Bavinck
A Critical Biography
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
Dutch Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck, a significant voice in the development of Protestant theology, remains relevant many years after his death. His four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is one of the most important theological works of the twentieth century.
James Eglinton is widely considered to be at the forefront of contemporary interest in Bavinck's life and thought. After spending considerable time in the Netherlands researching Bavinck, Eglinton brings to light a wealth of new insights and previously unpublished documents to offer a definitive biography of this renowned Reformed thinker.
The book follows the course of Bavinck's life in a period of dramatic social change, identifying him as an orthodox Calvinist challenged with finding his feet in late modern culture. Based on extensive archival research, this critical biography presents numerous significant and previously ignored or unknown aspects of Bavinck's person and life story. A black-and-white photo insert is included.
This volume complements other Baker Academic offerings on Bavinck's theology and ethics, which together have sold 90,000 copies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eglinton (Trinity and Organism), professor of theology at the University of Edinburgh, explores the work and life of Dutch Protestant theologian Herman Bavinck (1854 1921) in this dry biography. Bavinck's work was most significant within his own tradition of the Dutch Reformed Church, and readers outside this sect may be unfamiliar with his name a fact Eglinton sets out to remedy. Unfortunately, those hoping for a picture of Bavinck as a person will be disappointed, as Eglinton is primarily interested in the development of neo-Calvinist thought at the end of the 19th century. Eglinton opens the book with a history of the Reformed Church in Holland and biographies of Bavinck's parents, then follows Bavinck's career as a theologian, which saw the introduction of "modern thought" into the neo-Calvinism of the Reformed Church; the majority of his work focused on applying philosophical concepts of objectivism and subjectivism to the doctrine of revelation. While Eglinton makes a strong case for the influence of Bavinck's thought on Calvinism, his narrow focus and painstaking analyses bog down the narrative of Bavinck's life. This dense, overlong work will have limited appeal beyond academics of European Protestantism.
