God talk

Bavinck asks the question in chapter 5 of his ethics page 169,” Why is there relatively little mention of the conscience among the Greeks and Romans when it is such a universal human phenomenon?” Bavinck made two points here. 1.          Socrates and Plato linked ethics to the polis (city); “For the Greek, the norms for morality, for the good, were objectively present in the laws of the polis and were not specified by the acting subject in their conscience.” Page 169 2.        “Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were intellectualists; this meant that they sought the starting point and standard for conduct in human reason rather than in the conscience” page 169. Before moving on to how Alexander the Great fits in this; At one time for the ancient Greek keeping the laws of the city state are what made a good person.   Or that using logic and thinking moves the will to do actions that are right or wrong.   Making...

  18 04 2021 Bavinck looks first at the conscience through the lense of the Fall.   After the Fall for Bavinck Adam was in the same situation as an ‘unregenerate Christian’.   So Adam died spiritually but he still had some vestiges that were passed down some families.   He writes ‘But that knowledge of God that Adam still retained he did pass on; it remained pure in a few families and was thus salvific since the promise of Genesis 3:1 was also passed on along with it.1 In this way the pure worship of God continued in the families of Abel, Seth, Enoch, and so forth. Even Melchizedek and Job apparently drew their true knowledge of God from the well of tradition.’ Reformed Ethics page 167. Anyhow before looking at the next sections let us reflect on these people that Bavinck has mentioned. Abel Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and...

  What is conscience?   This is an important question and no matter what discipline we come from; we will have some type of opinion about it.    Wiki says, "Although humanity has no generally accepted definition of conscience or universal agreement about its role in ethical decision-making, three approaches have addressed it:       Religious views     Secular views     Philosophical views"   From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience Those are possibly collecting points but the fact is with Bavinck the Master theologian he goes really deep and does not leave any stone unturned.    Bavinck starts chapter 5 with “Although fallen human beings are spiritually dead, the sagas and saga complexes of peoples point to traditions of religious and moral wisdom that are as old as humanity itself. Included are kernels of truth concerning God, the soul, and conscience, particularly found in ph...