Reformational philosophy

Reformational philosophy is a Neo-Calvinistic movement pioneered by Herman Dooyeweerd and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven that seeks to develop philosophical thought in a radically Protestant Christian direction.

In 1926 two Calvinist scholars were appointed to positions in the Free University (VU) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Both had completed their education there and had been influenced by the thought of its founder Abraham Kuyper whose brand of Neo-Calvinism had made a significant impact on the politics and culture of Dutch society. D. H. Th. Vollenhoven was appointed as the university’s first full-time professor of philosophy and his brother-in-law, Herman Dooyeweerd, was appointed to the law faculty.

Both men had already been cooperating in the development of a uniquely Christian philosophy and their labours began to see considerable fruit over the next ten years. The mid-1930s saw a series of significant publications culminating in Dooyeweerd’s magnum opus De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee (The Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea) in three volumes. At this time Vollenhoven organised the Association for Calvinistic Philosophy which he served as president until his retirement in 1963, by then an international organisation with over 500 members. Dooyeweerd became the first editor of the Association's academic journal Philosophia Reformata.

After the second world war the Association for Calvinistic Philosophy took advantage of a legal provision which, by establishing a second organization for that purpose, allowed those interested in the further project to appoint professors in special chairs at state universities. Johan Mekkes was appointed in 1947 at Rotterdam, Leiden and Eindhoven, K. J. Popma at Groningen in 1948 and later Utrecht (1955), S. U. Zuidema at the Free University and Utrecht in 1948 and Hendrik Van Riessen at Delft and Eindhoven in 1951.

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