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- Herman Bavinck by Henry Elias DoskerNovember 24
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This piece on Herman Bavinck is interesting. It was written by his friend Henry Elias Dosker. It reads a bit hagiographically. I love the section on Bavinck’s physical stature.
Physically Dr. Bavinck was an imposing figure. As I remember him as a youth, he was tall and slender with wavy, light hair and clear, friendly grey-blue eyes. Even then there was something aristocratic in his appearance, wholly apart from what his parentage and his early training could have suggested. As he grew older, he grew portly, which gave him a still more impressive appearance.
Impressive portly apperances aside, it is a helpful overview of his life and work - particularly bearing in mind that Dosker was Bavinck’s lifelong friend. It is full of interesting bits and pieces. For example, Bavinck went to seminary with Snouck Hurgronje, one of the few non-Muslims to sneak into Mecca incognito.
- AdviceNovember 20
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A student left a comment elsewhere on this blog expressing an interest in pursuing doctoral research, possibly on Bavinck, and asked for some advice. First I would say, read what Sean Michael Lucas has to say here. Sean has finished a PhD and gone on to carve out a useful ministry as a seminary professor at Covenant Seminary. So, he is the one who can speak with actual authority on this.
That said, I would also offer the following advice, from my perspective as someone midway through his PhD.
What do your professors think?
Scholarship is never a self-proclaimed thing. At no point do (or can) you decide that you are a scholar or that your work is at a certain level. True scholarship is always subject to peer review (or at your level, superior review). You don’t grade your own essays or exams. You don’t decide which class of degree you will graduate with. Those things are all decided by your superiors.
Your professors are the ones who, ultimately, will decide which class of degree you graduate with. This, in turn, will decide whether you will be qualified to enter into a PhD programme. If I was in your position, I would ask my professors for honest, frank answers to the following questions:
(i)
- New SermonsNovember 19
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Some new sermons from St Columba’s:
Looking Through Luke
How (not) to change (Luke 11.37-54) - me
Fear and Greed (Luke 12.1-21) - Derek
Fear and Worry (Luke 12.22-59) - me
An Urgent Message (Luke 13) - Derek
Lost or Found (Luke 15) - Derek
Doctrine of God
God - Righteousness - Derek
God - Wrath - me
God - Mercy - me
A Vision for St Columba’s: A Christ-centred, community church
A Community for Christ (1) - Derek
- Galatians Bible StudyNovember 4
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At St Columba’s this year, our house groups are studying Galatians. On the last Wednesday of each month, at our midweek meeting, either Derek or myself will speak on the relevant section of Galatians. It’s basically a sermon that (deliberately) does not contain application. Then, the next Wednesday night at our house groups, we discuss the application of the passage.
Both the audio files and notes are on the St C’s website.
Galatians 1.1-10 “Setting the Scene” audio, notes (Derek)
Galatians 1.11-24 “Paul’s Defence - Part 1″ audio, notes (James)
This study, looking at the gospel in the light of Paul’s conversion, gave me the opportunity to use David Meredith’s sublime description of Saul of Tarsus: a cross between Osama bin Laden and Richard Dawkins.
- France: Evangelism and Nationalism?October 22
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As part of my PhD work, I am currently reading around the recent history of European philosophy. I am doing this in order to get a better handle on the bigger picture within which Bavinck appears.
While reading about the French Revolution, I have been struck by the place of nationalism within its development.
What were the great ideas of the Revolution? Some of them seem self-evident and therefore pedestrian today, but they were not so familiar then, and they were given virbrant new meaning by the marvelous events of 1789; popular sovereignty, self-determination of the peoples, equality of rights. And nationalism. The French joyously toasted la patrie [the homeland] of which they were all, equally, the children now: no more Bretons, Angevins, or Dauphinards, any more than nobles and commoners. The whole conception of the political society changed. The king could not longer be King of France; he must (if he stayed) be King of the French, for he owed his power to the people. (Roland Stromberg, European Intellectual History Since 1789, 11-12)
During the Revolution, French regional languages were generally supressed and pejoratively referred to as patois. As an amateur observer of French society, I have noticed a growing movement towards reclaiming regional identities and languages. Although the French Constitution means French is the only official language of the Republic, various private initiatives
