The recently published edition of Herman Bavinck's Essays on Religion, Science, and Society, contains a eulogy written in 1922 by Henry Elias Dosker, a lifelong friend of Bavinck and former professor at the Presbyterian Seminary of Kentucky, original published in the Princeton Theological Review. Although I found the whole piece to be interesting, I was particularly struck by Bavinck's perception of what it meant to be theologically conservative. Dosker quotes Bavinck at length toward the end of the eulogy:

Theology is truly conservative; it accepts the inheritance of the past generations, yet not to scatter it but to hand it over, if possible increased and still more "reformed," to the generations that follow. Theology receives these acquired treasures, not to cast them again and again into the melting pot of criticism, but to hand them over to us to see whether we also, as mightily as in former days, may experience their truth and beauty in our own souls. It is a mere illusion always to try to find something new in the field of theology. The glittering results of nature studies may have led many theologians to try to find novelties in the theological field, but disappointment has always punished such curiosity. But at the same time theology is a progressive science. Reverencing the past, theology builds upward on the foundations that are laid, till theology itself is complete and has attained its final object. Theology does not rest at Chalcedon or Dordt. Theology holds the conviction that it will please God to cast ever more light on the Holy Scriptures in days to come, on what till now was dark or nebulous in them. Till then theology has not compelted its task or attained its object.

Bavinck aims to find a balance between, on the one hand, the sort of perspective that sees one period or expression of theology as the ultimate, and on the other hand, the sort of rogue theological innovation that seeks to push against boundaries at every opportunity. And if you read his work, you come away feeling that he did a pretty good job finding this balance.