Studies in Dogmatics: The Providence of God (Berkouwer) / March 18, 1952

Requires Accordance 11.2 or above.

The Providence of God is the fourth volume of Berkouwer’s Studies in Dogmatics.

As Berkouwer says in this book, the twentieth century has seen an attack on the worth of humanity itself, with the widespread “declarations of decline” and the prominence of such words as “crisis,” “decline,” “chaos,” and “nihilism” mirroring the distressing situation. In such times the most obvious confession of the church, God’s providence and his rule over all things, has become to modern man the most outmoded confession of the historic Christian church. It is the doctrine now most under attack. God’s guidance, says Berkouwer, has become the problem; and he points out that some facts of experience most striking as arguments for the providence of God have now become even more convincing counter-arguments. “This is the time,” says Berkouwer, “in which the church of Christ must ask herself whether she still has the courage, in profound and unshakeable faith, in boundless confidence, to proclaim the providence of God. Or is she possessed of secret doubts fed by daily events? Can she still speak of God’s rule over all things, of His holy presence in this world? . . . Dare she still, with eyes open to the facts of life — no less than those who from the facts conclude an imperative atheism — still confess her old confession?”

Berkouwer’s book on providence, with its brilliant defense and reaffirmation of God’s rule over all things, is timely and dramatic.

About the Series

In this series rooted in the normative significance of Scripture, noted Dutch theologian G. C. Berkouwer examines great doctrines of the Reformed faith, developing and defending Reformed theology through interaction with a wide range of theologies and theologians.