Reformed Social Ethics
Perspectives on Society, Culture, State, Church, and the Kingdom of God
series: Reformed Ethics
About
In the process of translating Herman Bavinck's Reformed Ethics, John Bolt and his editorial colleagues discovered that the social ethics portion was unfinished. The first section will now be published as Reformed Ethics, vol. 3. The other five sections were outlined by Bavinck, but not completed. Following Bavinck's outline, John Bolt has reconstructed those last five sections on the basis of his extensive knowledge of Bavinck's work, culling Bavinck's other writings, in both Dutch and English, to summarize his teachings.
This companion to Reformed Ethics offers readers Bavinck's main convictions and perspectives on critical topics of social ethics: society, art, scholarship, education, the state, the church, humanity, and the kingdom of God.
Reformed Social Ethics completes the Reformed Ethics project and provides readers with a fuller picture of Bavinck's ethics. It will also be packaged with Bavinck's Reformed Ethics in a specially priced four-volume set.
1. Society
Introduction: Creation, and Humanity's Twofold Vocation
1. The Social Question
a. Bavinck's "General Biblical Principles" (1891)
b. Bavinck's "On Inequality" (1913)
2. Economic Life: Ownership, Property, Possessions
A Note on Riches, Capitalism, and Usury
3. Hospitality, Friendship, Sociability
Games and Leisure/Amusement
Appendix A: "Masters and Servants"
Appendix B: "The Right to Life of the Unborn"
2. Art and Scholarship (School)
1. Creation Is the Foundation
2. Art (Aesthetics)
3. Schools and Pedagogy
4. Christian Scholarship
a. Context: The Neo-Calvinist Revival
b. The Two Options: Christianity or Positivism
c. Bavinck's Christian Worldview
5. A Christian University
3. The State
1. Origins of the State
2. Power, Coercion, War and Peace
3. Article 36 of the Belgic Confession
4. Church and Politics
4. The Church
1. Summary of an Address to the Twenty-Fifth General Dutch Conference on Missions
2. Eight Propositions on "the Idea and Necessity of Evangelization"
3. "Evangelization"
The "Gospel" of Caesar Augustus
"Gospel" in the Old Testament
"Gospel" in the New Testament and Early Church
Challenges to Gospel Teaching
Evangelization as Renewal and Reform
The Rise of Modern Unbelief; Its Spiritual and Social Consequences
Amelioration Efforts; The Inner Mission
5. Humanity and the Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God, the Highest Good
Introduction
1. The Essence of the Kingdom of God
2. The Kingdom of God and the Individual
3. The Kingdom of God and the Community (Family, State, Church, Culture)
4. The Completion of the Kingdom of God
Indexes
Endorsements
"The social media age has not been kind to Christian social ethics. The kind of short form, fragmentary thinking--always performed before an aggressive and divided audience--normalized in that setting risks turning the Christian social ethicist into a cybergladiator whose bombastic views are largely determined by his need not to be his nemesis. Herman Bavinck warned against such reactionary dogmatism. In the works brought together as Reformed Social Ethics, we find an example often missing in our day: a Christian ethicist thinking carefully about complex issues in the light of Scripture and tradition rather than in the blue light of a smartphone."
James Eglinton, Meldrum Senior Lecturer in Reformed Theology, New College, University of Edinburgh
"Our debt of gratitude to John Bolt for reintroducing Bavinck to the Anglophone world continues to grow with this companion to the Reformed Ethics. Here, Bavinck's writings on matters of deep moral interest are not only translated for the first time but, where they are incomplete, Bolt provides his own learned judgments to amplify or develop arguments in keeping with the spirit of Bavinck's thought. Readers will find here not only matters of historical interest but also an exemplary model for a Reformed engagement with perennial social issues."
N. Gray Sutanto, associate professor of systematic theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Washington DC
The Authors
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Herman Bavinck
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) succeeded Abraham Kuyper as professor of systematic theology at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1902.
Continue reading about Herman Bavinck
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John Bolt
John Bolt (PhD, University of St. Michael's College) is the Jean and Kenneth Baker Professor of Systematic Theology, emeritus, at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He edited Bavinck's four-volume Reformed Dogmatics.
Continue reading about John Bolt