Carl R. Trueman schildet (hier) seine Lebenswende – durch das Studium von Berkouwer, der ihn wiederum zu Herman Bavinck geführt hat.
…his work provided me with a model for theological study which helped me to realise that thinking and orthodoxy are not mutually opposed. Here was a man who was conversant with the historical theological tradition, who was well aware of the significance of the Kantian critique of knowledge for theological construction, who was adept as a systematician and as an exegete, but who also had a heart devoted to the Lord who had bought him.
Warum soll der Theologe heute relevant sein?
Well, in conversation with theological students around the country, it often seems to me that one major problem faced by many is the development of a way of thinking theologically which neither retreats into a ghetto and adopts a ‘seek out and destroy’ mentality towards every new idea which crosses their path, nor capitulates unconditionally at the first objection to their faith which they cannot immediately answer. Such students need their theological confidence boosted by good role models of a kind provided neither by the tunnel-vision of the specialist scholars who epitomise the fragmented nature of the theological discipline today, nor the platitudes of self-appointed evangelical gurus whose latest blockbuster tells them what they know already.