Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 1: Prolegomena

Theologians have long appreciated Herman Bavinck’s four-volume masterpiece, Gereformeerde Dogmatiek, published in 1895-99, for its comprehensive treatment of dogmatic theology. Unfortunately, this magnum opus from the great Reformed theologian has only been available in Dutch, and therefore has been inaccessible to most readers. Now, thanks to the Dutch Reformed Translation Society and the work of translator John Vriend and editor John Bolt, the first volume of Bavinck’s magisterial Reformed Dogmatics is available in English for the first time. Bolt’s tireless work updating the documentation augments this significant work.

The seventeen chapters of this volume are grouped into sections: Introduction to Dogmatics, The History and Literature of Dogmatics, Foundations of Dogmatic Theology, Revelation, and Faith. Bavinck’s approach throughout is meticulous, though he wears his vast learning lightly. As he moves throughout the subject of dogmatic theology, he stands on the shoulders of giants such as Augustine, John Calvin, Francis Turretin, and Charles Hodge.

Editor John Bolt characterizes the work as follows: “Reformed Dogmatics is biblically and confessionally faithful, pastorally sensitive, challenging, and still relevant. Bavinck’s life and thought reflect a serious effort to be pious, orthodox, and thoroughly contemporary. To pietists fearful of the modern world on one hand and to critics of orthodoxy skeptical about its continuing relevance on the other, Bavinck’s example suggests a model answer: an engaging Trinitarian vision of Christian discipleship in God’s world.”

This masterwork will appeal to scholars and students of theology, research and theological libraries, and pastors and laity who read serious works of Reformed theology.

688 pages

“Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics has been the fountainhead of Reformed theology for the last hundred years. It is by far the most profound and comprehensive Reformed systematic theology of the twentieth century. The reader will be amazed by Bavinck’s erudition, creativity, and balance. Bavinck is confessionally orthodox, but he recognizes the need to rethink the traditional formulations from Scripture in the context of contemporary discussion. I hope these volumes will have a large readership and will bring forth much theological and spiritual fruit.”

–John M. Frame, professor of systematic theology and philosophy, Reformed Theological Seminary

“Bavinck’s Dutch masterwork was the Everest of which the textbooks by Louis Berkhof and Auguste Lecerf were foothills and Berkouwer’s studies in dogmatics were outliers. Like Augustine, Calvin, and Edwards, Bavinck was a man of giant mind, vast learning, ageless wisdom, and great expository skill. Solid but lucid, demanding but satisfying, broad and deep and sharp and stabilizing, Bavinck’s magisterial Reformed Dogmatics remains after a century the supreme achievement of its kind.”

–J. I. Packer, professor of theology, Regent College

“Arguably the most important systematic theology ever produced in the Reformed tradition. I have found it to be the most valuable. English-speaking theology throughout the 20th century until now has been singularly impoverished by not having at its disposal a translation of Bavinck’s Dogmatiek in its entirety. The appearance of these volumes will be an incomparable boon for generations of students, pastors, teachers, and others, serving to deepen understanding and enrich reflection in both historical and systematic theology.”

–Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., professor of biblical and systematic theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia