Stone Lecture declaring faith is “a trustful knowledge and a knowing trust.”^145
Additionally, the Holy Spirit plays a significant role in this dynamic of experience,
“[h]ence the subjective activity of the Holy Spirit has to be added to the objective
word.”^146 Earlier Bavinck refers to the Spirit’s role in “subjective revelation” as
illumination.^147 His more comprehensive understanding of the dynamic relationship
between Word and Spirit and a person’s experiences of God will come following his
critique of mysticism.
Not only is Bavinck’s comfort level in relation to the subjective dimension of
experience greater than Barth’s he also articulates a more balanced treatment of the
intellect and affections. Bavinck asserts, “[t]he heart cannot be separated from the
head, nor faith as trust from faith as knowledge.”^148 In his inaugural address at the
Free University of Amsterdam he defines his vision for doing theology and declares it
is “a service of worship, a consecration of mind and heart to the honor of His
name.”^149 Bavinck demonstrated this in both his writings and lifestyle. Henry
Dosker, his life long friend, confirmed this balance, “[Bavinck] had a thoroughly
disciplined mind, with the heart of a child.” Later as a summary of Bavinck’s method
Dosker declared, “[t]he service of God, both with heart and intellect, is the aim of all
true Christian theology.”^150 Significantly, Bavinck appreciated the unique
contribution of these human faculties and never sought to elevate one over the other.
Therefore, he maintained the intellect and the will “are consistently interconnected
(^145) Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation (^) , 240.
(^146) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4:460.
(^147) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1:350.
(^148) Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, 208. cf. Essays on Religion, 26.
(^149150) Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 7.
Dosker, “Bavinck,” 454, 463.