this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: Geordende openbaring of geopenbaarde orde?
Subtitle: Kanttekeningen bij Christelijke dogmatiek
Author(s): VAN ERP, Stephan
Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie
Volume: 53    Issue: 3   Date: 2013   
Pages: 229-242
DOI: 10.2143/TVT.53.3.3203323

Abstract :
This first comment on Christelijke Dogmatiek by G. van den Brink and C. van der Kooi examines the prolegomena and the doctrine of God. With the doctrine of God, the doctrines of the Trinity, creation and predestination are also discussed. The reviewer wonders whether, for their dogmatics, the authors may have relied too much on Hans Frei’s old five-place typology for understanding theology that is based on the difference between believers and unbelievers. After all, the current situation of faith has radically changed and become much more pluralistic and democratic. He also criticises the content of the chapter on revelation, which he believes is too much of a justification of the rationality of faith from the point of view of fundamental theology. Instead, the discussion of revelation could also have been composed of reflections on creation, resurrection and the Kingdom of God. In Christelijke Dogmatiek, faith appears to be an act that is wholly dependent on human choice and on the commitment to really act as a believer. In what way is that different from the constructivist approach the authors say they want to avoid? The same could be said of their discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity, which they consider to be the co-ordinate system of dogmatics. The question is whether they consider the Trinity to be the logic of dogmatics or the revealed history of salvation. And again with the doctrine of creation, the nature of dogmatics is at stake. Do Van den Brink and Van der Kooi consider dogmatics to be a conceptual ordering of revealed reality, or the conceptual expression of an order that reveals itself?

Download article