Vintage Seerveld

I never took a course with Dr. Calvin Seerveld, emeritus professor of Philosophical Aesthetics at the Institute for Christian Studies. He did lead one session of a seminar I attended, though. I mostly skipped chapel at Trinity Christian College, so I didn’t hear very many of his chapel speeches.

Despite that, Dr. Seerveld’s influence in my life has been immense, through his popular level magazine articles, some of his professional writings, his books, and my personal interaction with him throughout the years. My favourite book still is Rainbows for a Fallen World, which I used in an art/cultural history class for grade 12 students. My favourite lecture tour was his visit to Houston Christian School for a regional teachers’ conference.

Notable? An audience member who questioned his expertise and was given a “gently tendered” reply to her hostile comments. More notable? An afternoon session of psalm-singing with teachers, some parents, some students, the janitor and other guests in which he proved once again that the Genevan psalms actually are the “Cadillacs of the hymnbook,” and that some psalms could be sung in a jazzy, bluesy fashion that reflects deep piety.

It is one of the greatest honours of my life and a great pleasure to be asked to contribute a tiny bit to Seerveld’s retirement project: a proposed group of four books of speeches and sermons, the first two already published by Padeia Press. The series is called Tough Stuff from the Bible, Tendered Gently, and consists of a projected four parts: Biblical Narrative History and Biblical Poetic Oracles; followed by (“God willing,” says Seerveld at 93 years of age) Biblical Artful Writings (wisdom) and Exhortations Tuned to the Church Liturgical Year. Being who he is, Seerveld – never done teaching and learning and sharing – there is a proposed appendix in store, too, on “David and Me.”

Below is my blurb on one of the volumes of this giant of Christian scholarship, one who is proud of being the son of a fishmonger and a servant through academics and art to a large community of faith.

Musical meditation

Tough Stuff from the Bible, Tendered Gently is vintage Seerveld. The eminent aesthetician, philosopher, theologian and sometime preacher stacks phrases and images to expand our vision while simultaneously zeroing in on the Christian scriptures. This collection of speeches and sermons are best read individually, like short stories, and then pondered as Seerveld leads us into an understanding of just how wide and deep is the kingdom of God in Christ. I find his writing best read aloud as if it were the lilting poetry of “Fern Hill” to savour Seerveld’s unique writing/speaking style. From Isaiah walking about in his underwear to a cosmic Christ bleeding redemption onto a wounded world, Seerveld is worth reading and re-reading.

Calvin Seerveld’s scriptural insights are rich, rich, rich: not so much biblical exposition as it is musical meditation complete with complex chords and contrapuntal variations. Although his style is his own – as one professor noted, “It is his style, not exactly English, but it works” through pulsing combinations of phrases that surround and embroider and expound biblical passages. Read each piece aloud, again and again.

In a world of label-laden theology, in my opinion only two scholars stand out as above theological ideology: Eugene Peterson and Calvin Seerveld. Not scholastic, not liberal, not dogmatically Reformed or Lutheran, not modernist nor fundamentalist, not post-modern nor progressive, both in their quite different styles show that the Christian scriptures are alive and active, sharp as swords, and soothing as balm, exhilarating and painful as love.