Studies in Dogmatics: Sin
Overview
Professor Berkouwer contends, in the light of Scripture, that there can be no meaning in the meaningless or rationality in that which is intrinsically irrational. And so, a doctrine of sin which suggests that there can be only detracts from the awfulness of sin and the magnitude of God’s forgiveness. The proper response to sin is a true confession of my guilt; for the person who truly confesses is truly forgiven. From this vantage point Berkouwer rejects notions of monism, dualism, and a demonological explanation for man’s sin. He wants nothing to do with a “phenomenology of evil” which sees sin as self-evident. In the light of the salvation that has come we can only speak of sins that remain in us as riddle.
Berkouwer’s view is a wholesome foil to contemporary concepts that refer to human “estrangement” or “alienation,” but have little or nothing to say about guilt. He eschews the language of causality, since “self-exculpation dogs the heels of any explanation for our sin.” He denies the concepts of realism and federalism as developed in Reformed orthodox theology. “Original sin” is no datum that is “with us,” and is certainly no “alien guilt”; much rather, it is known in our involvement in sin. Nothing, not even faith, can shed a particle of light on the truly enigmatic character of evil. God’s wrath is seen the service of his grace and not as the coordinate of his love; and precisely in his intolerance for sin the act of his mercy is revealed. In a similar way, we cannot discuss the law as the source of the knowledge of sin apart from the gospel, or the gospel apart from the law. We cannot see Adam apart from Jesus Christ.
Top Highlights
“This was the insight that brought Bavinck to the remarkable statement that sin has no ‘origin’ but only a ‘beginning.’ Therefore he saw the question of origin, or the attempt to analyze and to know the reasons why, as illegitimate.” (Page 18)
“We can never assign this ‘reality’ of sin, in any perspicuous sense, to the goodness of God’s creation.” (Page 14)
“Unde malum, or Whence evil? Yet obviously, if this is what we want to know, everything depends on what we mean by malum. The issue takes on a certain color if we see in malum a common and universal abnormality and aberration, or a mere frustration in human affairs. It is different if we accept the term in its biblical sense of ‘trangression’ against God’s holy command, or the forfeiting of communion with God and the rebellion against his lordship. Here already it is clear that the nature and content of this question predefine the nature of the answers that are given. The complexity and remarkable variety in this question are explainable, to some extent, already now.” (Page 12)
“The tendency to make an excuse or an explanation is part and parcel of the very nature of sin. Therefore it is illegitimate.” (Page 20)
“Thus the noble art of self-analysis is supplanted by the vicious practice of accusing someone else and excusing oneself. In that way a ‘causal’ line of thought ends up in making references to someone else as the prima causa of one’s own misconduct. Even if we assume responsibility for a certain proportion of life’s miseries and woes, the ‘causal’ mode of thinking finds it difficult to see that portion as any more than the causa secunda. This must obviously root in a still deeper prima causa. We do well to cast a wary eye on that sort of thinking.” (Page 15)
Product Details
- Title: Studies in Dogmatics: Sin
- Author: G. C. Berkouwer
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 1971
- Pages: 600
G. C. Berkouwer (1903–1996) was the leading theologian of the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands and served as pastor there for over 15 years. He was professor of systematic theology at the Free University of Amsterdam while also lecturing on modern theology. In 1962, Berkouwer was an observer at the Second Vatican Council in Rome. He studied at the Christian Gymnasium and at the Free University of Amsterdam.
Berkouwer was very influential among the Reformed churches and other groups in North America, were his series Studies in Dogmatics, was translated, published, and very well-known. The Studies in Dogmatics series is noted by many as one of the most significant works of Christian Dogmatics of the twentienth century.
