• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Studies in Dogmatics
 
The
 
Person
 
Of Christ
 
BY
 G. C. BERKOUWER
PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY FREEUNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
 W
M
.
 
B. E
ERDMANS
P
UBLISHING
C
OMPANY
G
RAND
R
APIDS
,
 
M
ICHIGAN
 
 
CHAPTER I
 
Introduction
 
HEN
in 1871 Dr. Abraham Kuyper gave his lecture on"Modernism: A Mirage in the Sphere of Christianity," hedrew a parallel between the inspiring optical phenomenon to beobserved at the Strait of Messina — and Modernism; at this timehe characterized the movement as fascinatingly beautiful, ashaving arisen by a definite logic, but as being devoid of allobjective reference. Thus he sharply condemned the modernismof the nineteenth century and posited an irreconcilable antithesisbetween Modernism and the Christian faith. He pointed outspecifically that heresies arise on Christian territory by a fixedlaw, as does a mirage in the atmosphere. They are, according tohim, a "necessary deflection of the light of Christianity in thespiritual atmosphere of a given age." Every age produces itspeculiar heresy in the church of Christ, and since the nineteenthcentury occupies a place of honor in the history of man, it wasinevitable, by the logic of history, that in this age a resoundingheresy should rise to the surface.
 
When Kuyper referred to Modernism as "bewitchinglybeautiful," he doubtlessly recalled the fascination which themodernism of Scholten had exerted on him as a student. Heacknowledges in 1871 that he too had once dreamed the dreamof Modernism.
1
And when at the age of eighty he addressed thestudents of the Free University,
2
he harked back to the
 
1.
 
A. Kuyper,
Fata Morgana,
page 52.2.
 
 Nog in den band van voorheen,
1907.9
 
W
 
10
 
THE PERSON OF CHRIST
 
"unspiritual presumption" which had caused him to slip. "AtLeiden I joined, with great enthusiasm, in the applause givenProfessor Rauwenhoff when he, in his public lectures, brokewith all belief in the Resurrection of Jesus." "Now when I look back," he writes, "my soul still shudders at times over theopprobrium I then loaded on my Savior."
3
Kuyper concludes hislecture with a reference to the Incarnation of the Word andpoints out the unfathomable cleavage between the church of Christ and Modernism. Now that endorsement of Rauwenhoff'snegation and criticism has given way to adoration of the Son of Man, Kuyper recognizes in Arianism the image of theModernism of his own day.
4
"One merely has to write othernames and other dates into the history of the Arian heresy, and,provided one takes it in broad outline, the course of Modernismis repeated."
 
From these remarks it appears clearly that Kuyper finds in thisChristological conflict not a dispute on some purely theoreticalpoint of divergence but a religious and existential conflict of absolutely determinative significance. The point at issue,according to him, is heresy aimed at the heart of the church; andfor this reason Kuyper joins the company of Athanasius whofought Arius consciously with a view to the wellbeing of thechurch. In this heresy the Christian perspective is lost: "Why notstop using the word 'prayer'? What you call prayer is a fanaticself-exaltation, a ventilation of your own hearts, a dialogue withyour own soul."
 
* * * .
 
Contained in this reference to Kuyper lies, to our mind, apointer for all the problems which will occupy us in this study.Here we feel, more than anywhere else, that theology is notpractised in a corner apart from the faith of the church, from thereligion of faith, prayer, and adoration. In the
 
3.
 
A. Kuyper,
 Nog in den band van voorheen,
1907, page 34.4.
 
Fata Morgana,
pages 50-51.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...