Many Accordance users have asked for Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, and today we’re pleased to announce that we are offering both the full four-volume edition as well as the recently-released one-volume abridgement for the Accordance Library.
Herman Bavinck (1854 – 1921) is considered by many to be one of the most significant Dutch Reformed theologians of the last two centuries. He is often compared and contrasted with his contemporary, Abraham Kuyper (see a brief summary at Bavinck’s Wikipedia page and a longer comparison in the Editor’s Preface to the full version of Bavinck’s work).
Originally released in print in 2003, the larger four-volume edition of Reformed Dogmatics was edited by John Bolt and translated by John Vriend. Complete in one Accordance Library module, this work is divided into four sections mirroring the structure of the volumes of the original print publication: (1) Prolegomena; (2) God and Creation; (3) Sin and Salvation in Christ; and (4) Holy Spirit, Church and New Creation.
Drawing from the church fathers and medieval thinkers, Bavinck engages Roman Catholic and liberal Protestant perspectives to produce a confessionally faithful, pastorally sensitive, challenging Neo-Calvinist work that marked the high point of Dutch theological reflection–and remains relevant to today’s readers.
Accordance developers have carefully analyzed the text of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics to tag all content by one of the following categories: Title, English Content, Scripture, Greek Content, Hebrew Content, Transliteration, Chapter Synopses, Subparagraph Numbers, Bibliography, and Page Numbers. This allows Accordance users to quickly find the exact kind of information for which they are looking.
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Reformed Dogmatics (4 Volumes) |
Click the above image for a full size product illustration
of both versions of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics.
Considering that the original print version of Reformed Dogmatics comes in at over 3,000 pages, this kind of work can be daunting to some. Therefore, we are also offering the more accessible one-volume edition. The overwhelming task of abridging this massive work down to one volume fell to John Bolt, the editor of the original four-volume edition.
Describing the process of keeping an abridgement faithful to the original work while at the same time making it more accessible, Bolt explains:
In my abridgment I worked hard to preserve Bavinck’s own voice, even his own words, keeping my transitions and paraphrases to a minimum. Careful readers should be able to recognize whole sentences and sections taken straight from Reformed Dogmatics, and it is my hope that even the most attentive readers will hear only Bavinck’s voice throughout.
Accordance developers have carefully analyzed the abridged one-volume text of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics to tag all content by one of the following categories: Title, English Content, Scripture, Greek Content, Hebrew Content, Transliteration, Chapter Synopses, Subparagraph Numbers, and Page Numbers. This allows Accordance users to quickly find the exact kind of information for which they are looking.
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Reformed Dogmatics (Abridged in One Volume) |