Herman Bavinck lived from 1854-1921 and was the son of Jan Bavinck, a minister of the Afscheding (Seceded) churches in the Netherlands. He, much to the surprise of his family, chose to study at the modernist University of Leiden, where he composed his doctoral thesis on the ethics of Ulrich Zwingli. However, this time at Leiden did not subvert Bavinck's Reformed foundations. He went on to become a professor at the seminary of the Seceded Churches in Kampen and would later join Abraham Kuyper at the Free University of Amsterdam. Bavinck's field was dogmatics and he made several important written contributions in this area, the most noteworthy of which was his four volume Gereformeerde Dogmatiek (Reformed Dogmatics, presently being translated into English). Bavinck introduced the notion of organic inspiration of the Scriptures and also developed a solution to the infra/supralapsarian conundrum. Although Bavinck died in 1921, he remains a powerful force in Reformed theology. Several important Reformed theologians owe large debts to him, including Cornelius VanTil and Louis Berkhof.
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