Doctrine of God

The doctrine of God is the foundation of Christian theology and the prerequisite of all true faith. Yet, despite this, few books expound the biblical teaching on the being and character of God himself, or encourage that glorifying of his name for which man is made and redeemed. Observing this need, William Hendriksen also saw how admirably it had been met, for those able to read Dutch, in the second volume of Herman Bavinck's Gereformeerde Dogmatiek (Reformed Dogmatics). The result was this present translation, making available some of the most important of Bavinck's material for the English-speaking world and providing, in the words of Hendriksen, 'a spiritual treat' for the serious reader. More fully this volume has been described as a 'model of exhaustive and balanced exegesis. Careful historical presentation, painstaking effort to do justice to both sides of a question and always a welath of biblical material to support its views make The Doctrine of God an unusually accurate and authoritative volume. The chapters include: God's Incomprehensibility, God's Knowability, God's Names, God's Incommunicable Attributes, God's Communicable Attributes, The Holy Trinity, and God's Counsel.' The Christian Church has had many historians of theology but few men who were themselves master theologians. Bavinck belonged to that small grop and as will always be found in such cases, he possessed both high gifts of intellect and real consecration to Christ. His memorable words at death, 'My learning does not help me now...faith alone saves me', exemplified the spirit in which he had sought to live.