There is one term in this section the Bavinck really wants us to understand. Dogma. Why is it important, what purpose does it serve, what do we have without it? Here are some quotes from this section I found helpful.
“Dogmas are truths properly set forth in Scripture as things to be believed. Although a truth confessed by the church is not dogma because the church recognizes it but solely because it rests on God’s authority, religious dogma is always a combination of divine authority and churchly confession.” p4
“The power of the church to lay down dogmas is not sovereign and legislative; it is a power of service to and for the Word of God. Still, this authority has been granted by God to his church; it enables and authorizes her to confess the truth of God and to formulate it in speech and writing.“ P5
"A religion without dogma, however vague and general it may be, does not exist, and non-dogmatic Christianity, in the strictest sense of the word, is an illusion and devoid of meaning" p6
“Dogma is the doctrines of the church, for the articles of faith that are based on the Word of God and therefore obligate everyone of faith. Dogmatic theology, then, is the system of the articles of faith.” p7
“Dogmatic theology is, and can only exist as, the scientific system of the knowledge of God, and dogmatic theology is that knowledge that God has revealed in his Word to the church concerning himself and all creatures as they stand in relation to him.” p8
All this must be done in faith, and towards the end of the section Bavinck slips in some fundamental word about faith.
“Faith is the faculty by which we come to know (God), it is not the source”. p8
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