How does faith and philosophy relate to one another? How does theology and science correlate? How do all these supposed binaries fit into the Christian life? For Bavinck, there is an organic unity because grace in Christ unites both common and special grace. 

Herman Bavinck argued for a doctrine called common grace to explain why so many good, true, and beautiful things exist in our world despite the reality of sin. In his essay on “Common Grace,” Bavinck asserts, “The entirety of the rich life of nature and society exists thanks to God’s common grace.” Then he asks, “But why should he continue to preserve such a sinful world by a special action of his grace?”^[1]

Those within the Reformed tradition can understand the tension. Theologically, the doctrine of original sin and total depravity point to humanity’s sinful and depraved condition. Yet undoubtedly great acts of courage, of kindness, of art, of science, and of philosophy exist. Man went to the moon. China built the Great Wall. The Latin poets still amaze.

Bavinck understood this. He aimed to avoid the world-weary nihilism among some Christians and pie-in-the-sky spiritualism of others. For Bavinck, the doctrine of common grace meant that regular life is a revelation of God’s grace that restrains evil and promotes the goodness of the created order.

Jessica Joustra (then Driesenga) explains: “Common grace is an aspect of God’s all-encompassing providence, through which God maintains human life, culture, and all of creation; it maintains the goodness of creation in spite of human depravity. Common grace is the source of all human accomplishment and virtuous deeds.”^[2]

For this reason, philosophy, science, and art can exist as forms of God’s common grace, even among unbelievers. And so if we ask the questions such as what does Christianity have to do with science or what does faith have to do with philosophy, the answer is: God’s gracious revelation in creation and Christ.

And this union of God’s revelation of grace in both creation and salvation, nature and grace, means that politics, arts, philosophy, and all the regular aspects of life fall under God’s gracious care. And further, and this is key for Bavinck, the grace of Christ restores and establishes the goodness of the natural order of things.

To understand Bavinck’s doctrine of common and grace how it justifies Christianity study and appreciation of philosophy, science, and arts, we need to begin with his view of revelation.

Revelation

The doctrine of common grace ties tightly to God’s revelation. As Bavinck notes, “All revelation…is an act of God’s grace” (The Wonderful Works of God, 45). Revelation thus is a form of grace.

That said, Bavinck distinguishes between and general and special revelation. For salvation, “general revelation is inadequate” (Wonderful, 45). Special revelation, by contrast, brings saving revelation to mankind in the person and work of Christ.

Bavinck also adds, “The special revelation of God, consequently, is necessary also for a right understanding of his general revelation in nature and history, and in heart and conscience” (Wonderful, 46).

Yet Bavinck rejects an extreme binary between supernatural and natural revelation. He can say, “Creation is revelation, a very special absolutely supernatural, marvelous revelation.” And given that creation reveals a personal God, we should expert further revelation like the Incarnation (Wonderful, 47).

The key distinctions between special and generation revelation centre on special revelation’s manner, content, and purpose (47). Both revelations agree with each other, but special revelation’s manner often takes a verbal, or speaking form; it can also be a revealing or a making known of God in some specific way (Heb 1:1; Wonderful, 47). In particular special revelation gives explicit revelation of God in contrast to general revelation which leaves it up to us to discern God’s ways  (.e.g., Isa 28:26; so Wonderful, 49). .

The content involves things like the Incarnation—it focuses son “the person and work of Christ” and “the Scriptures, the Word of God” (Wondeful, 50).

The purpose of special revelation is to giving saving knowledge to sinners that can also interpret general revelation.

Practically, special revelation purges or purifies general revelation from human error. When that happens, “the light of Scriptures” shows us “that general revelation has a rich significance for the whole of human life” (Wonderful, 46). Yet it remains insufficient for achieving “the proper end of man” (Wonderful, 46).

Essay on “Common Grace”

In his essay entitled “Common Grace,” Bavinck provides a biblical-theological argument for the meaning of revelation and its relationship to common and special grace.

In the first place, Bavinck sees revelation as persistent throughout all history in both creation and in Scripture. Before Adam and Eve sinned, God revealed himself to the world, and he had a relationship with humanity under a covenant of works. This covenant of works was not characterized by grace, since without sin, neither common nor special grace was needed.

But after the Fall, God still reveals himself to the world but that revelation changes in its character. As Bavinck explains in “Common Grace,” because humans sinned and deserved death, revelation now comes “as a revelation of grace” (40).

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