Unity or Distinction? Herman Bavinck’s Use of John Calvin and Later Reformed Orthodoxy in His Doctrine of the Two States

Abstract This article examines the doctrine of Christ’s two states of humiliation and exaltation in Herman Bavinck’s and John Calvin’s thought, with the aim of illuminating Bavinck’s use of Calvin. The article begins by exploring Calvin’s use of the two states and argues that his treatment of Christ’s descent into hell is an important though understudied example of his broad approach to the two states, an integrative view of Christ’s exaltation in humiliation. An overview of the status duplex in subsequent Reformed orthodox thought is then provided, including Zacharias Ursinus’s commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, the Leiden Synopsis , and the Westminster Larger Catechism. Finally, this article shows how Bavinck’s history, theology and defense of the two states retrieves some of Calvin’s emphases, and yet, despite Bavinck’s positioning of himself within a Reformed unanimity, largely favors the later Reformed orthodox position and does not note where Calvin and these later thinkers disagree. While both Calvin and Bavinck favor a view of unity and simultaneous distinction in the relationship between humiliation and exaltation, for Bavinck, the distinction is preeminent, while for Calvin, the unity is.