A concise examination on the question of hermeneutics and the believability of the Virgin Birth
A concise examination on the question of hermeneutics and the believability of the Virgin BirthA concise examination on the question of hermeneutics and the believability of the Virgin Birth
Brilliant Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck tackles the foundational question between traditional Christianity and the scientific or modern worldview: does knowledge come exclusively through scientific inquiry or does the Christian doctrine of revelation provide an equally potent means of knowledge within the domain of religion?
In this relatively brief article, Bavinck brings this question to bear on the question of the Virgin Birth. He argues that scientific or "analytical" methods of inquiry must dismiss any miraculous event (much less the Virgin Birth itself) as an a priori, a move that belies even the implementation of their own scientific inquiry. On the contrary, a "synthetic" approach, one that approves both science and revelation, produces a more coherent and realistic interpretation of the biblical witness.
Includes a new Foreword for contemporary readers.
Born on December 13, 1854, in Hoogeveen, Drenthe, Holland, Herman Bavinck was the son of the Reverend Jan Bavinck, a leading figure in the secession from the State Church of the Netherlands in 1834. After theological study in Kampen, and at the University of Leiden, he graduated in 1880, and served as the minister of the congregation at Franeker, Friesland, for a year. According to his biographers, large crowds gathered to hear his outstanding exposition of the Scriptures.
In 1882, he was appointed a Professor of theology at Kampen, and taught there from 1883 until his appointment, in 1902, to the chair of systematic Theology in the Free University of Amsterdam, where he succeeded the great Abraham Kuyper, then recently appointed Prime Minister of the Netherlands. In this capacity -- an appointment he had twice before declined -- Bavinck served until his death in 1921.
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