An Introduction to Reformational Philosophy

I have been reading reformational philosophy now for over twenty years. It has had a profound impact on my thinking and continues to inspire me. It now seems appropriate to offer an introduction to this tradition of serious Christian thinking in the hope of encouraging others to benefit from its many insights. For those not familiar with reformational philosophy it can be identified as a little known Christian approach to philosophy pioneered by two Dutch philosophers in the first half of the 20th century.  Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977) and Dirk Th. Vollenhoven (1892-1978) were professors at the Free University in Amsterdam founded by the great Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) in 1880 as a Christian university founded on “reformed principles”.  The huge potential of this philosophy to be a blessing to Christians and their neighbours has yet to be fulfilled.  In part this is due to the complexity of many of the books produced by this philosophical movement, and partly because of the different way of thinking it promotes. It is my hope that in trying to explain some of its ideas and principles in a concise and clear way, a small contribution may be made to making reformational philosophy better known and appreciated.

This introduction is a work in progress with the plan to set it out across four chapters, each containing short digestible sections. The first two chapters are short and introductory, looking first at the worldview background, and, next, at the nature and task of philosophy. The final two chapters will be much longer and form the main exposition of reformational philosophy, first focusing on “understanding the cosmos”, and second on “Understanding our Tasks”.

Previous introductions to reformational philosophy have tended either to focus on one philosopher, usually Herman Dooyeweerd, or to introduce the author’s own version of reformational philosophy. Concerning the first it must be said that Dooyeweerd's writing style has not proved attractive to non-philosophers and philosophers trained in the analytic tradition. In addition, there are many other who are worthy of treatment in their own right. My aim then has been to try and bring together the key insights and contributions from as wide a range of the tradition as I could, in the hope that this will help newcomers to get a good taste of the potential of reformational philosophy as a living tradition. On the second point, while the selection and presentation cannot help but be personal, I have aimed to stay in the mainstream of reformational philosophy and to avoid deliberate innovation or idiosyncrasy.  The further reading sections are an integral part of this introduction as they attempt to document my sources, but also act as an invitation to discover more of the reformational tradition.

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