critique of the far-reaching claims of reason in philosophy and theology, would offer a taste of his views. Sampling a bit of Schleiermacher and his claim that Christian doctrine is derived from the experience of an absolute dependence on God would do the same for his thought. The latter two thinkers’ works are available free on the internet. (A summary of Kant on religion is at kantwesley.com/Kant/RationalReligion.pdf; Schleiermacher’s Speeches is at ccel.org.)
