and reciprocally support and promote each other.”^151 Bavinck demonstrates their
mutual significance in his communion meditation, The Sacrifice of Praise. In
describing the importance of introducing children to Scripture he claims it must “be
both instruction and training, at the same time working upon mind and heart.”^152 As
Bavinck expands his teaching he highlights first the danger of emphasizing only the
emotions, “[t]he cultivation of emotions and the awakening of affections without true
and clear representations is even dangerous.”^153 Likewise, he warns of the risk of
ignoring the affections, “[h]e, who impresses the truth upon his mind, without having
his heart in it, receives only the image of the things, while he remains a stranger unto
the things themselves.”^154 Clearly Bavinck exhibits a greater balance again than Barth
on this point.
Bavinck’s historical context affected his understanding of mysticism and his
reservations regarding it. The balanced mystical piety of the first generation of the
Nadere Reformatie was eclipsed by an increasing otherworldly withdrawal from
society. This same pattern was repeated in Bavinck’s time with the Secession.^155
Therefore, Bavinck’s assessment of mysticism can be summarized in relation to three
primary concerns. First, he objects to its exclusive nature. Since it is typically
associated with monasticism it reduces the experience “to a small number of
privileged persons.”^156 Second, while not an accurate assessment, Bavinck believed
(^151) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics (^) , 4:153. cf. Essays on Religion, 199-204 where he
asserts the cooperative interaction of the intellect and will rather than the primacy of
one over the other. 152
153 Bavinck, Sacrifice of Praise, 42.^
154 Bavinck, Sacrifice of Praise, 43.^
155 Bavinck, Sacrifice of Praise, 44. cf. Certainty of Faith, 76.^
156 Bolt, Bavinck, “Imitation of Christ Theme,” 55Reformed Dogmatics, 1:148.- 7.^