Ch1 Sect 3 The Problem of Certainty: Church and Scripture

If dogmatic theology is going to be treated as a science, is there a way to arrive at “Certainty”. Bavinck asks the question “Does theology posses a certain degree of independence from other sciences?” (p14) The question of certainty that Bavinck asks, I take to mean, how we can be certain of the truth of who God is and what he has done, through faith. Not a truth of a simple fact, but a truth gives rest, assurance, encouragement to our very souls.

Bavinck notes the way we arrive about certainty in one scientific discipline is different than another. There is an intuitive certainty we have about the shortest distance between 2 points is straight line. We also have certain sense perceptions that guide us in certainty, when we see water boil, we are certain that it is hot. The point Bavinck is making is that Dogmatic Theology as a science has independence from other science in its method, otherwise science would dictate to theology its method and object of study. If God exists and has made himself known, he cannot be contained by our senses and reasoning and therefore the use of certainty found in mathematics , physics or philosophy would not apply. The ground of certainty for theology is Revelation. What God has revealed about himself and his world in Holy Scripture. Our epistemic source (source of knowledge) is not ourselves, but the truth God has spoken in the Bible.

Bavinck goes to make a distinction from “biblical theology” and dogmatic theology. Bavinck is using the term “biblical theology” to mean a summary of scripture. However, as Bavinck points out, even when one attempts to summarize the bible, there will be a certain bias that is shaped by culture, experience and church tradition. (p17) Even a simple summary of the bible will not be without certain influences. Also, Bavinck notes, the bible is not a legal document that is to be used to answer specific questions, or given to us to parrot exact words and phrases. Rather God’s revelation of himself in Scripture is given to so that man may think God’s thoughts after him in God’s world. Dogmatic Theology is to set forth, in a systematic fashion, the thoughts of God.

Dogmatic Theology systematizes the thoughts of God in a scholarly form and method (p18), done within the community of the Church (19), using the doctrine of Scripture as the sole foundation of theology.(p19) And this, as Bavinck closes the section, can only be with Scripture as the external foundation(principium externum).
"This foundation of first principal suggests an organic connection. In a formal sense, there are no dogmas in Scripture, but the material for them is all to be found in it. Hence dogmatic theology can be defined as the truth of Scripture, absorbed and reproduced by the thinking consciousness of the Christian theologian" p20