Was ist die Essenz des christlichen Glaubens? Bavinck fasst dies so zusammen:
The essence of the Christian religion consists in the reality that
the creation of the Father,
ruined by sin,
is restored in the death of the Son of God
and re-created by the grace of the Holy Spirit into a kingdom of God.
Die Aufgabe der systematischen Zusammenfassung des Glauben muss deshalb Gott zum Ausgangspunkt nehmen:
Dogmatics shows us how God, who is all-sufficient in himself, nevertheless glorifies himself in his creation, which, even when it is torn apart by sin, is gathered up again in Christ (Eph. 1:10).
It describes for us God, always God, from beginning to end—God in his being, God in his creation, God against sin, God in Christ, God breaking down all resistance through the Holy Spirit and guiding the whole of creation back to the objective he decreed for it: the glory of his name.
Aus: Herman Bavinck. Reformed Dogmatics. Prolegomena, 35.
