Some thoughts on chapter 1 of Bavinck's The Doctrine of God

I'm doing a Systematic Theology course from Reformed Theological Seminary on ITunesU.   It's free although I have bought the recommended books for the course.

One of the nice things about doing it this way is that I can do more if I have more time, and less if life is busy and I need to cut back on reading and listening to lectures.  I don't get credit for the course but, after all, it is free and as I'm not working on getting another degree and just want the information, I don't mind at all.

One of the books is The Doctrine of God by Herman Bavinck.  I just this morning finished chapter 1. I think most of it went in through my eyes and then went out my ears or something.  To say I found it hard going would be an understatement.  It's been a long time since I attempted such serious reading and I'm very out of practice. There was a long section on various 19th century philosophies about knowing God and another section on agnostic thought (from the late 1800s - early 1900s) and I found those very hard to get through. It does look like the other chapters will be a bit easier for me.

I know the purpose of this blog is for me to review books after I've read the whole thing, but I think I would like, from time to time, to write a very brief summary of the chapter.  So here goes my summation of chapter one - what I got out of it (which will make any seminary professor shudder, I'm sure):
God is incomprehensible yet knowable (Bavinck's words).   A lot of philosophers have said a lot of things about God but it's mostly all rubbish.  We can know about God from what He has said about Himself in His word and in nature. 

Oh, and Israel didn't "evolve" it's idea of God. 

I think section 1 of chapter 1 was the most useful to me and I will probably read it again some day.