Nature and Grace in Herman Bavinck

by Jan Veenhof, Albert M. Wolters (Translator)

This booklet highlights Herman Bavinck's basic thesis that GRACE RESTORES NATURE, or that salvation means the restoration of creation. Veenhof focuses on this succinct formulation of a dimension of biblical teaching that has been a distinctive strength of the Calvinist tradition of Christian thought, both in theology and in a wide range of other academic disciplines.

Genres: Theology

52 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2006

Reviews

[Samuel Kassing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace restored nature and will eventually consummate nature.

[Brian Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essence of Bavinck's view, as explicated by Veenhof is that "Grace does not abolish nature, but affirms and restores it" (17). In expounding this view, Bavinck sets his view apart from both Roman Catholicism and Protestant pietism. According to Bavinck, Roman Catholicism teaches that nature is good but that it does not reach to the supernatural. Grace is needed to elevate nature to the supernatural. The Protestant conception of grace, Bavinck says, is ethical. The purpose of grace is to remove sin, not to raise man above his nature.

Bavinck's disagreement with the Pietists rests not on their understanding of the nature of grace but with their understanding of its extent. The danger Bavinck sees in pietism is that the grace, the gospel, and salvation is placed in a personal spiritual sphere and the rest of culture and life is placed an another sphere. But sin has invaded all of life, and man must function in all of life, not just in the spiritual part. The pietist therefore is in danger of aiding and abetting secularism. His critique is not one-sided, however. Bavinck realizes that the pietists have seen the real dangers of "unbridled and unbroken cultural optimism" (29). They also have centered their attention on "the one thing needful"—personal fellowship with God (30). Bavinck appeals to his readers to maintain this as the center of the Christian life while also recognizing that as a human other aspects of life are good, necessary, and in need of grace.

To state Bavinck's view positively, nature is the good creation of God, but it has been pervasively affected by sin (thus the negative use of "world" in Scripture). This corruption is not something essential to nature, but (in Aristotelian terms), accidental. Thus God's grace will restore nature (not merely by a return to Eden but in eventually achieving the goal God had for his creation from the beginning).

[Miska Wilhelmsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent little booklet that summarises Bavinck's main thesis: Grace restores nature.

[Zachary Wilke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great! Bavinck is right. Grace restores nature. And this affects everything.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will be hearing a lot more about Herman Bavinck in the upcoming years. Although he died 90 years ago, I believe this stock is on the rise. The recently publication of his 4-volume Reformed Dogmatics for the first time in English will only add to his luster. Crossway is publishing an accessible introduction to his theology in August. He might be the most important Reformed thinker of the past 150 years.

This small book discusses a very small part of his legacy--that salvation means the restoration of creation. Surprisingly, the predominant view over nearly 2000 years has been that salvation means a replacement of nature/creation. It was up to Calvin and his descendants to correct this thinking, and Bavinck (along with Kuyper) is probably the high point of the rescue. This selection from Veenhof's dissertation addresses portions of Bavinck's writings that stress the goodness of creation, that Jesus came to restore it, not to replace it. Sin is an accident (in the Aristotelian/Thomist sense) in creation, not part of its essence. As such, it is the Fall that needs corrected, not nature itself.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace restores nature, rather than eliminates it or raises it to something higher, is a central theme in Bavinck's thought. This small section of Jan Veenhof's classic dissertation on Bavinck is a helpful overview of this theme. I highly recommend reading this in tandem with James Eglinton's "Trinity and Organism."

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice little essay introducing Bavinck's cultural thought. Sees it as a diagonally forward-moving spiral.