Recreation as restoration in Southern Africa: On the need for Bavinck to embrace the doctrine of apokatastasis

Abstract

Herman Bavinck’s theology of salvation as the comprehensive restoration [herschepping] of creation offers a vital resource for ecotheology within Southern Africa’s Dutch Reformed tradition. To maintain Bavinck’s internal consistency and inform contemporary ecological imagination, this article argues that his emphatic rejection of apokatastasis [universal restoration] requires critical re-evaluation. Employing an internal theological critique, the study juxtaposes Bavinck’s cosmic eschatology with his doctrine of eternal punishment, analysing his concepts of sin as privation [peccatum est privatio boni] and humanity as the cosmos’s organic microcosm. The article demonstrates that the perpetual damnation of any part of humanity—the imago Dei—introduces a fundamental internal contradiction. A perpetually unrestored component of the human person makes the restoration of the “whole creation” logically and theologically untenable. The conclusion asserts that for Neo-Calvinist ecotheology to be truly ecological and counteract “escapist” soteriologies, it must embrace a Universalist Soteriology. This is the necessary fulfilment of herschepping as restoration. Such a stance reinforces Bavinck’s legacy, translating his cosmic vision into a robust theological mandate for earth-keeping amid the present ecological crisis.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article contributes to ecotheology by demonstrating that the doctrine of apokatastasis is a non-negotiable prerequisite for a viable ecological theology. It shifts the conversation from applying existing theology to the environmental crisis toward reforming theology’s internal structure. It argues that Bavinck’s cosmic vision of herschepping is theologically hindered by his traditional stance on hell, rendering his work an insufficient foundation for a truly comprehensive cosmic restoration.