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 Bavinckwritten 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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