A Theologian's First Lecture

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Yesterday I had the good pleasure of hearing theologian Dr. Cornelius Van der Kooi. It was at Princeton Theological Seminary's huge and beautiful new library, fittingly, on Library Place. I wonder if they had changed the street's name? And the lectures were free to students and the public, my favorite kind. He presented The Warfield Lecture series on Christian views from himself and other philosophers/theologians from Calvin to Schleiemacher to Kuyper. Informative, fascinating and well worth the hour length. It seemed his many uses of "the Church," or "the Reformed Church," may have meant Presbyterianism.
 
I love seminars, webinars, conferences, exhibitions, topical classes; NJBPU energy renewables meetings, up to three free memoir writing classes a week, programs at Hamilton, Princeton and Lawrence Libraries like the SCORE small business sessions, TED Talks and more. Free are my first choice, and there's hundreds of 'em, especially on the Net. Oh, and reading dozens of magazines and a handful of books every month. Even the books I choose are free - overflow from the library where I volunteer.

Dr. Van der Kooi's first lecture started with the famous Protestant reformist John Calvin (1509-64), and his  Welcome Table, spread out for mankind; The Universal Action of the Spirit, particularly the Holy Spirit; Pilgrims in communion with Christ, how communion takes precedence over all other trappings of the (reformed) Church; and Word and Spirit.

Next F.D. Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who's works partly founded hermeneutics, and The Identity of Jesus; Dr. Van der Kooi not using "Redeemer" but singly out the Resurrection as a seminal Christian belief; Ecclesiology - the study of church doctrine and adornments; and the Kingdom of God and Society - a Spirit Christology - the nature and person of Jesus Christ as given in the New Testament. During that part I took note of Dr. Van der Kooi's remark, "Before and after Christ, exists an insufficiency of God's consciousness;" followed by the Kingdom of God and Society (which said to me God has a divine Plan), and He has given mercy, gifts and benefits to mankind to help us find Him [thru Christ]. 

Last came Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), statesman and theologian, who led an exodus from the Dutch Reformed Church and who made other notable achievements, such as founding the Free University; first Dr. Van der Kooi presented Student of Schleiermacher, about relationships; The Sovereignty of God - self-explanatory; and the Sustaining and elevation work of the Spirit, which spoke of the Goal of the universe - mobilizing believers and society to sustain their work and hope in Jesus - mentioning  the "Glory of God." Kuyper placed equally strong emphasis on the Christ Spirit (?) being both worldwide and democratic; how "... human nature is not evil - weakened only." The work of the Holy Spirit, "... its saving ability, and that science and culture are tools of the Spirit of God." And, God's final goal being the "regeneration of the universe" (to me, similar to Nietzsche's "reoccurrence" theory.

 To me, in other words, the "reform" Church is melding with the differences in our modern world, trying to address them less harshly in our personal behaviors - just my opinion. In fact, at one point the good doctor spoke of modernization - the sharp distinction between mind and body, such as "going to the medical doctor for the body," and the spirit of the Church.

Heavy stuff, yet light enough, presented clearly and cogently. No slides or Powerpoint, only the human voice. And I appreciated the doctor's openness toward the ways the Reformed Church now preaches "Fundamental unity and diversity go together," employing many more ways we can find Christ and God. The downplay of past hard dogma, how our spirits grow not just thru a perfunctory baptism at birth, or thru fear of losing our soul, or going to hell in judgement. The doctor even gave wiggle room on the last point, quoting Matthew, implying where our souls end up is a process, a dialogue, between a man and God, which I took as a sign of modernity. 

At the first lecture in an audience of 30, I was the only one taking notes. I had to ask a question. It's my nature. "You stated Christ has a human and a divine nature, which many seem to have forgotten. Does that make it possible that another one or more humans thruout our 200,000 years as Homo Sapiens could also have had a divine nature?" Dr. Van der Kooi pondered, and answered as mildly as he could, but I did record one phrase, "Christ was unique because of His saving mission, and others like Buddha and Muhammad were all weaker."

 What do you think of any of this?

by Rodney Richards, Subscribe, or email comments to 1950ablia@gmail.com

Surviving Bipolar Disorder in the modern age . . . a journey of Hope for the afflicted.
My poetic memoir Episodes available at www.amazon.com/episodes-rodney-richards/dp/0615914705/   

 Dr. Cornelis van der Kooi, Professor of Western Systematic Theology, Chair of the Department Dogmatics and Ecumenics, and Director of the Centre for Evangelical and Reformation Theology at the Free University of Amsterdam. Author and lecturer.