Reformed Ethics, vol. 1: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity

by Herman Bavinck

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2019

Overview

Herman Bavinck’s four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is one of the most important theological works of the twentieth century. Leading Bavinck expert John Bolt edited that work, which has received wide acclaim. Now Bolt has edited a recently discovered manuscript from Bavinck, in print for the first time, which serves as a companion to Reformed Dogmatics. Reformed Ethics follows the same method and explores the ethical and spiritual dimensions of key doctrines beyond those of Reformed Dogmatics. It mines the moral teachings of the early church and medieval and Puritan spirituality while addressing a variety of topics, offering scholars, pastors, and students Bavinck’s mature reflections on ethical issues. This book is the first of three planned volumes.

Key Features

• Addresses the relationship between dogmatics and ethics
• Begins with human creation in the image of God as the basis of ethics
• Presents a tripartite structure

Contents

Book I: Humanity before Conversion

• Essential Human Nature
• Humanity under the Power of Sin
• The Self against the Neighbor and God
• The Fallen Image of God
• Human Conscience
• The Sinner and the Law

Book II: Converted Humanity

• Life in the Spirit
• Life in the Spirit in the Church’s History
• The Shape and Maturation of the Christian Life
• Persevering in the Christian Life
• Pathologies of the Christian Life
• Restoration and Consummation of the Christian Life

Top Highlights

“In dogmatics God is everything. Dogmatics is a word from God to us, coming from outside us and above us; we are passive, listening, and opening ourselves to being directed by God. In ethics, we are interested in the question of what it is that God now expects of us when he does his work in us. What do we do for him? Here we are active, precisely because of and on the grounds of God’s deeds in us; we sing psalms in thanks and praise to God. In dogmatics, God descends to us; in ethics, we ascend to God. In dogmatics, he is ours; in ethics, we are his. In dogmatics, we know we shall see his face; in ethics, his name will be written on our foreheads (Rev. 22:4). Dogmatics proceeds from God; ethics returns to God. In dogmatics, God loves us; in ethics, therefore, we love him.” (Page 22)

“But it does mean that the relation to God is the central relation controlling everything. Humans are to be viewed as image-bearers of God in our relations to ourselves, our neighbors, and nature. This reality must be seen in and through everything we do or leave undone and in everything effected with us, in us, or through us.” (Page 42)

“Questions about what human beings are, where they are headed, and the end and purpose of their existence depend on the answer to a prior question: Where did human beings come from? Origin determines direction and purpose.” (Page 35)

“It involves becoming the image of God more and more through procreation, worship, and culture.” (Page 43)

“ethic. Ethics in the true sense of the word does not exist within a Darwinian framework” (Page 35)

Endorsements

For the last decade, a global readership has enjoyed the theological and historical richness of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics. At the outset of that work, Bavinck set out that dogmatics is happiest in the company of its twin discipline, theological ethics. Dogmatics and ethics, respectively, show us why and how we should love God. For that reason, they belong together as ‘related members of a single organism.’ Since its release, Reformed Dogmatics has given a wide audience the chance to engage with a great Christian theologian on God and God’s works of creation, salvation, and consummation. In Reformed Ethics, we are invited to think with Bavinck about the concreteness of human life in the light and strength of God’s deeds for us. For that, we owe the editor and translators a great deal.

—James Eglinton, Meldrum Lecturer in Reformed Theology, New College, University of Edinburgh

In addition to Bavinck’s magisterial Reformed Dogmatics, we have here the firstfruits of his complementary Reformed Ethics. John Bolt and his accomplished team of translators and editors have added amazing value to Bavinck’s recently rediscovered manuscripts in the field of moral theology. Their lucid translation, background studies, notes, and careful documentation of bibliographic sources used by Bavinck make this volume an invaluable background study on the history of theological ethics. Equally important, the book fills out our understanding of Bavinck the complete theologian. Working through it is an exhilarating eye-opener.

—James A. De Jong, emeritus president and professor of historical theology, Calvin Theological Seminary

Ethics is no marginal relative of doctrine and theology, as the letters of Paul bear eloquent witness. The translation of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics has been of major significance, and now it is followed, appropriately, by his Reformed Ethics. It is wonderful that this work has been discovered, translated, and published. One of the great needs of our day is close attention to the ‘theological’ in theological ethics, and Bavinck does not disappoint in this respect, with his characteristic rigor and creativity. John Bolt and his colleagues have provided us with a fresh resource for theological and ethical reflection.

—Craig G. Bartholomew, director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge

Product Details

• Title: Reformed Ethics, Volume One: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity
• Author: Herman Bavinck
• Series: Reformed Ethics
• Volume: 1
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2019
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Pages: 608
• Era: era:modern
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Christian ethics › Reformed authors; Reformed Church › Doctrines; Theology, doctrinal
• ISBNs: 9781493418510, 9780801098024, 1493418513, 0801098025
• Resource ID: LLS:REFORMEDETHICS1
• Resource Type: Systematic Theology
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:40:20Z

About Herman Bavinck

Herman Bavinck (1854–1921), was a Dutch Reformed theologian who contributed to the resurgence of Reformed theology. Bavinck studied at Kampen Theological Seminary and the University of Leiden and graduated in 1880. He taught at both Kampen Theological Seminary and Free University and was a contemporary of Abraham Kuyper and B. B. Warfield, both of whom he knew well.

His most well-known publications include his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics and The Philosophy of Revelation.

Sample Pages from Reformed Ethics, vol. 1: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity