"Personality and Worldview" (Johan H. Bavinck)

TITLE: Personality and Worldview
AUTHOR: Johan Herman Bavinck (translated by James Eglinton)
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023, (208 pages).
 

When doing studies about comparative religion, one of the most common ways is to use the term worldview. Sometimes, we tend to think that worldview is something objectively understood. That is only half the story. What equally matters is the person holding that worldview, for the subjective and the objective are related in more ways than one.  In other words, personality affects worldviews. The condition of the soul affects one's outlook on life. More importantly, any understanding of the world is only as good as one's personality. This is the crux of the book about the relationship between the subjective and the objective. Some people think that worldviews are objective while personalities are subjective. The problem is that such dichotomies are false. Both are linked in some or more ways. The gospel breaks down these false dichotomies to give us a concrete understanding of both the self as well as the worldview. Every philosophy, religion, or spiritual quest is a form of searching for God, so says Bavinck. One might want to argue the Person of God, but it is no denying that one searches for some form of transcendence in the name of Truth. Bavinck goes into the quest in two ways.

First, he looks at the essence of personality and asks several questions about how we understand ourselves. He identifies two key marks: "organization and self-consciousness," also known as "an organized soul." This personality comes forth in three ways: Unity; Balance; and Moral. Unity refers to the tendency to organize things and make them as coherent as possible. Moral is a sense of right and wrong, and Balance tries to reach a stable middle ground. While these are traits, very noble ones, the problem lies in the different approaches one takes. For instance, on the problem of unity, how can anyone with a finite mind ever make sense of the infinite universe? How does one reconcile irreconcilable differences and conflicts? Bavinck probes the different religious thoughts and philosophies from East to West to show us the trouble with these efforts to reconcile unity. He studies the spectrum of ideas from both Eastern and Western thought to find that unity involves both active empirical search and passive knowing. Both activity and passivity exist. We cannot deny the existence of a particular world just because we cannot comprehend or explain it. Looking at the rise of the Western Renaissance, Bavinck notes that the revolutionary mood goes deeper than mere intellectual liberation. It is about freedom from authoritarianism or oppressive laws placed upon the  common people. He calls it a "song of rebellion" which incidentally masks an inner rebellion against God. Taking a leaf from the 18th Century German philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, our worldviews no matter how excellent are mere glimpses of things within our sensory perception and not the whole world. There are things outside our domain of understanding, which places a hard limit on the scope of our worldviews. That is one reason why humility is the path to understanding things beyond ourselves. For the power of reason is finite. Combing rationalistic thought from Aristotle to Descartes; the Middle ages to the Renaissance; Platonism to Neo-Platonism; adopting interpretive strategies from the inductive to the deductive, etc, it is crucial to remember the interpretation differs from person to person. Blavinck summarizes these rather succinctly: "The empiricist lives more from the outward in, and the rationalist more from the inside out." More importantly, he points out to us that no person is mighty enough to know everything.

Blavinck also takes us through the realm of conscience, not only showing us the power of the intellect and the emotions, but also to take us to a soul level in the understanding of knowledge. Perceptions, insights, judgments, and all manner of reality as they appear to us are glimpses of the absolute. He concludes his essays with a take on mysticism and revelation. Just like the way he deals with the philosophical thought in the earlier chapters, he guides us through the various mystical thought from East to West to remind us that those too are efforts to find God. Gradually, he shows us that the Bible has captured all of these thoughts brilliantly.

My Thoughts
How should one make of this book?  Three ways to look at it. The first way is to see it as an attempt to link the subjective (personality) with the objective (worldview). All kinds of discoveries are dependent on the use of the perception, the intellect, and the creative mind. Blavinck's mind is formidable in terms of his understanding of the different philosophies and theologies through the ages. Well aware of the spectrum of ideas and worldviews, he probes each of them to find out the root of their interest in the world. This he has done from two fronts: The inner study on personality and the outer on worldviews. Both inform the other. It is futile to isolate the two. The great teacher Qohelet wrote Ecclesiastes to show us the futility of materialism and knowledge. Blavinck seems to play the role of a mini-Ecclesiastes in the realm of philosophy and worldview study.

The second is a survey of attempts to find God. As he observes the different kinds of worldviews, he notices that many of them possess a common thread: They are asking the same kind of questions of life. Different generations may come up with different ideas or discoveries but they all stem from an unchanging fundamental quest for origin, meaning and significance. There is a higher purpose we all seek, and this cannot be found in our own quest. If God had not revealed Himself to us, we are helpless. He makes a great observation about ordinary layperson, that most of them generally do not profess a worldview. Thus, such studies on worldview are dismissed as mere "ivory-tower philosophizing" that is "irrelevant" to the people. Wisely, Blavinck begs to differ. If we are indeed honest with ourselves, the way we see the world, no matter what labels we slap on our lifestyles, we are living out a search for God in our own ways.

The third is about what it means for us. Regardless of our backgrounds and inclinations, we all need God. Blavinck summarizes the general public by placing them in two camps: "atheistic materialism" and "positive Christianity." Though he didn't define or label a third category that combines the two in varying capacities, he leaves it to us to question where we are and where we would want to be. The reader would soon realize that very few people (in particular Christians) are in either category. Most people who call themselves Christians would be a combination of materialism and Christianity. For the unbeliever, Ps 14:1 tells us in no uncertain terms that, "The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." While some might say it is meant for non-Christians, this verse applies to all persons. We can agree that all people are searching for Truth, albeit in their own specific ways. Like the gospel's reminder about the wide and narrow way, many will still choose the former and reject the latter. Bavinck's book will appeal to the academic or the intellect. However, if we cut to the chase and go right to his key point, it is about a search for God that matters to everyone.

This book can be intimidating for some readers but if one presses on, there is a lot to gain in terms of the understanding of the human soul and variety of worldviews.

J. H. Bavinck (1895–1964) was a Dutch pastor, theologian, and missionary to Indonesia. Nephew of Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck, he also served as a professor of missiology at the Free University of Amsterdam and the Theological School in Kampen. Some of his other works include An Introduction to the Science of Missions; Between the Beginning and the End; and The Church Between Temple and Mosque.

James Eglinton (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is the Meldrum Senior Lecturer in Reformed Theology at New College, the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Bavinck: A Critical Biography, which won the 2020 Gospel Coalition Book of the Year award for history and biography.

Timothy J. Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. He is the best-selling author of The Prodigal God and The Reason for God. 

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.