Herman Bavinck - Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion

When Herman Bavinck published the second edition of his magnum opus , the four-volume Reformed Dogmatics , readers praised its clarity, erudition, depth, and breadth. Across thousands of pages, he led readers through careful interaction with Scripture, the development of Christian theology across its history, and its path forward in the modern age. In the circles for which it was intendedacademics, pastors, and theology studentsit was an instant classic. Despite its brilliance, though, Bavincks efforts were not without their critics: one newspaper review warned readers that the Reformed Dogmatics was not a devotional book, but rather a study book that has only been written for the scientifically educated, also noting that the price of such a work means that it is certainly not within reach of everyones budget.

To many professors, of course, such criticism is easy to ignore: a heavyweight multivolume Dogmatics might be necessary and acclaimed, but it is not likely to be accessible to a general audience. There is only so much use in calling out apples for not being oranges. Bavinck, however, was no such professor. For all his introverted bookishness, he maintained a lifelong commitment to theological engagement with the church, and the general publicboth audiences that needed the results of his Dogmatics (as, in his own words, the theology needed by our age), even if that meant repackaging his Dogmatics in a more easily digestible form.

For this reason, we find Bavinck devoting a great deal of time to the production of two shortened versions of the Dogmatics , one aimed at readers with a university-level education (albeit not in theology), and another pitched for senior high school students and new undergraduate students. The former, Magnalia Dei , has been available in English for some time, first under the title Our Reasonable Faith , and more recently under the much more accurate English title The Wonderful Works of God . The latter, however, his Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion , lay forgotten for a century, and until now had never been made available in English translation. In it, Bavinck sets out to provide something for all those who want to become acquainted with the chief content of our Christian, Reformed confession of faith through the means of a book that is not too long or too expensive.

This book shows us a side of Bavinckthe earnest Christian who was so committed to encouraging students in the faiththat has been largely forgotten in the century since his death. And beyond that, it gives us his presentation of the faith at a distinctive level, in all its simplicity and profundity. That it has laid untouched for so long was a significant omission in a now thriving effort to make his works available in translation. All of those who benefit from that effort now owe a debt of gratitude to Cameron Clausing and Greg Parker, one a PhD graduate, and the other a current PhD student, at the University of Edinburgh. The fruit of their labor is a timely one: in an age in which the church often struggles to see how its theology could be communicated to its younger members, Clausing and Parker have shown us Bavinck as a theologian passionate about bringing theology to teens and young adults in his own context, always recognizing (unbegrudgingly!) that times change, while the truth advances. I hope that this book will inspire many in our generation to do the same.