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12 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Herman Bavinck
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1854–1921, Dutch Reformed theologian
Graduated from Leiden, dissertation on Zwingli Taught at Kampen Theological Seminary and succeeded Abraham Kuyper at Free University in Amsterdam. |
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Thesis
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Christianity superior to all religions because of its concept of revelation, which is woven through the thought and life of humanity as a whole.
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Chapter 1: The Idea of a Philosophy of Revelation
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Universality of the supernaturalistic worldview among all peoples in all ages and all religions, including Christianity and the Reformation. This changed in the eighteenth century because of the "Enlightenment." The world and humanity became autonomous through the revolution (casting off of authority) and the evolution of humanity (which was the casting off of God). Attempts to reconciling God and the world came through idealistic monism, which was effectually pantheism. Monism ultimately failed on religious and ethical grounds. Instead, revelation proceeds from the transcendent God and requires psychological and historical mediation. The philosophy of revelation thinks through its content and correlates it with the thought and life of humanity as a whole.
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Chapter 2: Revelation and Philosophy
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The present status of philosophy. Revival of the need of philosophy and reappearance of old tendencies. Three types of philosophical world-interpretation; theistic (religious, theological), naturalistic (pantheistic, materialistic), and humanistic. Decline of naturalism in its materialistic form. Rise and growth of the pantheistic-monistic view in its various forms. Energetic monism. Psychical monism. Epistemological or logical monism. Criticism of monism and the formula of evolution. Reaction against monism from the side of pragmatism. Pragmatism not merely a new method but a peculiar conception regarding reality and truth.
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Chapter 3: Revelation and Philosophy – continued
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The merit of pragmatism. Its unsatisfactoriness. Due to an insufficiently empirical spirit and ignoring of the facts of reality. Nominalistic character of pragmatism. Self-consciousness the point of departure in all knowledge. Truth and error in idealism. Nature of self-consciousness as the unity of real and ideal being. Its content. Augustine the discoverer of self-consciousness as the starting-point of a new metaphysics. Self-consciousness the basis of religion and morality, science and philosophy, because it discloses to man his own being, the reality of the world, and the existence of God.
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Chapter 4: Revelation and Nature
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God, the world, and man the threefold object of science and philosophy. Restricted use of the English word "science." Independence and limitations of natural science. The conception of nature. Physics presupposes metaphysics. Its constant use of metaphysical concepts. Its ignorance as to the origin, essence, and movement of things, inadequate view of the laws of nature, and silence as to the final cause of the world. The world unexplainable without God. Proof of this is the pantheistic deification of the creature and the present revival of superstition in many circles. The importance of Christianity for natural science.
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Chapter 5: Revelation and History
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History shows still more plainly the necessity and significance of revelation. Present-day conceptions of history. The significance evolution in history. Historical facts too rich to be subsumed under one formula. The same difficulty in the attempt to distinguish a succession of periods and to discover the laws of history. The greatest difficulty of all in the inquiry into the meaning and purpose of history. An objecitvenorm required for this. No history without metaphysics, without belief in a divine wisdom and power. Significance of Christianity for the study of history.
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Chapter 6: Revelation and Religion
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Religion as the chief ground of the conviction that the world rests on revelation. The existence of religion itself a decisive consideration. Universality and necessity of religion. Origin of religion. Impossibility of explaining its origin historically and psychologically through study of primitive man and the child. The construction of primitive man out of the data of animal life, life of nature-peoples, child life, a pure product of the imagination. Revival of the idea of a religio insita. Inquiry into the essence of religion leads to the same conclusions. No religion without revelation. The attempt at classifying religions leads back to the old division between true and false religions in a new form.
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Chapter 7: Revelation and Christianity
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The religio-ethical development of humanity leads to belief in the necessity and reality of revelation. The origins of the human race unknown to science, partially disclosed in tradition. The significance of tradition as estimated in previous ages and at the present day. Its relative value shown in the history of primitive culture, the study of Greek philosophy, the discoveries in Babylon and Assyria. The Völkeridée of Bastian. The unity of the human race well-nigh universally accepted at present. Unity includes common origin, common habitat, and common tradition. Content of tradition. The Old Testament attaches itself to the tradition of the nations. Resemblance and peculiarity of Israel's religion as compared with the religions of the nations. Fulfillment in Christianity.
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Chapter 8: Revelation and Religious Experience
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Causes for the wide-spread weakening of faith: divisions of Christianity; growing acquaintance with many new religions; the agnostic tendency in philosophy. Many take their standpoint in the religious subject. Theology as religious anthropology, science of experience. Experience taken in a totally different sense than in natural science. Not fitted to serve as a heuristic principle. The psychology of religion, however important in its own sphere, cannot judge of the right of existence and value of religious phenomena. It is especially apparent in the study of the phenomenon of conversion. Logically this standpoint ought to lead to absolute indifferentism, which can never satisfy the needs of practical life. Attempts to ascend from the subject to the object. Empirical psychology insufficient. Must reach out into metaphysics. Peculiar position of Christianity with reference to all these problems. Conversion Christianity's own way to fellowship with God. Significance of this for the method of theology. Scriptural conception of conversion points hack to a supernatural factor, notwithstanding all psychological and historical mediation.
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Chapter 9: Revelation and Culture
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The relation between revelation and culture the problem of the ages. Rise of the problem with the entrance of Christianity into the world. View of the first Christians. Romanist and Protestant conception. Present-day position on the right and left. Tolstoi and Nietzsche. Recent hyper-eschatological views about the Person of Jesus. Necessity of clear definition of conception of culture in general and modern culture in particular in order to determine their relation to Christianity. Christ in his relation to culture. The inestimable value of the kingdom of heaven. Aim and value of ethical culture. Autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy. Jenseitigkeit the goal of human history. Relation of Christianity to culture determined by the Christian doctrines of creation and the resurrection.
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Chapter 10: Revelation and the Future
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Christianity according to many is a negligible factor in future development. Self-consciousness and self-sufficiency of modern man as reflected in the energetic world-view. Efforts after race-improvement through artificial selection, reform of education in all grades of schools, and entire reconstruction of society. Utopian expectations built on these efforts seemingly based on immanent development but in reality resting on deification of the creature and issuing in the strangest conceptions with reference to the future both on earth and beyond the grave. Superstitious character of the doctrine of evolution. The meliorism of James. Condition of present-day culture. Neither science nor philosophy able to afford certainty with regard to the future. Religion alone able to do this, especially Christianity because it believes in God the Creator, Reconciler, and Restorer of all things.
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