An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Saturday 25 November 2006

Christian Reformed Church Periodicals Index

This searchable database contains over 100, 000 records and provides bibliographic data for many CRC-related publications, includng back issues of Pro Rege.

Friday 24 November 2006

Myodicy update

Theodore has updated his excellent Myodicy site.



He has added his fourth and final instalment of his notes on Runner's Introduction to philosophy lectures; an article by Alvin Plantinga on Dooyeweerd: Dooyeweerd on being and meaning' Reformed Journal (Oct 1958); and the fourth in his series on reformational history: dialogue and apologetics.

Sunday 19 November 2006

All of Life Redeemed update


Added to the Calvin Seerveld pages are the following papers:

General

Education
Art and art history

On Proverbs from Vanguard's 'Take hold of God and pull' series from 1972-1975; including:


Added to the James H. Olthuis pages are four papers:
  • On Worldviews [pdf] Christian Scholar's Review XIV (2): 153-164. Also in Stained Glass: Worldviews and Social Science (ed.) Paul Marshall, Sander Griffioen and Richard Mouw. University Press of America, Lanham MD, 1989: 26-40.
  • The word of God and biblical authority [pdf] Potchefstroom: Wetenskappelike Bydraes van die Potchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoger Onderwys, 1976.
  • The word of God and creation [pdf] AACS Academic papers, 1975. Also published in Tydskrif vir Christelike Wetenskap 25 (1989): 25-37; and Christian Scholar's Review XXI (3) : 231-48.
  • Values and valuation [pdf] Philosophia Reformata 32 (1) (1967): 37-54.

Added to the Richard Russell pages are three lectures on the History of Education:


Richard Russell of Christian Studies Unit, Radstock, provides a few memories of a mis-spent youth in reformatia. This paper was presented at the first UK Reformational Colloquium in Leeds, October 2006.

David Hanson of Wysocs, Leeds, traces the history of the reformational movement back to the 1920s. This paper was presented at the first UK Reformational Colloquium in Leeds, October 2006.

Marty Rice's paper: What is a science? from Contemporary Reflections on the Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd ed. D. F. M. Strauss and M. Botting (Edwin Mellen Press, 2000)

The D F M Strauss pages have been updated with a list of 2006 papers and a new paper on Infinity and Continuity: The mutual dependence and distinctness of multiplicity and wholeness.

Sunday 12 November 2006

Twilight for Sale

Peter and Rachel Reynolds, booksellers in Dingwall, Scotland, have set up a blog and have a copy of Dooyeweerd's Twilight for sale:


[464197] Dooyeweerd, Herman. In the Twilight of Western Thought: Studies in the Pretended Autonomy of Philosophical Thought (University Series: Philosophical Studies). Nutley: Craig Press, 1972. Paperback. Very Good . 195 pages. GBP 19.50

Saturday 11 November 2006

James Orr on God and proofs

Neither shall I waste time at this stage by discussing in what sense it is permissible to speak of “proof” of so transcendent a reality as the Divine existence. We remember here the saying of Jacobi, that a God capable of proof would be no God at all; since this would mean that there is something higher than God from which His existence can be deduced. But this applies only to the ordinary reasoning of the deductive logic. It does not apply to that higher kind of proof which may be said to consist in the mind being guided back to the clear recognition of its own ultimate pre-suppositions. Proof in Theism certainly does not consist in deducing God’s existence as a lower from a higher; but rather in showing that God’s existence is itself the last postulate of reason—the ultimate basis on which all other knowledge, all other belief rests.
James Orr The Christian View of God and the World. 9th edn 1908. Lecture III p 94-5.

Friday 10 November 2006

On Dooyeweerd: a bibliography

Introductions to Dooyeweerd (in English) Roy Clouser. 1991. The Myth of Religious Neutrality: An Essay on the Hidden Role of Religious Beliefs in Theories. University of Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame (2nd edn 2005)

L Kalsbeek. 1975. Contours of Christian Philosophy: An Introduction to Dooyeweerd’s Thought. Wedge, Toronto. J M Spier 1954. An Introduction to Christian Philosophy. Presbyterian and Reformed: Philadelphia.

S T Wolfe. 1978. A Key to Dooyeweerd. Presbyterian and Reformed: Philadelphia.

On Dooyeweerd (in English)

Gregory Baus 2005. 'Dooyeweerd's societal sphere sovereignty: neither tax based nor laissez-faire' (VU Masters paper)

Tim Black A Transcendental Analysis and Critique of Dooyeweerd’s Distinction between Naïve and Theoretical Thought

Philip Blosser. 1993. 'Reconnoitering Dooyeweerd's theory of man' Philosophia Reformata 58 (2) 192-209 (a revised version of 'Soul and body in the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd' Tydskrif vir christelike Wetenskap 27 (1) (1991) 57-82)

Vincent Brummer. 1961. Transcendental Criticism and Christian Philosophy: A Presentation and Evaluation of Herman Dooyeweerd’s ‘Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea. Wever: Franeker.

Alan Cameron. 1997. Implications of Dooyeweerd's legal philosophy for political theory. Nuances [electronic] 5 (August) Pt 5. Alan Cameron. 1998. Dooyeweerd's jurisprudential method: legal causality as a case study. ALTA 1998 Conference Proceedings vol 2: 595-634. Alan Cameron. 1998. Dooyeweerd on law and morality: legal ethics - a test case. Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 28 (1): 263-281. Alan Cameron. 2000. 'Implications of Dooyeweer's encyclopedia of legal science' in Strauss and Botting (ed.)

Alan Cameron.2000. Between norm and fact: the jurisprudence of Herman Dooyeweerd [unpub article]. Alan Cameron.2004. The Encyclopedia of the Science of Law: a orovisional assessment of the Legal Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd [A paper prepared for presentation as a public lecture at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, 27 September 2004.]

Charles Cameron. 1991. 'Herman Dooyeweerd' in J. D. Douglas (ed.) From The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge Baker: Grand Rapids.

Jonathan Chaplin.1995. 'Dooyeweerd's Notion of Societal Structural Principles'. Philosophia Reformata 60:16-36 Jonathan Chaplin. 2006. 'Herman Dooyeweerd' in New Dictionary Of Christian Apologetics (ed.) Campbell Campbell-Jack et al. Leicester: IVP.

Yong-Joon Choi. 2006. Dialogue and Antithesis: A Philosophical Study on the Significance of Herman Dooyeweerd’s Transcendental Critique. California: Hermit Kingdom Press. Roy Clouser. 1996. 'A Sketch of Dooyeweerd's Philosophy of Science' in Facets of Faith and Science, Ed. J. Van der Meer. (Lanham: University Press of America, 1996), vol. 2: 81-98. Roy Clouser. 1995. 'The Uniqueness of Dooyeweerd's Program for Philosophy and Science: Whence the Difference?' in Christian Philosophy at the Close of the 20th Century, Ed. Griffoen & Balk (Netherlands: Kampen, Kok, 1995): 113-125. Gordon H Clark. 1999. The Toronto school. Trinity Review (August) A L Conradie. 1960. The Neo-Calvinist Concept of Philosophy. University Press: Natal.

Anton Dillier. 1990. Herman Dooyeweerd – a profile of his thought. Spectrum 22(2): 139-154. J. Douma. no date. Another Look at Dooyeweerd: Some Critical Notes Regarding the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea. Winnipeg: Premier Publishing.

W F De Gaay Fortman et al. (eds) 1965. Philosophy and Christianity: Philosophical Essays Dedicated to Professor Dr Herman Dooyeweerd. North-Holland: Amsterdam.

Jan Dengerink. 1965. 'Hauriou and Dooyeweerd' in De Gaay Fortman (ed.)

J J Duyvene de Wit. 1965. 'The impact of Herman Dooyeweerd's christian philosophy upon present day biological thought' in De Gaay Fortman (ed.)

John Frame. 1972. The Amsterdam Philosophy: A Preliminary Critique. Phillipsburg, NJ.

David H Freeman 'A new school of Christian philosophy' Journal of Religion 38 (1958): 46-53 J. Glenn Friesen's The mystical Dooyeweerd part I and part II J. Glenn Friesen Dooyeweerd and Bader: A response to D F M Strauss

J. Glenn Friesen's translation of Dooyeweerd's 'De Kentheoretische Gegenstandsrelatie en de Logische Subject-Objectrelatie' Philosophia Reformata

J. Glenn Friesen Individuality Structures and Enkapsis: Individuation from totality in Dooyeweerd and German Idealism (1975) 83-101

J. Glenn Friesen Dooyeweerd, Spann and the Philosophy of Totality  Philosophia Reformata 70 (2005) 2-22

J. Glenn Friesen.2005. Dooyeweerd versus Vollenhoven: The Religious Dialectic within Reformational Philosophy Philosophia Reformata 70 (2005) 102- 


 J. Glenn Friesen. 2006. 'The religious dialectic revisited


J. Glenn Friesen The Mystical Dooyeweerd: The relation of his thought to Franz von Baader

Gerit Glass. 2002. Churchland, Kandel and Dooyeweerd on the Reducibility of Mind States. Philosophia Reformata 67: 148-172 Henry R. Van Til. 1955. 'Anniversary : The First 25 Years of Prof. Herman Dooyeweerd'Torch and Trumpet 4.6 (Feb/March 1955): 6–8. Sander Griffoen and Bert M Balk (eds). 1995. Christian Philosophy at the Close of the Twentieth Century: Assessment and Perspective . Kampden: Kok. H. Hart, J. van der Hoeven and N Wolterstorff. 1983. Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition . University Press of America: Lanham. Hendrik Hart. 1985. Dooyeweed's Gegenstand theory of theory. In McIntire (ed.) Hendrik Hart. 2000. 'Notes on Dooyeweerd, reason and order' in Strauss and Botting (ed.) Andrew Hartley. 2004. The Philosophy of the Law Idea and the Role of the Prescientific in Statistical Inference. Journal of the ACMS (December) R D Henderson. 1994. Illuminating Law: The Construction of Herman Dooyeweerd's Philosophy. Free University: Amsterdam. Irving Hexham. 1984. 'Herman Dooyeweerd' in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: 330-331. Arthur F. Holmes. 1964. 'Dooyeweerd: some questions and an alternative'. Reformed Journal 14 (Jan): 11-14. Arthur F. Holmes. 1963. 'Dooyeweerd: his philosophic method' Reformed Journal 13 (Nov): 14-16. Arthur Holmes. 1971. Christian philosophy of science: unfinished business. Journal of the American Scientific Association 23 (March): 4-6. Arthur Holmes. 1974 edn. Christian philosophy. Encyclopaedia Britanica Vol 4: 555-556. Dirk W. Jellma.1954. 'The philosophy of Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd' Calvin Forum 19 (Apr): 169-172; (May):192-194. Rob Joustra. 2004. Progress and Differentiation: A Critical Exposition on the Philosophy of History of Herman Dooyeweerd and Christopher Dawson Earl William Kennedy. 1973. 'Herman Dooyeweerd on history: an attempt to understand him' Fides et Historia 6: 1-21. Jacob Klapwijk. 1980. The struggle for a Christian philosophy: another look at Dooyeweerd. Reformed Journal 30 (Feb): 12-15; (Mar): 20-24. Jacob Klapwijk. 1980. Dooyeweerd’s Christian philosophy: antithesis and critique. Reformed Journal 30 (3): 20-24. Robert D. Knudsen. 1954. The idea of Christian scientific endeavor in the thought of Herman Dooyeweerd. Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 6 (2): 8-12. Robert D. Knudsen. 1962. 'Dooyewerd's philosophic method'. Lecture delivered at the annual philosophy conference, Wheaton College. (mimeo) Robert D. Knudsen. 1979. Dooyeweerd's doctrine of science. Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 31 (September): 209-212. Robert D. Knusden.1986. The transcendental perspective of Westminster’s apologetic. Westminster Theological Journal. 48 (2): 223-239. Robert D. Knudsen. 2000. The religious foundation of Dooyeweerd's transcendental method in Strauss and Botting (ed.) Richard Kroner. 1954-5 A new critique of theoretical thought. Review of Metaphysics 8 (3) 321-4. David T. Koyzis Dooyeweerd Revised John Kraay. 1979-80. 'Successive conceptions in the development of the Christian philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd' Philosophia Reformata 44: 137-49; 45: 1-46. T. H. Leith.1972. Notes on the presdisposition of scientific thought and practice. Jornal of the American Scientific Affiliation 24 (June): 51-57. Paul Marshall. 1985. 'Dooyeweerd's empirical theory of rights.' in McIntire (ed.) C T McIntire. 1985a. Herman Dooyeweerd in North America. In Reformed Theology in America, D F Wells (ed). Eerdmans: Grand Rapids. C T McIntire (ed.). 1985b. The Legacy of Herman Dooyeweerd: Reflections on Critical Philosophy in the Christian Tradition. University Press of America: Toronto. C. T. McIntire. 1985. Dooyeweerd's philosophy of history' in McIntire (ed.). Robert MacLarkey.1991. Reformational social philosophy and sociological theory. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 43: 96-102 [response by Heddendorf ]. Hugo Meynell. 2003. The philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd: a transcendental Thomist appraisal. Faith and Philosophy 20: 265-87. Ronald Nash. 1962. Dooyeweerd and the Amsterdam Philosophy. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids. James H. Olthuis.1985. 'Dooyeweerd on religion and Faith' in McIntire (ed.). James H. Olthuis. 2006. Spiritual convergence and philosophical differences. Redeemer conference. C. Orlebeke. 1954. 'What is calvinistic philosophy? Calvin Forum 19: 139-140. Paul Otto. 2005. 'In the twilight of Dooyeweerd's corpus'. Philosophia Reformata 70 (1) W J Ouweneel. 1993. 'Supratemporality in the Transcendental Anthropology of Herman Dooyeweerd' Philosophia Reformata 58: 210-220. Jim Payton and Rob Joustra 'The vindication of tradition: a response' 24 (Sept): 11-17. Jack Roeda. 1969. 'Structure and revolution: Herman Dooyeweerd and Helmut Thielicke'. Stromata 15 (Oct): 3-7. Richard Russell. 1991. In defence of Dooyeweerd and of Christian philosophy. Spectrum 23 (2): 147-159. Calvin Seerveld. 1965. 'Dooyeweerd's contribution to the historiograpy of philosophy' in De Gaay Fortman (ed.) Calvin Seerveld.1996. Dooyeweerd’s idea of “historical development”: Christian respect for cultural diversity. Westminster Theological Journal 58(1): 41-61 Calvin Seerveld. 1985. Dooyeweed's legacy for aesthetics: modal law theory. in McIntire (ed.) Norman Shepherd. 1971. The doctrine of Scripture in the Dooyeweerdian philosophy. Outlook 21 (Feb): 18-21; (March): 20-23. James Skillen. 1979. Herman Dooyeweerd’s contribution to the philosophy of social science. Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 31: 20-24. Henry J. Stob. 1977. 'Herman Dooyeweerd'. Reformed Journal 27 (Apr): 2-3. Pete Steen. 1961. The supra-temporal self-hood in the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd. Master's Dissertation. Westminster Theological Seminary. Pete Steen. 1983. The Structure Of Herman Dooyeweerd's Thought. Wedge: Toronto. D F M Strauss.2004. Intellectual Influences upon the Reformational Philosophy of Dooyeweerd. Philosophia Reformata 69: 151-181. D F M Strauss. 2006. Appropriating the legacy of Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven. Redeemer conference. D F M Strauss and Michelle Botting (eds). 2000. Contemporary Reflections on the Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd. Edward Mellen: Lewiston. Dale K. Van Kley. 1975. 'Dooyeweerd as historian' in G. Marsden and F. Roberts (ed.) A Christian View of History? Eerdmans: Grand Rapids. Cornelius Van Til.1977. Herman Dooyeweerd (a personal tribute). Westminster Theological Journal. 39 (2): 319-27 Cornelius Van Til. 1953. Review of A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol. I.Westminster Theological Journal 16: 180–83. Nick Van Til. 1973. 'Dooyeweerd's "history" and the historian'. Pro Rege 2 (Dec): 7-15. Brian J Walsh and Jon Chaplin.1983. 'Dooyeweerd’s contribution to a Christian philosophical paradigm'. Crux 19 (1): 8-22. Nicholas Wolterstorff 'Dooyeweerd: an appreciation' unpublished (written in the mid-1960s and presented to a Calvin Faculty Forum) Al Wolters. 1983. Dutch neo-calvinism: worldview, philosophy and rationality. In Hart et al. (1983) Al Wolters. 1985. The intellectual milieu of Herman Dooyeweerd. In McIntire (ed.) (1985). Colin Wright. 1999. 'Dooyeweerd made easy (well ... easier'). Christianity and Society IX (1): 21-27. William Young. 1966. 'Herman Dooyeweerd' in P. E. Hughes (ed.) Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids : 270-306. William Young. 'The nature of man in the Amsterdam philosophy' Westminster Theological Journal 22: 1-12. William Young. 1952. Toward a reformed philosophy: the development of a Protestant philosophy in Dutch Calvinistic thought since the time of Abraham Kuyper Grand Rapids: Piet Hein. Lambert Zuidervaart 2004. The great turning point: religion and rationality in Dooyewerd’s transcendental critique. Faith and Philosophy 21 (1) : 65-89. Lambert Zuidervaart. 2006. Reformational philosophy after Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven. Redeemer conference.

Uko Zylstra. 1981. 'Dooyeweerd's concept of classification in biology' in Life is Religion: Essays in Honor of H. Evan Runner. Paideia: St Catherine's. Update My thanks for Chris Gousmett, Harry Der Nederlanden, Rudi Hayward and Theo Plantinga for suggesting some titles and spotting a few typos.

Friday 3 November 2006

Climate Change and Global Warming

WYSOCS is organising a conference on Climate Change and Global Warming on Saturday 2nd Decemebr 2006. The speakers are Bob Goudzwaard and John Houghton. They will speak on 'Unmasking the ideologies obstructing global economic change' and 'Global warming: a challenge to scientists and Christians' respectively. Full details and a booking form can be obtained here.

Wednesday 1 November 2006

J. J. Duyvene De Wit on Dooyeweerd's view of evolution and creation

[12] As an alternative to all these mentioned conceptions, Dooyeweerd's view is herewith presented.

First of all we must distinguish between creation and becoming. The process of becoming within the temporal order of our cosmos presupposes God's creation. Only of God's creation can it be said [13] (Gen. 2:1) that it is completed. This can never be said of the process of becoming in the temporal order of creation with its modal diversities of meaning. The process of becoming still goes on and individual physical men, animals, plants etc., arise continuously. This is, however, not a temporal continuation of the divine act of creation, but only an elaboration, within the temporal order. of the already completed creation.

The whole order of time, together with the whole process of becoming which was destined to execute itself therein, was undoubtedly comprised in the creation, but only as the creational result of God's completed work of creation. But this work of creation is not comprised in the creational order of the temporal process of becoming.

It is true that in Scripture God's work of creation is revealed to us in human language which itself is bound to the creational order of time. But this may never be used as an argument to conclude that this work of creation itself has occurred within the creational time-order.

We must also observe that the revelation about the creation may not be identified with the creation itself. That revelation directs itself primarily to the human heart, the religious center of our existence, and in which everything which occurs within time, is grasped in a central relation to our Creator through the operation of His Spirit. But as revelation it also enters into the horizon of our temporal existence in order to address itself to man in his faith within the order of time.

Within the temporal order, the Word-revelation often speaks about God himself in terms of time, but this does not mean that God and his acts of creation are enclosed within time.

God's work of creation and its creational result are not of the same order and therefore cannot have a common temporal denominator.

The distinction between creation and creational becoming within time is intrinsically related to the revealed distinction between the Creator and the creation.

These considerations bring us to the fundamental problem concerning the inner relation between the central religious meaning of God's Word-revelation as regards creation and scientific investigation. This problem can only be solved on the basis of what has been said above.

[14] As soon as one tries to conceive of God's work of creation as of a successive series of temporal events, as it has been done in certain theological quarters, unsurmountable antinomies arise. He then can no longer account for this time-order in its integral and universal meaning (including the temporal faith-aspect) because he is compelled to accept that the temporal modal aspects themselves have been created in the successive order of the six days of creation and these then must have had a temporal duration. Before the first organic life in living organisms revealed itself on earth within the order of time, this time-order would thus have had only the first four aspects, namely the aspects of number, space, motion and energy. But within what time-aspect did the creation of the following aspects of time then fall?

The posing of the question already lays bare the antinomies in which one gets involved when he conceives of the days of creation as theoretically abstracted aspects of time. For every attempt to view these days of creation according to the objective and geological time-scale be it as days of 24 hours or as geological periods, is irreconcilable with the account of the creation itself. This appears already from the fact that "fixed times, days and years" became established only on the fourth "day of creation", so that "day of creation" cannot possibly imply "day" or "period" in the sense of temporal duration.

And finally this attempt definitely strands on the seventh day, the day of God's sabbatical rest, every interpretation of which, either as a 24-hour day or a geological period, would lead to blasphemy.

In other words, in so far as the two first chapters of Genesis are speaking about the becoming of the world and of man within the order of time as a result of creation, they do not speak scientifically, but exclusively to reveal to us that God cares for the elaboration of his Words of Creation in the order of time with the structural laws enclosed therein by Him. This implies that from the information given in Genesis, no scientific conclusions can be drawn and that therefore the traditional confrontation of this information with the scientifically established facts finds itself on the wrong track. The facts which are revealed to us in the two first chapters of Genesis are of another order than those which can be brought to light by scientific investigation. And it is just for this reason that they are of such central and basic significance for this kind of investigation.

Excerpt from J. J. Duyvene De Wit ‘Introductory comment’ in ‘Organic Life and the evolutionistic world and life view’ Christian Perspectives 1962 (Guardian Publishing Company, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1962.)