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G.c. Berkouwer G. C. Berkouwer Gerrit Cornelis Berkouwer (1904-1996) was for years the leading theologian of the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands (GKN). He occupied the Chair in Systematic Theology of the Faculty of Theology, Free University in Amsterdam, an institution of Christian commitment but independent of State and Church, while receiving support grants like all other Dutch universities and while interactive especially with the GKN constiuency, along with others as well. One of Berkouwer's crowning achievements was to be delegated by the Council of the GKN to attend the upcoming assemblies of the Intenational Council of Christian Church (a world fundamentalist body that met that year in Amsterdam) and the World Council of Churches (the ecumenical body that me that year, 1957 in New Delhi, India). In his report back to the GKN, Berkouwer recommended that they join the WCC; and they did so, becoming one of the first evangelical denominations to do so and to remain active over the decades. GKN and Liberated GKN Berkouwer completed his dissertation and received his doctorate in 1932 (diss: Faith and Revelation in German Theology). He came to his post after the Second World War (WWII) in which the Dutch national community suffered much from Nazi occupaton, the Holocaust, and culminating in the Hunger Winter of 1944. The Free University, like all Dutch institutions of higher learning, had been shut down, so there was no public professoring. Nevertheless, preaching and pamphlet wars raged in church and society. One issue was the negative tone of Berkouwer's predecessor, Prof Dr Valentine Hepp to use his role of systematician of Reformed theology to attack two movements, one was that led by D. H. Th. Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd (VU professors of philosophy, and law, respectively) who advocated Reformational philosophy. The other was the in-church movement led by Dr. Klaas Schilder, in regard to whom Hepp scored a pyrrhic victory with Berkouwer's leading involvement as president of the GKN Council, meeting of and on between 1943 and 1945 when that Council (Synod) finally forced Schilder, his colleague Dr S. Greijdanus, and other theologians and pastors out of the denominational community along with a good number of GNK churches. These reorganized themselves as the Liberated GKN churches. Later, Berkouwer indicated regret that he had helped back the split-off group into a corner, and that some other way of handling the differences should have been found. When at last Hepp was gone from his important Chair, Berkouwer succeeded him. He is known principally for three things. Studies in Dogmatics First, his writing of a new theological short essay in almost every issue of the weekly Gereformeerde Weekblad. A good part of these arose from class lectures to his students at VU, and the newspaper articles in turn led to the publication of books over many years under the general series name, Studies in Dogmatics, the number of titles of which eventually came to a total of 14. Among key works were The Person of Christ, The Work of Christ, two volumes on Sin, a volume on The Providence of God (which refers to Herman Dooyeweerd's philosophy), General Revelation (again refers to Dooyeweerd), and The Image of God (which especially made the growing movement of philosophers, scientists, and theologians whose thinking was akin to the ideas of Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd much more comfortable than they had been under Hepp). Berkouwer's leadership within the denomination to which most of them belonged was strengthened by this openness of the leading GKN theologian, and contributed to Berkouwer's developing in turn his own position in a more ecumenical direction. Roman Catholicism Second, in 1948, he published the first of two books on Roman catholicism, Conflict with Rome, in Dutch, later translated. After his attendance upon special invitation to the Second Vatican Council in 1962, Berkouwer published in Dutch, later translated, The Second Vatican Council and the New Catholicism. Barth Third, in 1936, Berkouwer had already published Karl Barth; in 1954, Berkouwer published in Dutch, later translated into English and widely read in the English-speaking world, The Triumph of Grace in the Theology of Karl Barth (of coure, the forever naysayer Barth didn't like it all that much). His Legacy Berkouwer was very influential among Reformed and other denominations in North America, where his series Studies in Dogmatics were translated and published. He had a continuous flow of seminary graduates to study under him for the degree of Doctor of Theology. Altogether Berkouwer mentored about 46 students who received the ThD degree under his supervision. Many of them became leaders in Christian thought abroad; and, often enough, denominational chief officers. External links 'human freedom' by Berkouwer http://www.the-highway.com/freedom1_Berkouwer.html Obituary http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/reformed/archive96/nr96-016.txt
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