Reformed Theology

The subject under study is crucial for the contemporary time has lost any sense of certainty especially the religious and theological kind. Our age is rightly qualified as an age of uncertainty. No one is really sure about something. Any claim to certainty is nothing but an illusion. In presenting the material gleaned from Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, I would like to present the subject under five sub headings: the difficulty of the question about the certainty of knowledge, the existence of theological certainty and its relationship to other kinds of certainty, the objective and the subjective aspects of theological certainty, an assessment of the three proposed sources for theological certainty focusing primarily on the critical evaluation of religious consciousness and the need for revelation to attain absolute religious certainty, The Difficulty of the Question About the Certainty of Knowledge The question concerning the certainty of knowledge, including theologi...

Studying Reformed theology is not an easy task. This is because the field covers a vast area of diverse ideas, countries of origin, and key thinkers. In fact, it is more realistic to say, that to launch in such a journey requires a lifelong process. This requires humility. God forbid that in studying this course, we will not fall into an attitude of “arrogance” thinking that we already exhausted the wealth of this tradition. May we not lose the sense of wonder and amazement!  Realizing that the field is broad, still we attempt to come up with our stance to bring clarity somehow in a very confusing world of theology. To aid us in this attempt, we need the service of both the historical and the theological-apologetical approaches. The historical is taken from a brief overview of the history of Reformed theology penned by Herman Bavinck, whereas the theological-apologetical approach is based on the insights of John Frame and Cornelius Van Til.  A Brief History of Reform...

The Location of Religion in Man  The discussion concerning the location of religion in man evolves around three aspects of man: the intellect, the will, and the emotion. Those who locate religion in the intellect perceive religion as primarily a quest for knowledge. In ancient church history, we find the proponents of this idea among the Gnostics. Bavinck claims that in modern philosophy, we see the emergence of Gnosticism and it has its influential defenders in the persons of Spinoza and Hegel (254-255). Others would locate religion in the will and think of religion as chiefly a matter of morality. Bavinck classifies Pelagianism, Deism and Immanuel Kant as popular examples of this school (258-260). Still the third group would locate religion in human emotion and consider religion as a matter of feeling. Mysticism and Pietism are two powerful forces that exemplify this persuasion. In terms of individual thinkers, we have Schleiermacher and Rousseau as influential figures, w...

This study is a selective summary and reflection of the ideas of Herman Bavinck concerning the religious foundations of theology. The material is found in Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena Volume 1. The topic covers three areas:  the essence of religion, the location of religion in man, and  the origin of religion The Essence of Religion  In ascertaining the essence of religion by way of tracing the etymology of the word, Bavinck claims that among the many possible derivations, the word used by Lactantius is the one that made an impact to the English world (236-237). This word is religare . This word denotes religion as “the bond that unites human beings to God” (ibid.). However, Bavinck asserts that even this word fails to consider the two foundational aspects of religion, which are the objective and the subjective sides. The objective side of religion is the revelation from God where in the Old Testament assumes various expressions such as commandments, pre...