God and Knowledge: Herman Bavinck’s Theological Epistemology

Description

Nathaniel Gray Sutanto offers a fresh reading of Herman Bavinck's theological epistemology, and argues that his Trinitarian and organic worldview utilizes an extensive range of sources. Sutanto unfolds Bavinck's understanding of what he considered to be the two most important aspects of epistemology: the character of the sciences and the correspondence between subjects and objects. Writing at the heels of the European debates in the 19th and 20th century concerning theology's place in the academy, and rooted in historic Christian teachings, Sutanto demonstrates how Bavinck's argument remains fresh and provocative.This volume explores archival material and peripheral works translated for the first time in English. The author re-reads several key concepts, ranging from Organicism to the Absolute, and relates Bavinck's work to Thomas Aquinas, Eduard von Hartmann, and other thinkers. Sutanto applies this reading to current debates on the relationship between theology and philosophy, nature and grace, and the nature of knowing; and in doing so provides students and scholars with fresh methods of considering Orthodox and modern forms of thought, and their connection with each other. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Re-reading Bavinck’s theological epistemology I Preliminary observations: Orthodox and modern II Theological epistemology and the organic motif: Reshaping the discussion III The way forward Chapter 2: Bavinck’s organicism – God, anthropology and revelation I The organic motif II Organicism and the classical contours of Bavinck’s doctrine of God III An organic anthropology: The individual, the relation and whole IV Revelation as organic Chapter 3: Organism and Wetenschap – the structure of Bavinck’s epistemology I Organic knowing a. A ‘unified worldview’ – the organic and the mechanical b. Theology as the queen of the sciences and the theological character of the sciences c. An ‘organism of science’: Principia and unity-and-diversity II The kingdom of God and sphere sovereignty III Summary Chapter 4: Between Aquinas and Kuyper I Bavinck’s Thomas and Roman Catholic epistemology II ‘Bavinck’s mistake’: Re-situating Bavinck’s account of Thomas within the current internal Thomist debates III On organisms and machines a. Re-articulating the difference between Bavinck and Kuyper b. Bodies and propositions Chapter 5: Bavinck, Thomas Reid, the ‘gap’ and the question of subjects and objects I Bavinck and world-directed beliefs: Two interpretations – reformed epistemology and post-Kantian trajectories II Herman Bavinck and Thomas Reid on perception and the problem of the ‘gap’ a. A ‘problem’ in modern epistemology b. Reid’s proposal c. Bavinck’s proposal III Towards Bavinck’s use of Eduard von Hartmann Chapter 6: The Absolute and the organic – Bavinck and Eduard von Hartmann I The ‘mistake of idealism’ and the immediacy of contact with the world: Bavinck’s critical appropriation of Eduard von Hartmann II Overcoming the gap: The absolute, revelation and the organic a. Philosophy of revelation b. The organic motif and the gap III Holism and three implications: A (modified) Christian internalism, the question of subjectivism and nineteenth-century philosophical discourse – towards a development Chapter 7: Revelation, the unconscious, reason and feeling I Revelation causing primordial awareness – innate and acquired knowledge a. Revelation that ‘precedes’ innate and acquired knowledge b. Organism, the psyche and feeling as unconscious knowing c. Concept formation and reason in the context of a primordial awareness II Between concursus and influentia III On ‘unconscious knowledge’ and primordial revelation: A revelational phenomenology as pre-predicative in broader neo-Calvinism Conclusion Bibliography Primary sources Miscellaneous Secondary sources Index