Dooyeweerd, Herman (1894-1977)
Dutch theologian. Born in Amsterdam, he graduated from the Free University there, and was assistant director of the Kuyper Institute, The Hague (1922–26), before appointment as professor of the philosophy of law in the Free University (1926–65). His major work, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought (4 vols., 1953–58), challenged the “pretended autonomy” by which philosophical thought asserts self-sufficient independence from divine revelation. He attacked speculative metaphysics, insisting that true knowledge of God and self-knowledge come from the working of God’s Word and Spirit in the heart. Accepting the concepts of general revelation and common grace, he held that neither provides any foundation for natural theology based on man’s unaided reason. Moreover, orthodox theology was no guarantee of true spiritual understanding; the latter comes through submission of the whole person to the message of Holy Scripture concerning “redemption by Jesus Christ.” Acceptance or rejection of this was “a matter of life and death to us, and not a question of theoretical reflection.” In 1935 Dooyeweerd cofounded the journal Philosophia Reformata, and was prominent in the establishment of the Association for Calvinistic Philosophy (later called Christian Philosophy). From 1948 he was a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of the Sciences.
Charles M. Cameron
From The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, editor J.D. Douglas, consulting editor, with Robert G. Clouse et al (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1991)
5 comments:
"later called Christian philosophy"
Is this a mistake?
I think that is a confusion between the change in the name of the Association from Assoc. of Calvinistic Philosophy to the Assoc. of Reformational Philosophy and the change in D.s referring to his own philosophy from Calvinistic to "Ecumenical" Christian.
I think you have hit the nail on the head there Gregory.
Seems weird to me that someone who had that level of knowledge could make such a mistake.
Thanks, Gregory for your helpful comment. Steve is right when he says you have hit the nail on the head. As the writer of the article, I can add a further word of clarification. When one is asked to write this kind of article, one is given a certain number of words. Almost invariably, the first draft takes one beyond the allowed number of words. At this point, one faces the problem of reducing the number of words while retaining the sustance of the article. This is where ambiguity has crept in! Looking back at the article, I can see that the words in brackets - 'later called Christian Philosophy' relate to the second part of the preceding phrase - 'Calvinistic Philosophy' - rather than the whole phrase - 'the Association for Calvinistic Philosophy'. If I had more words available to me, I might have said something like Gregory has said. Unfortunately, the pressure of working within a word limit led to ambiguity. I wanted to point out that D later referred to his work as 'Christian Philosophy' but I didn't want to use more words than necessary & have to omit something else from the article. This led me to tag this phrase - 'later called to Christian Philosophy' - on to the reference to 'Calvinistic Philosophy'. I hope this is helpful, Paul. Thanks, Steve, for putting the article on your blog. Knowing of your interest in Berkouwer, you may be interested to know that my article on 'Pride and Faith in Berkouwer's Studies in Dogmatics' has been posted by Rob Bradshaw on his Theological Studies blog. You will find the link at www.theologicalstudiesorguk.blogspot.com - 'Charles Cameron on "Berkouwer" and "Theodicy"' (October 16). The theodicy article is entitled, 'A Biblical Approach to Theodicy'.
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