Who Was Herman Bavinck?
Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) was the finest theologian of the neo-Calvinist movement—a Dutch movement that began under the initiative of Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920), which has spread to many nations across the world over the last century. Kuyper was the most public figure of the movement and Bavinck the most precise theologian. We now think of them together, akin to the way the word Reformation recalls Luther and Calvin. As George Harinck explains, “We take the name Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck not as the name of two individuals but as a brand name . . . like Goldman and Sachs or Mercedes and Benz. Together they stand for neo-Calvinism.”
What is (or was) neo-Calvinism, and how does Bavinck fit? It is important to know a bit about Herman Bavinck to answer these questions. Bavinck was born to a Christian home, one that was full of the rhythms of Reformed spirituality. His family took part in the secession movement (the secession church separated from the state church in the Netherlands in 1834 for doctrinal and practical reasons). After Bavinck grew up, he attended the secession seminary in Kampen for a year and then left for Leiden University, seeking a prestigious and scientific education. He navigated an academic environment that can be labeled “modern”—a post-Enlightenment culture of discovery where traditional Christian confessions and creeds were less important and often neglected. Nevertheless, Bavinck remained Reformed and confessional in his theology through this season and into his career (we could use the term orthodox to describe this commitment).
As a young man, and through the multiple contexts he navigated, he developed a character of humility that led to an invaluable skill: the willingness to learn from anyone, especially modern philosophers, while remaining unwaveringly committed to the biblical faith that he learned as a covenant child. In the Netherlands, the Reformed church subscribed to the Three Forms of Unity: the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Heidelberg Catechism. Bavinck was a confessional theologian and a master dogmatician who worked within the theological framework of the Three Forms of Unity, attempted to think and write according to God’s thoughts laid down in the Bible, and did so trying to address the modern thinkers and people of the industrializing society all around him. Bavinck wanted to be maximally helpful to the people of his own time, so he applied God’s Word and the theology that developed over the centuries to the questions and conversations of his context.
I have labeled this instinct and writing style “orthodox yet modern.” Bavinck “faced the challenges posed by modernity” head-on and did so without hiding from hard questions, with a generous habit of steel-manning instead of straw-manning his dialogue partners, and with a heart to help people while seeking to glorify God and stay true to the Bible above all else. James Eglinton provides a nice summary of Bavinck’s skill: Bavinck “went on to craft Kuyper’s vision . . . a Calvinism for the modern age . . . into an elaborate and detailed corpus of theologically charged works.” This offers us a helpful summary of the neo-Calvinist movement: “a Calvinism for the modern age,” where Bavinck was the chief theologian.
Bavinck was only briefly a pastor, but he remained a churchman and theologian his entire life. He taught theology at the seminary in Kampen and then the Free University of Amsterdam (only after rejecting Kuyper’s invitation several times) until he died in 1921. He was married to Johanna, and they had a daughter also named Johanna (they called her Hannie). For an excellent account of Bavinck’s life and work, pick up James Eglinton’s biography, Bavinck: A Critical Biography.
To get familiar with Bavinck’s wonderful and helpful theological writings without feeling lost at times, it is important to see him as a multi-faceted thinker who functioned as a public intellectual and wrote in a way that combined all the facets of his personality. He was a theologian or dogmatician—one who thinks and writes about God and all things in His light according to God’s own revelation in the Bible. The Wonderful Works of God is an accessible starting point. After that, his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is his magnum opus and a series that serves the neo-Calvinist and modern Reformed theological community similar to how Calvin’s Institutes is the magisterial theological work of the original Reformation movement. Simultaneously, Bavinck was a philosopher—one who interacts with the questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, and does so within the domain of theological reasoning. In some of his books, such as Christian Worldview, Christianity and Science, and Philosophy of Revelation, his ability as a philosopher is most visible. Bavinck never hid from the philosophical questions of his time. This is an important point to look out for as you read him—he is always bringing philosophy into conversation with theology. We can also say that Bavinck was, at times, a politician, historian, economist, pastor, professor, and churchman.
But, the most important label—one that cries out for acknowledgment from the thousands of pages of his mighty corpus—is follower of Jesus. Bavinck loved the God who saved him by grace, and amid the complexity and brilliance of his thought, there is always a doxological current. As Bavinck put it:
A theologian is a person who makes bold to speak about God because he speaks out of God and through God. To profess theology is to do holy work. It is a priestly ministration in the house of the Lord. It is itself a service of worship, a consecration of mind and heart to the honour of His name.
This article is part of the Historical Figures collection.