Reformational thought in three universities
I’ve taught at Redeemer University, Dordt College and Calvin. Here’s what I noticed about each school’s distinct Reformed accent.
My grandparents, together with other post-WWII Dutch immigrants animated by Kuyperian thinking, immediately began building Christian schools in their new land of Canada. Eventually, they also built Christian universities. Redeemer College was established in 1981, just down the road from the Christian day schools my grandparents helped build.
Reformed colleges had already been established in the United States. The first of these was Calvin College, established in 1876, then Dordt College in Iowa (1955) and Trinity Christian College in Chicago (1959).
Although each of these institutions was closely tied to the Christian Reformed Church, they each have a distinct Reformed accent formed by their history, geographical context and the people who helped shape them. My own circuitous career has been unusual, placing me for a time at Redeemer, then Dordt, and now at Calvin.
Philosophical homes
When I arrived as a new assistant professor at Redeemer, I had the privilege of working alongside its pioneering faculty. Several of my colleagues were trained at the Free University in Amsterdam (established by Abraham Kuyper) and studied under the influence of Herman Dooyeweerd, a philosopher and intellectual heir of Kuyper. Working within the neo-Calvinist tradition, Dooyeweerd, along with others, pioneered a distinctly Christian philosophical movement often referred to as Reformational philosophy. It included many key ideas: the religious roots of culture, the Lordship of Christ over all aspects of life and the identification of 15 distinct “modal aspects” representing the structure of created reality.
In 2003, Reformational philosophy was a central part of faculty development and teaching. The book Creation Regained by Al Wolters was on most faculty bookshelves and influenced much of the integration of faith and learning. Together with several Redeemer colleagues, I later participated in a book project where each chapter explored the ideas in Creation Regained for our respective disciplines (the book is titled Creation Regained: Disciplinary Perspectives, and was just released by Dordt Press).
After my department was unexpectedly closed at Redeemer, I found myself as a visiting professor at Dordt College for one year. I missed Canada but felt philosophically right at home. The same Reformational tradition emerged at Dordt after a few faculty skirmishes in the early years. Over time, it was further established by influential professors like John Vander Stelt, John Kok and Charlie Adams.
Runner and Jellema
After completing a year at Dordt, I landed in a position at Calvin University. Calvin’s founding predates Kuyper during a more pietistic time. Reformational thinking did not emerge at Calvin until the 1960s and 70s, when a passionate professor named Evan Runner, who had studied at the Free University, began teaching in the philosophy department. Runner also started the “Groen Club,” named for one of Kuyper’s intellectual predecessors, Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer. At the time, the club was filled mostly with Canadian students who were the children of Dutch Kuyperian immigrants. But Runner was not loved by all; I’ve heard stories of conflicts between him and William Harry Jellema, the intellectual giant of the philosophy department who represented another strand of the Kuyperian tradition. Consequently, a Reformational approach made its way into small pockets across Calvin.
Nicholas Wolterstorff has written about different strands of Kuyperian thought, two of which are represented by Dooyeweerd and Jellema. He wrote: “as so often happens in families, there was considerable quarrelling . . . [they were] vividly aware of their differences and loath to admit the similarities.”
Interestingly, many of the pioneering faculty at Redeemer who mentored me were part of Runner’s “Groen Club.” In a strange circle of history, I found myself at Calvin once again sharing Reformational thinking.
Thankfully, the squabbles of the past are mostly forgotten as a new generation of students is taught how faith informs life. Christian higher education can be summarized in a phrase Runner often quoted: “Life is religion.”
