Ch 2 Sect 1 The Formation of Dogma

“The Bible is not a textbook of theology; its language is the fresh and immediate expression of concrete life. Dogmatic theology arises from sustained reflection on the truth of Scripture, and is the task of the whole church, not just of individuals.” (pg. 30) Dogmatic theology arises from within the church and here Bavinck wants to guard against two extremes, an over estimating of the church’s tradition on the one hand, and an under estimation or as he says “disparaging” of the tradition on the other

The concern with overestimating tradition, is that often tradition allowed pagan philosophy to influence and alter Christian truth. Some, such as Adolph van Harnack, would argue that the only way to prevent this influence was to reduce Christianity to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount and summarize the Gospel as “the fatherhood of God, brotherhood of man, and the infinite worth of the human soul”. This would be the disparaging of tradition, throw out all tradition, creeds, and formulations, except this new one that Harnack dogmatically introduces.

The Roman Catholicism is the example of an overestimation of tradition, where Christian truth is embodied in the official Church teaching. The official church teaching is manifested in Scripture and tradition that only the Pope can interpret. Ultimately then, tradition has as much authority and the man interpreting tradition has as much authority as Scripture.

The Reformation was on guard against both an over estimation and an under estimation of tradition. The Reformation would accept tradition, and creeds, and formulation, as long as they conformed and reflected the truth of Scripture. Scripture would be the ultimate authority for all dogmatic reflection through the history and tradition of the church.