Intellectualist?

Pipe & Dram: Hendrikus Berkhof's Phantom Bavinck

Step into my study. Shall I fill you a pipe? Pour you a dram?

Dear Friends,

Welcome! Make yourselves at home.

In his historical survey of theology over the past 200 years, Hendrikus Berkhof wrote the following:

For [Herman Bavinck] the difference between Reformed theology and ‘ethical theology’ did not lie in theocentricity [i.e., God-centeredness] versus anthropocentricity [i.e., man-centeredness] but in intellectualism versus personalism: Is faith submission to the authority of scriptural truths or is it the personal encounter with God through the person of Christ by which we are transformed into personalities? Bavinck opted for the priority of the scriptural principle, and in the prolegomena of his dogmatics he threw in his lot (with some Reformed corrections) with Neo-Thomism. For him faith was not in the first place a yielding up on one’s life to a Person but intellectual assent and submission to Scripture.

I apologize. Here we are, enjoying the pleasant aroma of our pipe tobacco and I had to wheel that stinker of a quote into the room. I have rarely in my life read a passage quite so ridiculous, but stick with me a moment because it provides by contrast an opportunity to focus on more edifying things.

If Berkhof wants to send us to the Prolegomena of Bavinck’s Dogmatics then, by all means, let’s do! Will we find that for him “faith was not in the first place a yielding up of one’s life to a Person” but rather “intellectual assent”? Is that our choice: intellectualism versus personalism?