The Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics

Herman Bavinck on the challenges theologians face
- Herman Bavinck's counsel to theologians
- A unique window into Bavinck's thought
- An overlooked work from a key Neo-Calvinist thinker
In The Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics, Herman Bavinck identifies the primary challenges confronting Protestant theologians in the early twentieth century. Since the main difficulties do not concern specific heads of doctrine but arise in theological method, Bavinck's focus narrows to the act of faith. Bavinck demonstrates the necessity of viewing faith as knowledge rather than mere trust, recounting the development of doctrine from the biblical authors through the dawn of the twentieth century. This book provides a unique window into Bavinck's thought, as he speaks candidly about the limitations and failures of Reformed theology and the relative merits of modern thinkers. 
TheForemost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics was a series of lectures delivered at the Free University shortly after Bavinck moved to Amsterdam in 1902. Edited and translated by Gert de Kok and Bruce R. Pass, these previously unpublished lectures are available for the first time in English.

Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) was professor of systematic theology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, where he succeeded Abraham Kuyper.
Bruce R. Pass (PhD, University of Edinburgh)is honorary senior research fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) and editor and translator of On Theology: Herman Bavinck's Academic Orations (Brill).
Gert de Kok is pastor at the Dutch Reformed church of Nunspeet and Hulshorst, Netherlands.