Dooyeweerd and the Word of God by John Frame

Note, 2/19/07: In the early 1970s, I got involved in some theological battles with some disciples of the great Dutch Christian philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd. These disciples had founded the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) in Toronto, Canada. They held conferences throughout North America and published books and papers. Under the influence of this movement, a number of our students at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, where I taught at the time, attacked traditional Reformed theology as “scholastic,” dualist,” and so on, especially because of our teaching concerning the Bible. Other ICS-influenced zealots tried to influence other Christian organizations (schools, churches, seminaries) to follow their lead.

I took issue with the ICS teaching, particularly about the Word of God, but also more broadly (see my booklet, The Amsterdam Philosophy, at http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_books/1972Amsterdam.htm). The following articles deal with various aspects of this controversy. “The Word of God in the Cosmonomic Philosophy” was published in the Presbyterian Guardian in 1972.The second article, also from the Guardian, consists of notes taken by the Guardian’s editor, the Rev. John Mitchell, of a lecture by me. The notes are accurate. I was trying there to present a positive view of Scripture, interacting with AACS formulations. Dr. Bernard Zylstra of the ICS was gracious enough to respond to me, and so the third article here is my reply to him. The fourth article, “Toronto, Reformed Orthodoxy, and the Word of God” appeared in Vanguard, the publication of the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship, (AACS) which supported the ICS position. After that third paper, there was a kind of truce: they and I more or less agreed to disagree. They, and I, toned down our militant rhetoric, and the atmosphere quieted. There were not many attempts after that by the ICS people to disrupt institutions committed to traditional Reformed views.