Bavinck: A Critical Biography
Who was Herman Bavinck? In Bavinck: A Critical Biography, James Eglinton shares the story of the beloved Dutch Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck.
Family and Childhood
Eglinton wastes no time sharing about Bavinck’s family history, and we see the pivotal role his parents – particularly his father – played in his faith. Against the backdrop of the Secession Church in Scotland, we meet Jan Bavinck and Geziena Magdalena Holland. From his own autobiography, we learn of Jan Bavinck’s deep personal piety. “Jan’s particular influence on Herman – and lifelong support for his son‘s efforts to be an Orthodox Calvinist in late modern culture – was a far greater significance that has previously been recognized.” The cultural shift and the Seceder impulse to find one’s own place in the modern world would leave a crucial impact on the young Herman Bavinck.
Jan Bavinck served as Herman’s father and pastor during his childhood. Herman remained close with his father and his ministry. And unlike most Dutch children in the mid-19th century, he did not work in labor factories or on farms. He enjoyed a relatively privileged education with lessons in Latin, English, music, and accountancy. At the age of 17, with insight from his Dagboek journals, we learn of his close knit family and his love for a 22 year old woman – Amelia den Dekker. We see his academic success alongside his rising professional and social ambitions. This biography chronicles Bavinck’s younger years with warmth and insight.
Academic Achievement and Pastoral Calling
On March 24, 1874, 19-year-old Bavinck would hear a 34-year-old Kuyper speak. Bavinck was dissatisfied by his education at Kampen, and was not particularly enthusiastic about his professors. He wanted to study Modernist theology, and his older, less-educated classmates did not pass as his academic peers. After one year at Kampen, he would transfer to Leiden. His first year as a student in Leiden found him drawn to the sermons of J. H. Donner and, most notably, Kuyper – the rising star of Dutch Calvinism who was battling against the post-Christian, secularized, atheistic culture. These would be formative years for Bavinck, and this biography helps us see his educational aspirations.
Having completed his doctorate, marriage to his beloved Amelia had proven impossible without permission from her parents, and he declined the chance to work with Kuyper at Free University. Upon returning home from his studies, he was lonely. He accepted a call to the city culture of Franeker, a local Christian Reformed congregation. He would make friends, but remain focused on his ambitions. His story would come full circle when he became a Professor at Kampen.
The Rise of Neo-Calvinsim and Beginning his Life’s Work
His accomplishments would be met with disappointment and discouragement upon the death of friends and further romantic rejection. He gave himself to his work – the beginnings of Reformed Dogmatics and Ethics. He would be linked to the newly coined term neo-Calvinism as it took shape during his lifetime as the result of different Calvinist revivals in Amsterdam and Kampen. His contacts would grow internationally.
Getting married to Johanna A. Schippers, visiting America, and fatherhood would begin a new phase in Bavinck’s life. Publishing Dogmatics and Biblia would change his relationship with Kuyper and the theological world. These works would start him on the path to more prolific publication, even assuming editorship of the newspaper De Bazuin.
Orthodox and Modern
He would resign from Kampen and become a professor at Amsterdam and face the death of his father. This would propel him to complete Reformed Dogmatics and find a place to work in Parliament. His life would continue to intertwine with Kuyper’s, and we see how these two were destined to change the theological landscape. But this biography does not present Bavinck as having lived in Kuyper’s shadow. Bavinck has his own brilliance.
The end of the war marked the beginning of Bavinck’s final years. Kuyper passed obviously in terminal decline at the age of 83, while Bavinck was 63 and still still being productive. But Bavinck would suffer a heart attack in 1820, marking his final days. Born December 13, 1854 in Hoogeveen, Netherlands, he would die in Amsterdam, Netherlands on July 29, 1921 at the age of 66.
The Definitive Biography of Bavinck
This is the definitive biography of Bavinck that belongs alongside his masterworks of Reformed Dogmatics and Reformed Ethics. You will see God’s sovereign hand mingled with the heart of a studious saint. And you will be inspired to live your entire life – every sphere – under the sovereign grace of God.
I received a media copy of Bavinck: A Critical Biography and this is my honest review.I received a media copy of Bavinck: A Critical Biography and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram - my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.