Interview with Harry Van Dyke

It was in 2019 since I last interviewed you with the publication of Kuyper's On Education - what's been happening since then?

My wife and I  have moved to a gated community where I no longer need to mow the lawn or shovel snow from the driveway.

You have recently edited M.C. Smit's Writings on God and History (Dordt Press, 2022) - could you tell us a little about Smit and your interest in him?

After earning my Bachelor's at Calvin College in 1964 I enrolled at the VU University Amsterdam in order to "read" Theory and Philosophy of History with Professor Meyer Smit (1911-1981). In 1965 I became his assistant, which I remained till his death in 1981. From Smit, I learned a view of history that I believe I could not have learned anywhere else: how God is present in history and how the historian must take that into account: with awesome wonder and deep reverence and a humble spirit.

Why the republication of this book now? 

Smit remains in demand. He is the only philosopher of history who explicitly works in the reformational tradition. The first edition of his Writings (1987; 316 pp.) had very limited circulation; only a score were marketable, the other 980 copies all had false folds in them and were destroyed after the printer went bankrupt. Thus this first edition was almost instantly sold out. I later incorporated its contents in M. C. Smit, Towards a Christian Conception of History (2002; 426 pp.), which has meanwhile also gone out of print. The Towards book contained the whole of Writings plus a translation of Smit's doctoral dissertation. The new edition of Writings this year republishes the first edition. Unlike Towards, it omits the dissertation except for two lengthy appendices (pp. 255-304) for which I gleaned Smit's positive (thetical) elucidation of his own, reformational views and conceptions of history (the rest of his dissertation dealt with Roman Catholic philosophers and historians and their approach to historical science, largely shaped by the nature-grace ground-motive).

What are the main themes of his approach to history?

That history is not self-sufficient but receives life and meaning from the Creator. Historians cannot explain events solely in terms of their antecedents but must take into account the underlying and primary active presence of God in history.

What does Smit offer that is relevant for today?

He is a better antidote than Dooyeweerd for historicism and historical relativism.


Who should read this book and why?

University students and university instructors; preachers and teachers. Smit's ideas open our minds to the divine mystery in history.

You have been busy with the Abraham Kuyper Translation Project - are there more plans to translate more of Kuyper?

Not that I am aware of. There are treasures in his E Voto (a 3-vol. commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism). Craig Batholomew also believes that Kuyper's Encyclopedia (an extensive introduction to the loci of theology) is anything but outdated and deserves to be translated, perhaps in abridged form. However, projects like this are costly and the generous patron of the more recent Kuyper translations has gone to be with the Lord. I am still available for any of this work, but by God's grace hope to turn 82 next month.

What advice would you give to budding reformational scholars?

(1) Read widely. 

(2) Get in touch with the Neo-Calvinist research centres in Kampen, Edinburgh, Fuller Seminary, and Redeemer University.

(3) If you have any talent at all in languages, master Dutch. 

(4) "In all your ways, acknowledge Him."

What challenges do you see facing the reformational movement at the moment?

To bring itself into rapport with the needs of our time, both academically and more broadly socially and culturally.

When you are not translating what do you like to do for fun?

Do word puzzles, grow a kitchen garden, and play Bach on the harmonium pump organ.

Interview with Chris Gousmett of Thumbwidth Press

Chris Gousmett (Dunedin, New Zealand) is a retired information manager, having worked in that field in various government agencies. He has a PhD in historical theology, with a thesis on the relationship of anthropology and eschatology in the Church Fathers. He is now active in research and writing in Biblical studies, theology and philosophy, and translation of Dutch material into English.

He has recently established an e-book publishing venture to make new Reformational literature available, as well as re-issuing Reformational books now out of print. He is on twitter @chrisgousmett

Chris was kind enough to answer some of my questions.



Who or what are your key influences?
I suppose the most influential period was when I was at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto in the mid-1908s, where I completed a Master’s degree in philosophical theology. There I had the privilege of studying with Al Wolters, George Vandervelde and Bernie Zylstra, as well as with other staff, including Jim Olthius who was my thesis supervisor.

I suppose I was closest in thinking to Bernie, Al and George than to Jim, but one strong influence from Jim was the importance of anthropology (theory of the human person) for Christian thinking in every field. That has one way or another been part of most of my research projects ever since, most notably in my PhD thesis at Otago University, New Zealand, which explored the influence of anthropological theories on eschatology in the Church Fathers.

In later years I have learned a great deal from Antheunis Janse in this regard, and would like to see his work given more recognition in Reformational circles. I have drafted translations of his many works on anthropology and would like to see these published one day.

How did you come across Reformational philosophy?
An encounter with someone who shared an interest in a book I was reading led to discussion about Christian engagement with the wider world, and he told me about people he knew who were also interested in discussing such issues, and I was put in touch with them. I have often wondered how I could have come across Reformational thinking if it had not been for that encounter, as it is not very prominent in New Zealand or indeed most of the world, and that keeps me alert for opportunities to share about it with others who may be searching for more than they are currently aware of, given the limited exposure that Reformational thinking has even in Christian circles.

What do you feel are its strength and its weaknesses?
The strength of a Reformational vision for life (not just in philosophy) means that there is nothing that falls outside of the authority of Christ, and that is truly liberating in that we are not on our own in dealing with the consequences of the fall in our occupations, our leisure, our relationships.

I sometimes explain the difference between a Reformational vision and traditional evangelicalism by re-wording the Great Commission as it is actually understood in evangelicalism: “Some authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of some nations,... teaching them to obey some of what I have commanded you. And surely I am with you some of the time, to the very end of the age.” A Reformational vision can see that “all” means “all” and can work this out in terms of everyday living.

Its weaknesses largely relate to the difficulties of communicating this vision in ways which people can readily grasp. For most people, it is so radically different that they struggle to comprehend the extent of what we are actually saying. Also, sometimes it can come across as a technical, intellectual approach that is disconnected from the issues people deal with every day. But a good part of that is the anti-intellectualist tendency in evangelicalism, and the Biblicist approach which insists on a specific verse to back up every assertion. And of course, many evangelicals see the issues we discuss as outside of the scope of Christian discipleship, and purely optional rather than something that gets to the core of life. The subjectivist tendency in evangelicalism also prevents people from seeing that this is something that they ought to grapple with, as it is only “your opinion” placed against other people’s “opinion”.

You have begun a new publishing venture - Thumbwidth Press (https://www.thumbwidthpress.net/). What are your dreams and hopes for Thumbwidth?

The goal for Thumbwidth Press is to have a website where e-books from a Reformational perspective can be made available to the public. Many younger people do not read hard-copy books that much any more, it seems, so I hope that publishing Reformational material in e-book format will be more accessible to them. I have a number of books in preparation for release as e-books, both new and re-release of Reformational classics to make them accessible for a new generation. The material I am seeking to publish is more introductory and exploratory than academic, perhaps explained as at the “worldview” level rather than the “philosophical” level.

You have also had published a new ebook dealing with COVID-19, Trusting in God during a global pandemic. Could you say something about why you wrote this and who is it aimed at?

This book was written to help children and early teens (10-15 years approximately) to grapple with what is going on in the world around them, which must be a frightening experience for many. It seeks to answer the question, Where is God in all this, and how can I trust him when so many terrible things are happening? It explores how God is always trustworthy but that sometimes people do things which spiral out of our control into things like the pandemic. I seek to explain that people are responsible in many ways for the events that brought about the pandemic and its global impacts and that this is a manifestation of human sinfulness and disobedience to God resulting in consequences which could be more or less expected. I trust that children (and their parents) can be strengthened in their faith and trust in God through my little book.

What books are you reading at the moment?
I have just finished The Liturgy of Creation by Michael Lefebvre. This is an account of the creation narrative as structured by the ancient Hebrew liturgical calendar rather than by a chronological account. It explores how various events in the Pentateuch were given dates which do not correspond with the date on which an event happened, but with the sequence of festival celebrations and their relationship with each other. It is a fascinating argument and makes better sense of the dating in these books than attempts to connect them with a chronological calendar.

I am now working through The Unintended Reformation: How a religious revolution secularised society, by Brad Gregory. This explores how the dramatic social upheaval of the 16th century reformation led unintentionally to secularisation in many fields of human endeavour. It comports well with the Reformational view of how secularisation came about, and it would be a fascinating exercise to do a careful comparison of Gregory’s views with those of Dooyeweerd on the same issues. I suspect that Gregory would see Reformational scholarship as confirming many of his conclusions. I am eager to continue reading this book, as I have gained much from the first 50 pages and expect the rest of this book to be equally insightful and helpful. I think it should be required reading for any Reformational seeking to influence current society – it both gives in-depth explanation as to how things have got to be the way they are, and is a warning to be alert to the unintended consequences of what we are engaged in today.


What do you like to do for fun?
Now that I am retired I have time for a number of activities. I am building a model railway which I enjoy, and my son shares in that with me, helping to run the trains. My wife and I often invite friends for a meal and fellowship, and we enjoy walking and visiting beaches and other scenic spots, of which there are many here in Dunedin.

Interview with Adolfo García de la Sienra Guajardo

Adolfo García de la Sienra Guajardo is a professor at the Universidad Veracruzana, Velacruz in Mexico. He has recently translated the first volume of Dooyeweerd's New Critique of Theoretical Thought into Spanish. He was kind enough to answer some of my questions.

Many thanks for agreeing to this. Could you please start by saying something about your story, who you are and what you do?

Thanks for preparing this interview, Steve. 

Who am I? This is a very tough question, indeed. When I was very young this question made me reflect a lot. It is the question that the caterpillar asks Alicia in Wonderland. When she replies “I am a little girl”, he retorts: “Yes, but who are you”. The only reply that I found at that time was that I am I. Granted, this is not terribly informative, but, as  Calvin said: “it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself”. What this means is that we don’t know who we are until we have a knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. But then, as Dooyeweerd says, we are an expression of God’s image. Out of that we are really nothing, nobody.

Now, it is obvious that you are not asking for my passport, but, I guess, some information about my existence in the totality of meaning, in relation to concrete things that we all know, like my country, profession, and things like that. I would say that I am a servant of Christ placed in the Mexican Republic. My profession is philosophy, and I am a research professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Veracruz. I have two sons, Rodrigo and Adolfito, and I’m married to Luz María Suárez. We live in Coatepec, Veracruz, in the outskirts of Xalapa, a beautiful town surrounded by coffee plantations.

Who or what are your key influences?

I am son of Marx (and Coca-Cola). I was raised as a Roman Catholic and even was an altar boy. But the influence in the public Mexican universities was quite Marxist. Everybody spoke about the revolution, Marx’s Capital, and it was taken for granted that the only decent position was that of a revolutionary like Che Guevara. Yet, my early formation in philosophy was strongly based upon mathematical logic, and so I developed a curiosity, an interest in understanding Das Kapital from a logical point of view. That’s how I began to make logical analyses of theories. My first influence after Marxism was logical positivism, especially Rudolf Carnap’s writings, then Mario Bunge, but I was a disciple of C. Ulises Moulines, who taught me the logical methods initiated by Alfred Tarski at Berkeley, and Patrick Suppes at Stanford. I ended up working under the advice of Suppes at Stanford, where I wrote a rather technical dissertation on the logical foundations of the labour theory of value.

On the other hand, I was still very young when I began to deeply dislike Marxism. It was an instinctive rejection, but I really did not have a very firm and clear philosophical position, although I was close to Spanish Scholasticism, mainly Francisco Suarez’s Disputations. My full liberation came many years later, thanks to the Gospel and later Reformational philosophy.

I knew about Reformational philosophy thanks to a lecture by Dr. John Paul Roberts in the Juan Calvino Seminary of Mexico City. He has been a great influence upon me, as well as Roy A. Clouser, who is, in my view, the greatest (albeit neglected) American philosopher alive now.

Your book A Structuralist Theory of Economics has recently been produced, could you say a little something about that? 

It is a very technical book where I use the structuralist view of theories in order to discuss and reconstruct the logical structure of several economic theories, as well as their methodological issues from that point of view. From the point of view of WdW, it is a book devoted to the retrocipations of economic theory in the arithmetic, spatial and logical modalities. This means that it deals with representations of economic phenomena in those realms. I think, in particular, that representational measurement can be seen as a theory of the analogy of different modalities in the mathematical modalities. I intend to develop this point in forthcoming papers.

Why has a Christian philosopher written on such a topic?

Because I am interested in the logical foundations and methodology of economic theories. Actually, I have been teaching economic theory for many years. 

Is there such a thing as Christian economics?

I don’t think so. Economics is like physics: there is no unified theory, no unified field, as I discuss it in my paper “The Economic Sphere” (Axiomathes 20 (1): 81-94 (2010)). We have a philosophical view of the economic sphere (that I present in this paper), but not a theory properly said. In my book, Chapter 6, I present a very general view of what an economic system is.

You have recently translated the first volume of Dooyeweerd’s New Critique of Theoretical Thought into Spanish. How did you first come across Dooyeweerd and Reformational philosophy? 

When I returned to Mexico from Stanford, back in 1986, I became Christian and all philosophies, even that of Suárez did not quite squared with my new faith. Then I was invited by a brother to a lecture by Dr. John Paul Roberts, who used to come to Mexico often to teach Reformational philosophy. I fell in love with this philosophy at first sight, back in 1992.

The translation of the New Critique could not be an easy task! What was the motivation behind doing it?

One of my projects has been to provide the Spanish-speaking Christians with Reformational literature. I have published Willem Groen van Prinsterer’s Unbelief and Revolution (I ignore who made the translation, but I revised it no less than five times, and made the typography). I have also translated: Dooyeweerd’s Roots of Western Culture; H. Evan Runner’s Unionville Lectures, all in a single volume; and Roy Clouser’s The Myth of Religious Neutrality.

What were the highlights of doing the translation?

It is just delightful to see how the great Dutch philosopher destroys Kant’s philosophy, and exhibits the miserable apostasy of German Idealism. After understanding the degradation and religious uprooting of Humanism by its successors, mainly Nietzsche, one wonders why National Socialism did not erupt before the twentieth century.

What were the difficulties you faced?

Naturally, at the beginning you have to make decisions regarding the terminology. A particularly difficult term is “naive experience”. In Spanish “naive” is usually translated as innocent, kind of stupid; someone whom one may abuse easily. I have translated it as “experiencia intuitiva”. Another term could have been “experiencia natural”, but I think the first one is more accurate.

How has Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven ideas been received in Mexico? Is there much interest in their work?

There is increasing interest. There are already schools and universities where Dooyeweerd (more than Vollenhoven) is being taught. I think that the movement already has no less than fifty or sixty enthusiastic followers in Mexico. There is an organization in Chile, Reforma Chile, that has more than one hundred members, with influence in the government, that is well acquainted with Kuyper’s and Dooyeweerd’s work. A translation into Portuguese of Clouser’s Myth has just appeared in Brazil.

What do you think are the strengths and what are the weaknesses of the Reformational approach?

Even though the Reformational approach is very strong in itself, it is rather recent. The main problem, at least in Hispanic-America, is that public universities are controlled by Humanism, that the Reformed churches are still a minority, and that private universities are mostly Catholic. But I am very optimistic and I think that a huge growth is coming in the forthcoming years.

Are there any other projects you are working on?

I want to revise Dooyeweerd’s philosophies of logic and mathematics, especially his criticism of Dedekind’s construction of the real numbers through cuts, as well as its implications for Non-Standard Analysis. Within this framework, I intend to prove the existence of a representation of the geometric segments of the straight line in Non-Archimedian Euclidean space into the system of hypererreal Non-Standard numbers, following the steps of Otto Hölder’s “Die Axiome der Quantität und die Lehre vom Mass”. The nature of these representations, as “jumps” among modalities or analogies, has to be philosophically clarified.

What do you like to do for fun?

I like TV, cinema, scuba diving, music listening. I love food, a nice wine, liquor (tequila, whiskey and Spanish brandy) and not very often a nice cigar. And I don’t care that the Pentecostals have excommunicated me for this.

If you were stuck on a desert island what two luxury items would you take with you?

You mean on top of essential stuff like the Bible and a knife? Well, a good mask with snorkel, fins and a harpoon. A musical instrument like a flute. I’m afraid that tablets, computers and cell phones wouldn’t  be of much use. Perhaps a box of powerful tools and a boat would very luxurious.

Interview with Lucas G. Freire

I recently caught up with Dr Lucas G. Freire, a professor a Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil. He is also the most recent addition to the www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk pages.

Before returning to Brazil in 2018 to work at Mackenzie, Lucas had been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Philosophy of North-West University in Potchefstroom. While living in England, he was a Research Associate at the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics and a Lecturer in International Relations (IR) at the universities of Plymouth and Exeter.

Could you start by telling us about yourself?

I divide my professional time between teaching, which takes up most of my time, and research in religion, history, and political economy. I'm a husband and proud father of three children. Since I married Emma, we've moved a lot, but now we live in São Paulo, where I'm an Assistant Professor of Economics at Mackenzie Presbyterian University's business school and she writes for US media outlets from home.

I was born and raised in Brazil, in a Presbyterian household. My parents made a point of taking me to church, Sunday school, and children's choir. A typical Brazilian schoolday lasts only four to five hours, so I had plenty of time to do other things. In my spare time, I would often play the piano, play football, or do English lessons. In my late high school years, I noticed that I had to be sure about the foundations of my worldview and I also noticed that much of the school curriculum was aimed at placing alumni at a good university, and not really on education per se. That was when I made the choice to read independently and to attend a model UN. That learning experience helped me decide on International Relations (IR) as my degree subject.

I was also offered a place at a public university's Economics programme. Since I couldn't make up my mind, I did two undergraduate degrees. Economics, for free, in the morning, and IR at a philanthropic Catholic university in the afternoon. Back then I had energy for this sort of thing, but I had to spend less time playing the piano. I had to read books like The Capital and Keynes' General Theory after midnight - can you imagine that? The thing is unreadable under normal circumstances! Cramming for calculus and econometrics was even worse. By the end of the fourth year, I was very tired. I guess you could call that a reductionistic lifestyle.

I applied for a bunch of postgraduate programmes and accepted a very good funding deal at the University of Exeter, in the UK, with PhD funding already included. I took half a year between graduation and the beginning of my Exeter MA in International Relations to obtain a license to work as an insurance broker for a family business. At Exeter I learned to do independent research. I had a very good supervisor, excellent lecturers, and a nice group of colleagues. Towards the end of my MA, it was clear already that perhaps I should have studied some field in the Humanities from the beginning. But in Brazil, you dream about doing either Engineering, Law, or Medical School. Doing Economics and IR was already a small act of rebellion at that time, but also a compromise, because I had indicated that History would have worked better for me and was discouraged from pursuing that. Now things have changed in Brazil. People are less traditional about their degree options. Unfortunately, if I could go back in time I'd still do none of the main ones. I'd go for Liberal Arts in the classical style, but that's not available in the country. Too bad.

My PhD supervisor was Colin Wight. He gave me a break to read Dooyeweerd and other Reformational work after my MA to try to come up with a Reformational project. In the end we agreed on a broader question, "what's the role of metatheory in IR?" and it did help to have taken four months to read philosophy, but mostly we agreed that doing Reformational IR would be too difficult to get it done in five years or so. I completed my thesis in 2012 and graduated in 2013.

By that time, I had developed an interest in the history of political ideas and also in the history of foreign relations in the ancient Near East. Since then, I have been writing on different topics, such as economics and politics in the ancient Near East, Reformational philosophy applied to politics, IR theory and a few historical topics.

Who or what are your key influences?

My parents taught me the importance of church attendance and the value of studying and working hard. My grandparents taught me to enjoy being around my extended family, including my cousins, and the importance of history, culture and the arts. My Italian granddad read me some Italian literature and Reader's Digest stories when I was little. We also heard classical music, travelled, and attended concerts together. In my PhD years, I had the blessing of meeting the Wieske family in Northeast Brazil. They were there as a missionary family. I went back to the area several times and they always showed hospitality and, in their daily routine, provided a role model of a Christian family working for the Kingdom.

In cultural or intellectual terms, I guess I should mention that paying attention to J.S. Bach's music shaped my worldview as much as reading Abraham Kuyper's Stone Lectures or Francis Schaeffer's trilogy. I found in Bach a good balance against some of the romantic tendencies you can see, for example, in Kuyper. I was under the preaching of a pastor who had strong views on Christianity not only as a religion or way of life for the individual but also a cultural force for the common good. When I discovered Kuyper and the rest, my heart and mind were already prepared for that sort of approach.

Another influence I should mention came from people and events that taught me to mistrust the hubris of political authoritarianism. My Italian granddad was a child during World War II and his family never joined the Fascist party. As a result, they had much less access to food and clothes and suffered a lot during the war. This is part of the reason why he later decided to try something new in Brazil. I grew up hearing his stories about the horrors of war. My other grandfather was older and he had been drafted by the Brazilian Army to join the allied forces and fight the axis powers in Italy. But, before shipping to Europe, in the Army base, he decided he shouldn't go fight the war, so he had to hide for a few years before amnesty was granted for defectors. When I was born, Brazil was still under the rule of a military junta, but later transitioned to a convoluted period of democratic transition. High inflation was destroying people's livelihoods. I remember running in front of the "price man" at the supermarket to get products for the previous day's price before the new tags were placed in them. My father got his salary and would have to immediately spend most of it by stocking up groceries for the entire month. This was very early in my childhood, until age nine or so, but I still have vivid memories of the national currency changing name every six months or so. By college time, I was already immune to the idea that politicians are more enlightened than the rest of us.

Then, when I read books such as The Road to Serfdom or, say, Orwell's 1984, they helped me conceptualize what I had already noticed intuitively. I had already grasped Lord Acton's maxim that "absolute power corrupts absolutely". If you have, let's say, an Augustinian view of the potential damage we can cause to fellow human beings if unhampered by checks and balances, then you can easily identify some of the naivete about human nature both right and left on the political spectrum, and that can lead you to the normative point that civil government should be limited in scope.

A final influence I should mention is Dr Jonathan Chaplin. I worked with him part-time as an assistant in a project on religion in the EU at KLICE. I'm very thankful for the interactions I had with him and that helped me advance a publication agenda in Reformational political philosophy after my PhD. But the most striking thing Jonathan taught me was how to have a proper academic conversation on contentious issues. Jonathan is a very skilled writer and communicator. I noticed I was at odds with some of his political views, but he's such a gentleman, and he taught me a lot through his polite behaviour. He played the role of mentor, of someone who wants to focus more on the common ground, making sure I knew I had a place in the Reformational movement and had something to contribute. I'm very thankful for the time I spent at KLICE.

How did your interest in Reformational philosophy begin?

I guess I was hearing a lot of preaching on the need to be a Christian in whatever you do, not just family life or personal conduct towards others, but also in the way you frame your vocation and think of it. Then I searched for material on this and Schaeffer was the first stop, Kuyper was the second stop, Van Til the third and, finally, Dooyeweerd. By the second year of college, I had read a good selection of articles on faith and culture across the Reformed spectrum - from Sproul to Rushdoony. I have to say I ran some risk reading theologically controversial material at such an early age, but those writers had a gift with words, plus it helped me improve my English language skills, and I had been well catechised, so that provided me with a good filter.

By around 2007, like-minded people in my town set up an association for translating and discussing Reformational material and later they managed to obtain the rights to publish Dooyeweerd in Portuguese. This is how I met Guilherme de Carvalho, who later on also trained at L'Abri and opened its first urban branch ever in Brazil. He encouraged me to read not only Dooyeweerd but also Rookmaaker and Alister McGrath. At that time I started to translate Reformational material into Portuguese. First, a book chapter by Matt Bonzo on globalisation. Then, Dooyeweerd's 32 propositions on philosophical anthropology for private circulation.

In 2011, during my PhD years, I attended the "Future of Creation Order" conference in Amsterdam and presented a paper on IR and Dooyeweerd and a paper written with another Brazilian colleague, Leo Ramos, who at the time was pursuing the notion of using Dooyeweerd in IR as a critical theory. The 2011 conference was crucial to rekindle my interest in Dooyeweerd's philosophy.

What are your current research interests? How does your Christian faith influence your research projects?

In 2018 I delivered the Calihan Lecture at the Acton Institute and applied the notion of sphere sovereignty to interpret the crisis we are facing in the public square. This lecture has recently been published in the Journal of Markets & Morality. Last year I finished a project on the classical liberal background of the anti-revolutionary movement. An article summarising the main findings will come out in the Journal of Church and State in 2021. I didn't want it to be too controversial and deliberately toned down the argument after the first peer review, but the main point is that Groen van Prinsterer and Kuyper fall under the category of "anti-rationalist liberals", together, of course, with figures such as Lord Acton, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and others who were, together with the anti-revolutionaries, very critical of the "rationalist liberalism" of, say J.S. Mill or the French liberals. As part of this project, I wrote an epilogue to the Portuguese translation of Kuyper's speech on the social question, a book chapter for a South African publisher on Christian ethics and entrepreneurship in an interventionist economy.

My faith influences my projects mostly in the research questions. Sometimes, this is very obvious, such as when I want to offer an application of the concept of sphere sovereignty to a particular policy area, like my 2016 article on security studies in Philosophia Reformata. In other projects, the connection is less direct. I share Dr David Koyzis' concern with idolatry in our political life, but use a different angle when I approach the subject. My PhD on metatheory used some of M.D. Stafleu's views on theory to conceptualize metatheory, but non-Reformational readers will probably have the same use for the thesis as Reformational scholars. I also study particular Christian thinkers, like Martin Wight or Johannes Althusius and this obviously appeals more to a Christian audience. Finally, my research in Assyriology is thinly connected to my Christian faith, as it tends to be mostly empirical. But of course being Reformed means I would have more of an interest in trying to understand how covenants worked in the ancient Near East, as it was the case with Meredith Kline and others in the past.

I have changed some of the focus of my views over time, and now I think that the Christian worldview applied to how you interpret your vocation and act can be developed in a less theoretical and more organic way in the context of a solid local church, good catechesis, good Christian schools and solid family time with prayer and Bible reading. I see less of an emphasis on life in the local church than I'd like to see in the Reformational movement, particularly, after Dooyeweerd, and that's a development that the movement should perhaps regret. For that reason, I keep my eyes open to identify positive contributions of "implicit" Christian scholarship out there that might not be as fluent in "Reformational" as I wished in the past.

You have experienced academic life in the UK, South Africa and Brazil. What contact have you had with the reformational movement in each of these countries - how are they the same and how are they different.

My contact was mostly with philosophers and political theorists and, to a lesser degree, theologians. In Brazil and the UK, Reformational scholars tend to be outside the university system, working academically on the side, and they are theologically diverse - I'd say more diverse in the UK than in Brazil, but in both countries, you'll see a lot of interest in Reformational scholarship across different church communities. I think one key difference is that people interested in Reformational scholarship in Brazil tend to be more influenced by American evangelicalism, whereas in the UK it's easier to find a Reformational attending a mainline church.

In South Africa, I was working at what is, or was, perhaps the last 'Reformational' philosophy department in the world at NWU in Potchefstroom under the leadership of Prof Michael Heyns. I was there when Prof Renato Coletto became the Chair in Philosophy and saw Prof Daniê Strauss, Prof Bennie van der Walt, and Prof Henk Stoker present and discuss papers at our internal seminar. Professors Bob Goudzwaard and Elaine Botha also visited and offered advanced courses. In that environment, I had the impression that there were many scholars still influenced by Reformational philosophy applying it to different fields and with tenure at different universities. I'm not sure if that will be the case in five years or so. But there was more of a formal presence in the university setting. And most of them were in some sort of Reformed church, either the GKSA or two of the "national" churches.

There are more historical Reformational associations in South Africa than in Brazil or the UK. I think the Koers journal exists since at least the mid-1930s. But in Brazil, one particular association - the Brazilian Association for Christians in Science / ABC2 - managed to obtain good funding over the last few years and is now probably one of the best-funded Reformational associations in the world. In the UK I didn't get the chance to network with people based North of London, but I'd say Reformational philosophy has a strong presence reaching indirectly to students in Oxford and Cambridge, via KLICE or some other association, but the number of academics openly pursuing scholarship in this tradition is much smaller.

Central and South America seem to be hot spots for Reformational interests. Why do you think this is the case?

I think there are a number of reasons for that. First, Dooyeweerd and Kuyper are being translated and are for the first time being read in Spanish or Portuguese, in places like Mexico or Brazil. 

Second, there are a number of scholars and public intellectuals that are particularly successful in their fields or in their media presence who are enabling people to make sense of this material. I can think of

Adolfo Garcia de la Sienra in Mexico, 
Manfred Svensson in Chile, 
Guilherme de Carvalho 
Rodolfo Amorim 
Pedro Dulci
Jonas Madureira 
Igor Miguel 
and Davi Charles Gomes in Brazil. 

Third, at least in the case of Brazil, a Reformational research agenda has two good chances of thriving in terms of funding. ABC2, the association that is promoting Christian scholarship among evangelicals, has obtained funding to translate books and to expand on them through videos, conferences, and online courses. This is one space that is open to Reformational scholarship. Another space is Mackenzie Presbyterian University, where there's an internal trust that funds Christian scholarship with small grants. Professors at the university can apply for that every 6 months. 

Fourth, individual publishers are also interested in this material. An important project is that of the Acton Institute with Lexham, publishing some of Kuyper's works for the first time in English. Since many of us don't read Dutch, this is a crucial project with international impact. Similarly, Paideia Press has been republishing some mid-20th century Reformational material and this is helping the current generation to rediscover some of the classics in the tradition. 

Fifth, there are pockets of a more implicit Reformational presence in those places where the Evangelical or Protestant community is small and they end up gaining a great deal of influence. I can think of Plataforma C in Costa Rica, under the leadership of Dennis Petri for one. They are doing important non-academic work, particularly with the agenda of promoting freedom of religion. 

Finally, organisations such as Cardus and authors like Rob Joustra and Jordan Ballor lead by example when they draw novel conclusions and applications to our contemporary setting from the classic Reformational authors. This is a good model for public intellectuals and associations to follow in Latin America.

What Reformational resources are available in Portuguese?

Publishers like Monergismo and Vida Nova in Brazil, as well as Thomas Nelson Brasil and Ultimato, are bringing authors such as J.M. Spier, Goudzwaard, Rookmaaker, Dooyeweerd, and Kuyper, to a Portuguese-speaking audience for the first time. There is an emerging literature of original local authors applying Reformational insights to public theology, such as Gui Braun, Josué Reichow, Jonas Madureira, and Pedro Dulci. When something "Reformational" is about to be published, I'm often contacted to write a foreword or epilogue and "introduce" the work to the Brazilian reader, but the funny thing is that I haven't written a book myself!

Guilherme Carvalho has a column in a newspaper called Gazeta do Povo and for a long time he had one on Ultimato's website, where he writes on public theology from a Reformational point of view. Franklin Ferreira, a Reformed Baptist pastor at Martin Bucer Seminary, has written on what I'd define as "broadly Kuyperian" political concerns from a conservative perspective. There is a new generation of young scholars that are publishing in Portuguese now, some of them under the supervision of Leo Ramos, my coauthor. Tiago Rossi wrote an MA on Reformational political thought and IR and is now working on a PhD exploring this topic further with a focus on Kuyper.

ABC2 and L'Abri are doing a fantastic job to popularize Reformational scholarship through videos, presentations, events, online courses, seminars, and much more. Pedro Dulci runs an "Invisible College" mailing list with a list of Reformational resources in public theology and, for subscribers, a premium mentoring programme that involves essay writing and discussion groups.

Between 2012 and 2015 I blogged on Brazilian politics drawing on a Reformational framework. There's a group called Nucleo Althusius in Recife that runs a reading and discussion club, live internet meetings and an annual Forum in public theology. The group is planning to publish a translation of Groen van Prinsterer's lectures, some original material, and to organise now as a Christian think tank similar to Canada's ARPA combined with Cardus. Matheus Andrade and Vinicius Pimentel are ahead of this. They have experience in politics and law, and Vinicius is also training to be an ordained minister.

What do you do for fun? 

I watch my kids play. That's my TV these days. When I can, I also play music.

What books are you reading at the moment? 

I'm reading La Lingua dei Sumeri, a Sumerian grammar written by four Italian scholars, and The Humane Economist, a Wilhelm Röpke reader edited by Daniel Mugger and published by the Acton Institute.

If you were on a desert island what two luxuries would you take with you?

A harpsichord with spare parts and a good edition of The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Interview with Andrew Basden

It has been two years since I last interviewed you - what has been happening in the intervening months? 

Several things.  My main academic occupation has been getting several PhD students finished, and writing my new book, which has recently been published, Foundations and Practice of Research: Adventures with Dooyeweerd's Philosophy.  Most of my students were using Dooyeweerd and I have used their work as examples in the book (Chapter 11).  I have also been writing papers on Dooyeweerd's understanding of meaning, on integrative views of systems thinking, artificial intelligence and research fields, and helping with papers on environmental sustainability, all using Dooyeweerd.

The application papers expand themes that were only cursorily presented in that book and in my previous one (Foundations of Information Systems: Research and Practice).  I have just heard that I will be retired in May and there's another twenty themes to expand likewise!  So, would anyone else like to take on this exploration and expansion, such as in-depth comparison of Dooyeweerd's aspects with various other suites (e.g. Maslow's needs), or using Dooyeweerd's aspects to evaluate the quality of computer games;  see  http://dooy.info/r/fisrp/ for a hundred ideas and my new book for more!  I would be delighted if so.

In the rest of my life, I have been walking the hills, especially with the Manchester Pedestrian Club - a 'gentlemen's walking club' founded in 1903, in which "gentlemen" can now be either men or women!, and developing their website (manchesterwalking.org.uk).  From time to time I have found myself mentoring people in the Christian life. One important thing on my heart is to develop a compelling theology of environmental responsibility - see the article published in the Evangelical Alliance blog:

 https://www.eauk.org/news-and-views/a-compelling-theology-for-environmental-responsibility

I've been working with the UK Christian Academic Network, meeting various Reformational philosophers, and fulfilling the role of husband and grandfather.  And helping to re-open railway services:  the Halton Curve!

Andrew with some of his students

You have been an academic at The University of Salford for almost thirty years - what have been the highlights of your academic career so far?

Actually, 33 years, now!  Somewhat sadly, retiring in May 2020.  The highlights are diverse.

A major one is that I have been able to make sense of the dozen years I spent outside academic life before joining the university, in the medical profession, chemical industry and surveying profession.  First, I developed some ideas in the fields of human computer interaction, knowledge acquisition, expert systems, geographic information systems and business informatics, without knowing about Dooyeweerd.  It was when I discovered Dooyeweerd's philosophy in the mid-1990s that I was able to make fuller and deeper sense of them.  This is partly because, as I say in my book, Dooyeweerd is probably the best philosopher of everyday life yet to emerge.

The second highlight is, therefore, the discovery and exploration of Dooyeweerd.  It is such a rich philosophy, not as something apart from or superior to others, but as one that can affirm insights from others, offer fundamental critique which exposes without undermining, and then offer healing and enrichment to other thought.  (This is explained in a paper in Philosophia Reformata (2008, 73(2), 132-53,  "Engaging with and enriching humanist thought: the case of information systems").  Dooyeweerd, I find, is truly attractive to most people.  My most successful course, Key Issues in Information Systems Development, used Dooyeweerd's aspects as a basis for recognising, clarifying and guiding key issues and ensuring none were overlooked.  The students, from all over the world, loved it, and many have returned to their professional lives using Dooyeweerd in their thinking.

A third highlight is that my environmental concern, which was stimulated by commitment to Christ, was enriched by Dooyeweerd's idea of aspects.  If we see true sustainability as humanity, society and the world functioning well in every aspect, from the biotic and physical, through the technical, social and economic, to the moral and faith aspects, then we have a marvellous way to analyse and assess sustainability.  It was my joy to lead Peter Brandon and Patrizia Lombardi into this perspective and see them run with it in the early 2000s.  It has also been developed by several thinkers as a new paradigm in sustainability and environmental responsibility.  See Chapter 11 of my new book.


What have been the discouragements and how have you dealt with them?

A couple, both about the Reformational philosophy community.  I have been discouraged how little the Reformational community engages with mainstream thought as its various thinkers struggle to understand reality in all its diverse aspects.  Paradoxically, Reformational thought seems to be trapped in the Nature-Grace Ground-motive, the sacred-secular divide.

One example of this lack of interest is that, when Sytse Strijbos and Donald de Raadt set up the Centre for Philosophy, Technology and Social Systems, which ran working conferences for 20 years in which Dooyeweerdian philosophy and systems thinking were discussed together, only a few Reformational thinkers took part.  CPTS did, however, attracted interest from major figures from mainstream thought, which was perhaps much more important.

Another example is that I tried to get a Dooyeweerd Research Fund going, which would offer pieces of financial support to those who wished to use Dooyeweerd in their research in various fields, but very few in the Reformational community seemed seriously interested.  There are people all over the world who want to use Dooyeweerd, yet most Reformational thinkers seem not interested in helping them.

Maybe I did not approach things in the best way (Aspergic!).  I dealt with both discouragements by seeing us all as part of God's plan and getting on with what I felt He had called me to do.


Your book on research has been recently published. Could you say something about the nature of the book, who is the intended audience and why should they read it?

Let's take it in reverse.  The book's subtitle is Adventures with Dooyeweerd's Philosophy because it seeks to impart to researchers in all fields the excitement of using Dooyeweerd in research.  Its longest chapter (11) is a compendium of all the research using Dooyeweerd that I could find.  To my surprise, I found Dooyeweerd has been employed in most stages of research projects, from literature analysis, paradigm critique, setting conceptual frameworks, to data collection and analysis.  That practical element is largely in Part III of the book, which also contains a detailed, referencable discussions of all of Dooyeweerd's aspects.

As its main title, Foundations and Practice of Research, implies, its intended audience is those who either want good guidance in practice or want to understand research from its roots and maybe rethink it where it has become stuck. This will include researchers, research managers and strategists. A secondary readership is Reformational (and wider Christian) thinkers, whom I would like to inspire as to the wonderful potential of the philosophy they have been discussing.  As such, Parts I and II of the book discuss the nature of research from a Dooyeweerdian perspective alongside other perspectives.  It discusses both the everyday activity and context of research, and its more formal core of theoretical thought.  There is a discussion of truth that tries to cut through the sterile impasse between objectivism, subjectivism and social contructionism.

A summary and clickable index to the book may be found at http://dooy.info/bk/adventures/

One interesting nugget is that Dooyeweerd's transcendental critique of theoretical thought, which is usually considered abstruse and difficult to understand, actually becomes very understandable and useful when applied to scientific research.  It opens up the nature of research in many fields in a way that other approaches do not.


How does this book differ from your previous work?

In three ways - in its coverage and aim, its treatment of day and its treatment of other philosophy.

(a)  Coverage.  The previous book (Foundations of Information Systems: Research and Practice, 2018, Routledge) was about the one field, information systems.  This book (Foundations and Practice of Research: Adventures with Dooyeweerd's Philosophy, Routledge) is relevant to all fields of research, from mathematics, the natural sciences, cognitive sciences, design sciences, social sciences, societal sciences and the humanities.  See Chapters 8 and 11.

(b)  Dooyeweerd.  As with my previous books, this one should be self-sufficient in its presentation of Dooyeweerd, but Dooyeweerd is presented in a different way.  What is one chapter on Dooyeweerd in the previous book is distributed across eight chapters in this book.  It sets Dooyeweerd's thinking in the context of other thinking - Chapters 2-4 on his starting-points of everyday pre-theoretical experience, of diversity and coherence and of meaning, Chapters 6 and 7 on his transcendental critique, Chapter 5 on presuppositions including ground-motives and Dooyeweerd's attempt at a 'Christian' philosophy, Chapter 9, which discusses the aspects in detail, and Chapter 12 on criticisms of Dooyeweerd.

(c)  Philosophy.  Whereas in my previous books, I discussed other philosophies first, to show how Dooyeweerd's fitted in, in this book, I postpone discussion of them to Chapter 5 after discussing his starting-points.  That would be more appropriate for researchers in the various fields, especially those who are not aware how philosophy undergirds their thought.  With this, researchers can understand how presuppositions guide them, not as some mysterious amorphous subterranean force, but as three distinct kinds of belief-activities in society (worldviews, ground-motives and standpoints).


You dedicate the book to Richard Russell as someone who started you on the adventure and Mike Winfield who turned the adventure towards empirical research. Are there others who have helped in your development and understanding of Dooyeweerd? 

Yes, many.  Perhaps some key ones include several connected with the CPTS, including Sytse Strijbos, Jan van der Stoep, Sander Griffioen and the late Arie Dirkzwaager in the Netherlands, Donald de Raadt, Anita Mirijamdotter, Birgitta Bergvall-KÂreborn, Darek Eriksson/Haftor and Roelien Goede in Sweden and South Africa.  Several Dooyeweerdian thinkers, including Roy Clouser, Danie Strauss, Henk Geertsema, Hendrik Hart, Bruce Wearne, Yong Joon Choi and Chris Gousmett.  Several from Thinking Faith Network (WYSOCS) especially Ruth and David Hanson.  And all my PhD students (they are mentioned in my book).

But perhaps most especially the late Heinz Klein, a 'father' of the information systems field, who is perhaps one of the best critical thinkers I have come across.  Though not a Christian, and having expertise in Habermas and the Linguistic Turn, he valued Dooyeweerd's ideas and encouraged me greatly.  Finally, the University of Salford, the then Vice Chancellor of which told me the university wanted me to "explore this Dutch philosophy in the context of information systems" - so I did!


Dooyeweerd has obviously been influential on you. To what extent have you developed his ideas? Would Dooyeweerd recognise how you have utilised his ideas? Are there any parts of Dooyeweerd's philosophy you would take issue with?

Three questions there, but inter-related.  Let me first say that I see Dooyeweerd as a human being who was called to begin working something out, who did not finish that working-out, but did a lot.

That 'something' was a mix of radical ideas: everyday experience, diversity, coherence and meaningfulness taken seriously as starting-points for philosophy rather than being ignored or taken them for granted, the fully-human nature of theoretical thinking and especially its religious presuppositions, a need to deeply reform philosophy, to do so immanently, that dialogue should be possible between supposedly incommensurable ground-motives, especially between Greek, Scholastic, Humanistic and Biblical ones, the problems imposed by the immanence standpoint, the nature of time and self, a new understanding of subject-object, and several other things, with Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects pre-eminent.  This combination of ideas is of immense value but it is not finished.

Now, let me answer your three questions together by way of a metaphor.  I believe that Dooyeweerd found and unlocked a door that enables philosophers and other thinkers to address those things together.  Beyond that door, he cleared paths through the thickets.  I have followed those paths, though occasionally pushing through where his paths were still overgrown, and perhaps occasionally finding a short-cut where Dooyeweerd made a circuit.

One of the thickets I pushed through was his transcendental critique of theoretical thought, reinterpreting it in the light of my experience of research in various fields.  One of the shortcuts might be my understanding of Dooyeweerd's understanding of meaning, which I recently published (Philosophia Reformata, 2019; also Chapter 4 in my new book).  I might also have begun extending Dooyeweerd's path on enkapsis, seeing that there might be other types Dooyeweerd did not discuss.  I have begun to extend Dooyeweerd's path of engaging with other philosophers, by discussing engagement as such (Basden 2008 above) and starting to engage with philosophers that Dooyeweerd did not, such as Habermas, Foucault and even American Pragmatism.

I might also have neatened the paths of Dooyeweerd's aspects, by trying to gain a more systematic understanding of each based on pre-theoretical intuition (which may be found in http://dooy.info/aspects.smy.html which is also Chapter 9 of my new book).  I have found one or two of his paths a little narrow, such as his notion of progress, and in need of widening.  I have perhaps paved some parts of his paths to make them easier to travel, especially for those less mobile in philosophy.

One of Dooyeweerd's paths, which I have seldom found helpful, is the one that takes us to structures of individuality (Clouser's "type laws") and its qualifying, founding, leading, internal-leading, etc. aspects.  Another is the kind of antithesis there is between "Christian" and "Non-Christian" thought, which many misunderstand, and which, though important to emphasise at that time, is less so now.  A path I have yet to explore is his idea of supratemporality and the human heart.  Though I agree with both ideas theoretically, I have yet to find them useful.  I wonder whether Dooyeweerd was somewhat trapped in the Greek-Scholastic-Humanist wish to find humans 'superior' to the rest of creation, in a way I do not find Biblical (though perhaps less so than most).

With some surprise, however, I have found that most of Dooyeweerd's paths led me where I wanted to go, and needed little improvement.


In chapter 4 you develop Dooyeweerd's idea of meaning - could you briefly why this has been so important to your work?

There are practical, research, philosophical and theological reasons, which intertwine.

Practically and philosophically, life is full of meaningfulness.  Meaningfulness is deeper than meanings that humans attribute (to things), interpret (sense-making in situations) or convey (by words), and even than the meaning of life.  It refers to all things being meaningful whether or not linked with humans.  This gives me joy in life, and a direction in research to recognise its diversity and expect its coherence.  Meaningfulness provides the only sound philosophical basis that I know of for environmental and climate responsibility that looks beyond human needs or valuation - as e.g. Gunton et al. (2017) argue in proposing "ecosystem valuing".

An emphasis on meaningfulness helps me in analysis: an emphasis on "Why?" rather than an emphasis on "What?"  Dooyeweerd's aspects are spheres (or "modalities") of meaningfulness, not just law.  Looking for meaningfulness via aspects opens up fresh ideas; often a paradigm shift occurs when some courageous thinker recognises an aspect of the meaningfulness of reality that previous thinkers had ignored or taken for granted.

Philosophically, it is this meaningfulness that enables all those above types of meanings listed earlier to occur, but philosophers have not realised this until recently.  Dooyeweerd was ahead of them.  Most of Dooyeweerd's 3000 mentions of "meaning", "meaningful", etc. in his New Critique were about meaningfulness, not the other kinds of meanings I listed above, and he explored the nature and implications of meaningfulness.  So, another reason why I found meaning(fulness) important is because Dooyeweerd did.

After centuries of ignoring meaning, philosophers began to recognise the importance of meaning but, given their "immanence standpoint", they have taken signification (language etc.) as their starting-point and groped their way to the position that "all is text" (Derrida) or "all is sign" (Peirce) - all is meaningfulness.  They have arrived, after circuitous journeys, where Dooyeweerd begins.  So have many in the fields I work in; for example there is a growing movement in the information systems field to recognise the meaningfulness of information technology that is there regardless of whether users recognise it or not.  Meaningfulness is something that can bring objective and subjective and intersubjective together.

Only very few philosophers understand this meaningfulness, one being Michael Polanyi, who wrote that we "dwell" in meaning.  I find it useful to think of the whole of reality 'swimming' in an 'ocean of meaningfulness' - something inescapable, something that enables and sustains all creation to be and occur, and something in which we are 'at home'.  Theologically, I, as did Dooyeweerd, see meaningfulness as deriving from an Origin of Meaning, i.e. the Creator, God.  (When Scripture mentions the Word of God, that which upholds all [Hebrews 1:3], think of meaningfulness!)

I find that a philosophy in which meaningfulness is explicitly recognised offers much more beauty, wonder and thrill, as well as usefulness, than do conventional philosophies, whether realist or anti-realist, and yet it remains superbly rational.

Sadly, Dooyeweerd never clarified what he meant, which led to misunderstandings (e.g. those who think he derived his ideas from Linguistic Turn philosophy and Phenomenology) and missed opportunities to engage with others and contribute value to mainstream thought.  In the absence of any other Reformational thinker doing so, I decided I had to try to write an account of how Dooyeweerd used the notion of meaningfulness.  It is set out in Chapter 4 of my book, and more fully in two 2019 articles in Philosophia Reformata.


You speak of an 'adventure' — can you explain how Dooyeweerd transformed your thinking, your career and your life?

Dooyeweerd, especially his aspects, became a 'way of thinking' that affects all I am and do.  Others have found similarly, even those with little interest in Reformational philosophy.

It makes me open-minded and open-hearted because I can recognise that the 'other person' is finding a different aspect important, to the ones I do; and so I can and must respect their views.  Conversely, it gives me confidence to respect my own ideas, seeing where they fit alongside those of others, so difference in viewpoint is no longer a conflict (win/lose) but a collaboration in bring good (of a variety of kinds) into the world.  It suggests where they and I can make valuable contributions in our fields.

Dooyeweerd has encouraged my (academic) thinking to be much more interdisciplinary and open to new ideas.  I can see where the wide range of ideas extant in a field fit.  Paradigms may be understood as linked to ways in which reality is meaningful (Section §8-2 in my book).  I have been able to explore rather than shut down new ideas, but critically, because Dooyeweerd gives the basis for genuinely critical affirmation and enrichment.

Dooyeweerd has been central to my career; as I mentioned, the University expressly wanted me to explore his ideas.  So my career over the past twenty years has been geared to Dooyeweerd.  Dooyeweerd gave me a 'mission' in my academic life - or perhaps I should say, Dooyeweerd clarified the mission that Christ gives me.  A mission to bring Good and Joy into the world, including the academic world, to engage rather than cut myself off defensively.  Since 2007 I have made Dooyeweerd and his aspects the core of all I have taught, not because I want to promote his ideas but because they are the ones that I find work better than any others.  I do not teach (or research) Dooyeweerd's philosophy so much as application of Dooyeweerd's philosophy.  It is interesting that some people have come to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord because I taught the application of Dooyeweerd.


You seem to regard yourself more as an applier than a person who expands the bounds of philosophy. Can you explain how the book provides practical guidance as to the benefits of Reformational philosophy for research and lifestyle?

Part III of the book is the 'practical' part, with three chapters.  Chapter 9 is a systematic presentation of Dooyeweerd's fifteen aspects, designed to be referenced but also to help readers grow an intuitive grasp of the kernel meanings of each, with which they can approach life and work as I found it such a joy to do.  (This part is also a Dooyeweerd Page, "http://dooy.info/aspects.smy.html".)  It also offers a justification for using Dooyeweerd's aspects in preference to any other suite, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Chapter 10 discusses the aspects of the fully human activity that is doing research, especially the less-obvious ones.  This is to help researchers examine, and be critically aware of, their own research activity.  It also explains my LACE approach to engaging with other thought:  Listen, Affirm, Critique, Enrich.

Chapter 11 is the longest chapter.  It collects together actual examples of use of Dooyeweerd in research, giving exemplars that others could adopt and adapt.  I was surprised to find that Dooyeweerd's philosophy has been used in almost every stage of research.  I don't know that other philosophers have been (Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, etc.).

The rest of the book sets the context for these.  If "There is nothing so practical as a good theory" then Dooyeweerd provides that "good theory" and chapters 2 to 8 offer an understanding of that.  This helps researchers and all engaged in real life to understand why Dooyeweerd is so useful (as demonstrated in chapters 9-11).  In Chapter 12 I review criticisms of Dooyeweerd so that people may use his ideas with their eyes open.

The book highlights fifty of the many opportunities that call for Dooyeweerd to be used in research; see the Index entry "Research opportunities" (http://dooy.info/bk/adventures/idx.html#resch.opps).


Your listen, affirm, critique and enrich strategy - at least the listen and affirm parts - could be seen as relying on common grace. Would you agree? What role do you see, if any, for common grace?

Yes and no.  You might be right, but I don't like the idea of common grace as such, because I believe that God's love and grace that pervades Creation is the same as that which procures salvation.  To me, there is no difference, though I am still working it out.

"Listen" comes from the command to love our neighbour as ourselves.  "Affirm" comes from the idea that humanity is made to image God, so whatever humans do is some fulfilment of the Creational mandate, even though distorted by sin and evil.  "Critique" recognises this evil, especially acting through widespread presuppositions, but also recognises, within what Dooyeweerd called the "opening process", which is part of humanity's Creational mandate to open up the potential of Creation.  So no ideas are yet completed.  "Enrich" comes from our mandate, as people of God, to be "salt and light", to "do good to all ..." (Galatians 6:10).


What things do you have on your bucket list?

A lot of repairs, redecorations and tidyings-up that have been put off while writing my books and papers!  My theology website http://abxn.org/nv/ needs tidying up and revamping; it develops a theology in which environmental and climate responsibility is central not peripheral.  So do The Dooyeweerd Pages (http://dooy.info/) and the site on Climate Change and Global Environment (http://abxn.org/ccge/), which involves Bob Goudzwaard and Sir John Houghton.  When I retire, I expect to devote a considerable amount of my effort to environmental matters, but still hope to engage in Dooyeweerdian ideas.


What book(s) are you reading at the moment?

Hmm.  A random selection, very slowly.  The Bible, of course, referring sometimes to Greek and Hebrew versions.  And Dooyeweerd's New Critique, of course.  Besides that:

(a)  Tom Holland's Dominion - a wonderful outsider's view of the blessing and curse that Christianity has brought into the world;
(b)  Cromwell to Cromwell, a fascinating book I picked up in Oxfam about the English Reformation;
(c)  Excerpts from C.S. Lewis;
(d)  The Noble Liar, a blast against the BBC;
(e)  A children's story thriller Black Snow Falling.


If you were stuck on a desert island and were only allowed two luxury items, what would you take?

I enjoy so many things that I might not need a luxury.  So what would I choose?  Scottish morning rolls freshly baked?  Mashed potato?  My wife Ruth's falafels?  The Pennine Moors?  The Scottish Southern Uplands?  The Torridon hills?  Glen Lyon?  A pair of binoculars and a bird book?  The complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien?  My old (1990s!) Amiga computer (on which I am writing this, and on which I composed all my books, papers and websites) - along with enough spares to keep it going, and a solar panel to power it?  I don't know.