Highlighting the breadth of Herman Bavinck's experience in theology and politics, Ronald N. Gleason offers the English-speaking world a vivid picture of the Dutch theologian's life. Gleason, a leading authority on Bavinck's life and ideas, brings to light Bavinck's rich family heritage and contends that his family background played a crucial role in the development of the man who wrote the magisterial Reformed Dogmatics.

This is a thought-provoking portrait of an influential man whose "vigorous and winsome integrated Calvinism," as Roger Nicole describes it in the Introduction, continues to influence scholars and pastors today.