Daily Devotions with Herman Bavinck (Donald K. McKim) -- Review
DAILY DEVOTIONS WITH HERMAN BAVINCK: Believing and Growing in Christian Faith. By Donald K. McKim. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2023. 232 pages.
I am by
nature rather eclectic theologically, which means that I am open to hearing a
variety of theological voices. The result is that, hopefully, with great discernment,
I have received valued perspectives from these sources that include Reformed,
Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Arminian/Wesleyan perspectives. The
book of devotions under review here, Daily Devotions with Herman Bavinck, written by Donald K. McKim, draws on the
writings of the Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck. While I have known
Bavinck's name I’ve spent little time with him and so haven’t engaged with him
theologically, though I assumed he would be rather Calvinist in his approach.
He is that, but whether you are Calvinist or Reformed or not, I believe will
find words of wisdom enshrined in these devotions.
As
noted above, Donald K. McKim is the author of this set of devotions. A
Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister, theologian, and author/editor, McKim has written
or edited numerous books, from the scholarly to the devotional. As with this volume,
many of his devotional works have drawn from well-known figures including John
Calvin in Coffee with Calvin: Daily Devotions and Karl Barth in Karl
Barth Breakfast with Barth: Daily Devotions. Now, he adds Herman
Bavinck.
Before
we get to the devotions, we need to get to know the person McKim is drawing
upon. That would be Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) who was Abraham Kuyper's
successor at the Free University of Amsterdam and author of a number of
theological works, including his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics. McKim first became acquainted with Bavinck as a college student,
and he has found Bavinck a helpful conversation partner since then. Regarding
this volume and similar theological devotional books McKim has authored in
recent years, he notes that he has tried "to acquaint readers with the thoughts
of major theologians by providing a discussion of a few sentences from their
writings. I hope to explain what the theologian meant and combine this with
comments about the importance of these thoughts for our Christian Living
today" (p. 11). With regard to Bavinck, McKim notes that Bavinck was a
"stalwart proponent of the Reformed faith rooted in the Protestant
Reformation and expressed in sixteenth-century Reformers such as John Calvin
and Heinrich Bullinger as well as their theological successors" (pp.
11-12).
In many
ways, Bavinck will come across as conservative or traditional. However, as
McKim shares in these devotions, there is a living faith present that can speak
to concerns of our day, even if we don’t fully share Bavinck’s theological
foundations. The goal here is to offer insights that will deepen our Christian understanding.
That is a worthy goal, even if we might not embrace every element of Bavinck's
theology. Nevertheless, as I read through the eighty-four reflections, each of
which is two pages in length, I found much that was helpful and insightful,
even to this non-Calvinist follower of Jesus (unlike some I’m not an anti-Calvinist!).
As noted, in his Daily Devotions with Herman Bavinck: Believing and Growing in the Christian Faith, McKim offers us eighty-four devotions, each is two pages in length. He divides these eighty-four devotions into two parts. Part One is titled "Believing as a Christian." Part Two is titled "Living as a Christian." Thus, the first forty-two devotions take on a more theological focus. We explore such theological concepts as the nature of Scripture, the nature of God, divine providence, sin, Christology, and salvation. In part two we read more about salvation and what it means to live the Christian life. There are devotions speaking of righteousness in Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the Church, union with Christ, good works, the centrality of love to our understanding of God, and the living the Christian life. While each devotion begins with a scripture reference and ends with a reflection point asking us to review the message of the devotion along with a call to prayer, McKim draws on quotations from the writings of Bavinck as the foundation for the devotional. In addition, interspersed throughout the devotional are longer excerpts, usually a paragraph or two in length, from Bavinck's writings, that serve as guideposts along the way.
In
McKim's capable hands, this Dutch neo-Calvinist theologian offers the reader
theologically meaningful reflections that can be used to deepen one's faith and
Christian life. What McKim does here is remind us that theology is not an
abstraction that has no bearing on daily life. What we believe influences the
way we act. I appreciate the reminder that we are in fact sinners, and that sin
affects even our best efforts in life. Thus, as McKim notes, drawing on
Bavinck, love of neighbor, though commanded of us by Jesus, isn't natural. Quoting
Bavinck, we are reminded that "Love for one's neighbor can only be sustained
if, on the one hand, it is founded in and imposed on us by God's commandment,
and if, on the other hand, that same God gives us the desire in our hearts to
walk in sincerity according to all his commandments" (p. 210). What we
learn in these devotions is that God is acting in our midst, guiding, and
empowering us to mature into true followers of Jesus.
Donald
McKim has developed the ability to distill wisdom from a wide variety of
theologians, most of whom are Reformed like Bavinck and Calvin (though he also
has provided similar devotional books drawing from Luther and Bonhoeffer), which
reminds us that there is much wisdom to be drawn from theologians of the past
as well as the present. Setting them in a devotional context as in the case of Daily Devotions with Herman Bavinck,
reminds us that theology can speak to daily life. For this, we can be grateful.
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