Bavinckian rhapsody : Herman Bavinck's doctrine of divine simplicity

2018·3.7 MB·English

by  Parker, Gregory W.

Parker vi
ABSTRACT
The goal of this thesis is to explore Herman Bavinck's doctrine of divine simplicity. No one
has fully explored Bavinck's doctrine of divine simplicity before, those who have engaged it
in past scholarship have pigeonholed it as strictly Thomistic. More recently Bavinck studies
due to the "organic motif" has pushed against this Thomistic label being falsely thrust upon
Bavinck like a shrunk, ill-fitting wool sweater. Rather they aver that Bavinck, while orthodox
strives to be modern and moreover that he is too critical of the heart of Thomistic thinking
to be considered purely Thomistic.
A key question the thesis poses is in what ways is Bavinck attempting to be modern
in his doctrine of divine simplicity? Two tertiary questions that will inform this answer is
how is Bavinck appropriating Thomas, but also eclectically appropriating other theologians
in such a way that calling him Thomistic may miss the scope of his DDS? Is Bavinck doing
anything unique in his articulation of divine simplicity that would make him difficult to
categorize?
The answer to thesse questions centers on the growing implications birthed out of
the identification of the organic motif as the central motif in Bavinck's thinking. This motif
identifies the one Bavinck as eclectically orthodox and modern. The central aim of the thesis
is to test the "organic" hypothesis in applying it to Bavinck's doctrine of divine simplicity.