Imitating Christ: Bavinck’s Application of an Ethical Norm in the First Commandment

Abstract

This essay seeks to examine the distinctive way that Herman Bavinck employs the imitation of Christ within Reformed Ethics. The distinctive way in which Bavinck understands and applies the imitation of Christ in his exposition of the commandments is helpfully clarified in conversation with his contemporary, Wilhelm Geesink. Both Bavinck and Geesink penned a Reformed Ethic – one remained unpublished and the other posthumously published – in which they share methodological commitments to scripture, the law, and the Reformed tradition’s understanding of the normativity of the law for the Christian life. An analysis of the two thinkers on the first commandment shows, however, that amidst these striking similarities, Bavinck and Geesink differ in their appeal to the imitation of Christ as a guide for the Christian life. Through an examination of Bavinck’s ethical method and both Bavinck and Geesink’s exposition of the first commandment, this essay will highlight the centrality of the imitation of Christ in Bavinck’s ethics as an ethical norm, differentiating his application of the duties of the commandment for the Christian life from his contemporaries.