Scientific Theology? Herman Bavinck and Adolf Schlatter on the Place of Theology in the University
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Abstract
This article, primarily historical in focus, explores the contributions of Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) and Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938) to discussion on the place of theology within the university. Schlatter’s belief that theology is a science belonging within the academy is explored via his debate with Paul Jäger on the possibility of ‘atheistic theology’. Bavinck’s similar convictions, it is seen, were formed in response to the Higher Education Act (1876), a piece of legislation which sought to marginalise theology in a Dutch academic context. The article concludes by tentatively encouraging twenty-first century theology to see itself as a necessary subject (on the grounds of its divine object and power to bring coherence among the sciences) within the contemporary university.
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5
Avihu Zakai, ‘The Rise of Modern Science and the Decline of Theology as “Queen of the Sciences” in the Early Modern Era,’ Reformation and Renaissance Review 9.2 (2007), 125-151.
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6
Immanuel Kant, Der Streit der Fakultäten (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2005).
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7
Thomas A. Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the German University (Oxford: University Press, 2006), 212-66. Howard makes the case that the events between 1789 and 1815 paved the way for a transformation of the university into a secularised research environment as one finds it today, which necessarily had implications for theology’s role in the academy.
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8
Michael Atiyah, ‘Mathematics: Queen and Servant of the Sciences,’ Michael Atiyah: Collected Works Vol. 6 (Oxford: University Press, 2004), 523-31; Eric Temple Bell, Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (The Mathematical Association of America, 1996).
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10
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University defined and illustrated (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1899).
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11
Linell E. Cady, Delwin Brown, eds., Religious Studies, Theology and the University: Conflicting Maps, Changing Terrain (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002).
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14
See, for example, Joseph A. Burke, Fixing the Fragmented University: Decentralization with Direction (Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing, 2006).
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15
Werner Neuer, Adolf Schlatter: Ein Leben für Theologie und Kirche (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1996), 53.
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19
Schlatter officially retired in 1922, but continued to give lectures until 1930. He furthermore penned large exegetical commentaries as well as a devotional work until shortly before his death in 1938.
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20
See Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the German University, 24-28.
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23
Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the German University, 14.
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24
Paul Jäger, ‘Das “atheistische Denken,” ’ Die Christliche Welt 19 (1905), 578.
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25
Adolf Schlatter, ‘Atheistische Methoden in der Theologie,’ Beiträge zur Förderung Christlicher Theologie 9, no. 5 (1905), 230.
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27
Peter Berger, Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967), 100.
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31
Cf. Thomas F. Torrance, Christian Frame of Mind (Colorado Springs: Helmers and Howard, 1989), 75.
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34
Adolf Schlatter, Das Christliche Dogma (Stuttgart: Calwer Vereinsbuchhandlung, 1923), 98.
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37
Werner Neuer, Der Zusammenhang von Dogmatik und Ethik bei Adolf Schlatter: Eine Untersuchung zur Grundlegung christlicher Ethik (Gießen/Basel: Brunnen, 1986), 130. Emphasis original.
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42
R. H. Bremmer, Herman Bavinck en zijn Tijdgenoten (Kampen: Kok, 1966), 20.
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43
Herman Bavinck, De Ethiek van Ulrich Zwingli (Kampen: G. Ph. Zalsman, 1880).
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45
Herman Bavinck, ‘Theology and Religious Studies: Appendix B,’ Essays on Religion, Science and Society, ed. John Bolt, tr. Harry Boonstra (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 281.
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46
Bavinck, ‘Theology and Religious Studies: Appendix B,’ 283. Similarly to Bavinck in the Netherlands, German church historian Adolf von Harnack rejected the suggestion that the ‘Faculty of Christian Theology’ be renamed the ‘Faculty of the General Science of Religion and History of Religion’ in his 1901 speech at the University of Berlin on ‘The Task of the Theological Faculties and the general History of Religion.’ See Harnack, ‘Die Aufgabe der theologischen Fakultäten und die allgemeine Religionsgeschichte’, 159-178.
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48
Abraham Kuyper, Onnauwkeurig? (Amsterdam: J.A. Wormser, 1889), 9.
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49
Herman Bavinck, ‘Theology and Religious Studies,’ Essays on Religion, Science and Society, ed. John Bolt, tr. Harry Boonstra (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 53.
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50
Johannes Hermanus Gunning, De wijsbegeerte van den godsdienst uit het beginsel van het geloof der gemeente (Utrecht: Briejer, 1889), and Het geloof der gemeente als theologische maatstaf des oordeels in de wijsbegeerte van den godsdienst, parts I-II (Utrecht: Breijer, 1890).
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51
Herman Bavinck, ‘The Reformed Churches of the Netherlands,’ Princeton Theological Review 8 (1910); Hendrik Bouma, Secession, Doleantie and Union: 1834-1892, tr. Theodore Plantinga (Neerlandia, Alberta: Inheritance Publications, 1995).
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71
See also Herman Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1909).
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77
Herman Bavinck, ‘De Navolging van Christus en het Moderne Leven,’ in Kennis en Leven (Kampen: Kok, 1922), 137-139. This is an emphasis also found in Kuyper’s thought. See Abraham Kuyper, ‘Common Grace’ in Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 200.
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80
John Polkinghorne, Scientists as Theologians: A Comparison of the Writings of Ian Barbour, Arthur Peacocke, and John Polkinghorne (London: SPCK, 1996), 1; J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, Duet or Duel? Theology and Science in a Postmodern World (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1998), 21-2.
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82
Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena, 54. Bavinck’s qualification of the term regina scientarum portrays theology as a ‘servant queen’, rather than as an arbitrary, domineering ruler. Cf. Torrance, Theological Science, 283.
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Scientific Theology? Herman Bavinck and Adolf Schlatter on the Place of Theology in the University
In: Journal of Reformed TheologySearch for other papers by James Eglinton in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Michael Bräutigam in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This article, primarily historical in focus, explores the contributions of Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) and Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938) to discussion on the place of theology within the university. Schlatter’s belief that theology is a science belonging within the academy is explored via his debate with Paul Jäger on the possibility of ‘atheistic theology’. Bavinck’s similar convictions, it is seen, were formed in response to the Higher Education Act (1876), a piece of legislation which sought to marginalise theology in a Dutch academic context. The article concludes by tentatively encouraging twenty-first century theology to see itself as a necessary subject (on the grounds of its divine object and power to bring coherence among the sciences) within the contemporary university.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 677 | 91 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 126 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 102 | 6 | 0 |
