What is Christianity?
by Herman Bavinck, Gregory Parker, Jr. (Translator)
DETAILS:
Publisher: Hendrickson Academic
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 83 pg.
Read Date: May 29, 2022
After all, [mankind’s] deepest needs always boil down to the fact that all that is finite rests in the Infinite and Eternal One, who cannot be thought of in any other way than as a just and holy God who hates sin and is far removed from wickedness. But if there is to be any talk of comfort and peace for mankind, then this just and holy God must also be a merciful and gracious Father, who reconciles and forgives sin, frees us from guilt, and accepts us as his children out of grace. And finally, he must also be the Almighty and Faithful One who can realize what he promises and who, in the course of regeneration and sanctification, transforms the world and mankind into a kingdom of God.
These are the ineradicable needs of the human heart. But they are also the basic ideas of Christianity, which stand before us in historical facts as monuments. The apostolic benediction of the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the core of the universal, undoubted, Christian faith [2 Cor. 13:14].
What’s What is Christianity? About?
These are two short works by the noted Dutch Theologian newly translated into English. The second piece is an essay he wrote in 1883 called “The Christian Faith” (and because it’s the way my mind works since it was written first, I had to read it first).
The first piece is a small book called Christianity that was published in 1912 as part of a series of books called Great Religions. In this work, he starts by talking about who Jesus is, then covers the life of Jesus and those aspects of the Christian faith common to all its branches. From there he gives a survey of this history of doctrine that is both concise and thorough (in a way I wish I could emulate), before landing on and summarizing a Reformed Protestant understanding of the Faith.
A Nice Touch
Before the text, Parker reprinted a brief review from The Princeton Theological Review of Christianity. It was nice to see a contemporary take on the work from a trusted name to see that what people think of Bavinck now is pretty much what people thought of him then.
So, what did I think about What is Christianity??
These are apologetic works to be sure, but they aren’t aggressive or all that assertive. Bavink is clear and convincing without being combative. Typically for him, he displays a catholicity in his approach—he’s clearly Reformed Protestant, but he doesn’t disparage other views.
Bavinck has a reputation (somewhat deserved) as being a difficult author to read and comprehend. This small book demonstrates pretty conclusively that he’s not always difficult.
I don’t know he accomplishes all he does in so few pages—there’s a lot of subtle theological and apologetic work, here. But there’s also a lot that’s just easy to digest, clear and helpful. Bavinck gives his readers a Christ-centered, Christ-focused definition and description of Christianity (you’d think that’d be a given, but…). As Warfield put it, “We cannot imagine how the work could be done better.”
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