New Book by Cal Seerveld, and a Recent Interview

ICS Senior Member Emeritus Calvin Seerveld has just published the first volume in a new series called Tough Stuff from the Bible, Tendered Gently with Paideia Press. The first volume's title is: Encouraging Faith Manifestoes for People with Open Ears: Biblical Narrative History. This volume is a collection of 18 Biblical meditations interpreting both Old and New Testaments. They are a compilation of what was spoken to mostly local congregations in the Toronto, Ontario area of Canada, between 1977 and 2011, by Cal. You can read more about the volume and get a copy for yourself here.

Also, earlier in November 2023, Cal gave a live-translated interview on a Brazilian show entitled Entre Amigos Internacional, hosted by Rodolfo Amorim, Bruno Maroni, and Guilherme Iamarino. 

You can watch the video below or find it on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrgSJ3RkXaA

New Book by Lambert Zuidervaart: Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth

Senior Member Emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart has published a new book on the German social philosopher Theodor Adorno, titled Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth (SUNY Press, 2024). The front cover features the image of a recent sculpture by Lambert’s wife, artist Joyce Recker, titled "Longing for the Wholly Other" (2021). 

Lambert says this book completes a project begun more than forty years ago, when he wrote, and Joyce typed, a dissertation on Adorno’s aesthetics under the supervision of Calvin Seerveld (ICS) and Johan van der Hoeven (VU Amsterdam). He talks about the background and contents to his new book in the blog post "Hope for Truth in a Post-Truth World," which is on the SUNY Press website.

Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth provides a critical and creative reconstruction of Adorno's conception of truth and shows its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics. It also rounds out the trilogy of books Lambert has published on the topic of truth since he retired in 2016. The other two books are Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School (MIT Press, 2017) and Social Domains of Truth (Routledge, 2023). 

New Essay on Foucault and Adorno

Senior Member Emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart has published a chapter titled “Adorno, Foucault, and Feminist Theory: The Politics of Truth” in the volume Feminism and the Early Frankfurt School edited by Christine Payne and Jeremiah Morelock (Brill 2024), pp. 133-161. 

Zuidervaart first summarizes Michel Foucault’s genealogical account of disciplinary power and state biopower. Then he contrasts Foucault’s account with Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectical critique of domination and compares their understandings of how truth and power interrelate. From this comparison two challenges of relevance to feminist critical theory emerge. One is to articulate the normative implications of how truth and power interrelate. The other is to envision genuine prospects for the transformation of society as a whole. 

Lambert’s full chapter is available online. The publisher Brill will publish a hardcover version of the book in 2024.

New Book on Neo-Calvinism and the Arts

InterVarsity Press has just published a new book on Neo-Calvinism and the arts entitled: The Artistic Sphere: The Arts in Neo-Calvinist Perspective, edited by Roger D. Henderson and Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker. 

The volume features many contributors from the ICS community and beyond, reflecting on the thought of John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd, Hans Rookmaaker, and others in the tradition as they pertain to artistic practice. In particular how the Reformed tradition, in the publisher's words, "has consistently demonstrated not just a willingness but a desire to engage with all manner of cultural and artistic expressions."

The book contains chapters from Calvin Seerveld on "The Meaning of the Crucifixion: Grünewald and Perugino," from Nicholas Wolterstorff on "The Social Protest Meaning of the Graphic Art of Käthe Kollwitz," from Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin on Calvin and the arts and "Chris Ofili: Contemporary Art and the Return of Religion," from Lambert Zuidervaart on "Redemptive Art Criticism," and many more. Check out the book for yourself today.

Recent Cal Seerveld Publications

Over the last year, ICS Senior Member Emeritus Calvin Seerveld has published a few pieces on various topics that are worth your attention. If you haven't already had a chance to read these, please take a moment to check them out for yourselves:

• God Picks up the Pieces: Ecclesiastes as a Chorus of Voices (Dordt University Press, 2023). A fresh literary translation from the Hebrew of the biblical Older Testament book of Ecclesiastes, introduced and arranged as script for oral choral presentation, with comment on its meaning.
  
  
• a very short chapter on "knowing" in a recent popular publication of Square Halo Books: Ordinary Saints, Living Everyday Life to the Glory of God, edited by Ned Bustard (Baltimore: Maryland, 2023), 71-74.
  
  
• "Missing in Action," Pro Rege, Fine Arts faculty issue (51:2, December 2022), 45-52. An article about Genevan Psalms 51 and 89.

May 6: Join Us for the Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love Book Launch!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 6th, 2-4pm EST, when we'll gather for a long-awaited celebration of ICS Senior Member Emeritus Jim Olthuis' latest book: Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call, Risk and Promise (Wipf and Stock, 2022)!

This event will feature a panel discussion on topics arising from Jim's book, and ICS Senior Member Bob Sweetman will be moderating. An in-person reception will follow the discussion time. 

The panel discussion portion of this event will be hybrid, so please email cprse@icscanada.edu to RSVP and mention whether you plan to attend in person or online. 

- - -

Book blurb from the publisher's website: 

In the twenty-first century, amid globalized violence, rising demagogues, and the climate emergency, contemporary philosophers and theologians have begun to debate a fundamental question: Is our reality the result of the overflowing, ever-present creativity of Love, or the symptom of a traumatic rupture at the heart of all things? Drawing on decades of research in postmodern philosophy and experience as a psychotherapist, James H. Olthuis wades into this discussion to propose a radical ontology of Love without metaphysics. In dialogue with philosophers like John D. Caputo, Slavoj Žižek, Luce Irigaray, and others, Olthuis explores issues from divine sovereignty and the problem of evil to trauma and social ethics. Experience in therapeutic work informs these investigations, rooting them in journeys with individuals on the path to healing. Olthuis makes the bold claim that while trauma, pain, and suffering are significant parts of our human lives, nevertheless Love is with us to the very end. Creation is a gift that comes with a call to make something of it ourselves, a risky task we must take on with the promise that Love will win. We are all dancing in the wild spaces of Love: ex amore, cum amore, ad amorem.

Save the Date: Celebrations of Bob Sweetman

The Institute for Christian Studies' 2023 Convocation ceremony will be taking place on May 26th around 6:30pm EDT. 

This year, we will be celebrating our Junior Member graduands with a hybrid event at Christ Church Deer Park in Toronto. The evening will also feature an exaugural address by retiring ICS Senior Member Bob Sweetman.

In addition to this yearly event, we will also be hosting the event: Gestures of Grace: Celebrating the Scholarly Contributions of Bob Sweetman. As the title suggests, this will be a celebration of Bob’s work and his lasting impact on the ICS community, and will take place earlier in the afternoon at 2pm EDT on May 26th. This celebration will feature a panel discussion on topics revolving around Bob's work and teaching. This will also be a hybrid event taking place at Regis College (100 Wellesley St. W) in Toronto.

Both Convocation and this panel will be open to the public and available to join in person or online. Feel free to email dyett@icscanada.edu if you have any questions about joining. 

Online Lecture with Lambert Zuidervaart on February 28

Lambert Zuidervaart, ICS Senior Member Emeritus of Philosophy, will present a talk and lead a discussion on “Truth Post-Truth: Reimagining Philosophy for a World in Crisis” as part of the online lecture series Philosophy in Times of Crisis. 

Everyone is invited to join Lambert’s talk at 2:00pm EST on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. More information can be found on the series website: https://philosophyintimesofcrisis.com/.

This lecture stems from Lambert’s work on his forthcoming book Social Domains of Truth: Science, Politics, Art, and Religion. Here is a summary of what he plans to say:

Truth is in trouble. Prominent contemporary philosophers have questioned whether the idea of truth is important: Does it deserve the emphasis scholars have given it in the past? Should it play a central role in intellectual endeavors today? Do we even need it? Their questions both reflect and reinforce broader trends in society, where many people wonder whether they either can or should pursue truth. Indeed, according to some pundits, we have become a “post-truth” society, one in which feelings trump facts in public affairs. 

This talk briefly introduces three positions that trouble truth in philosophy: deflationism, radical contextualism, and politicization. Then it proposes a new conception of truth called holistic alethic pluralism, and it shows why, despite academic skeptics and popular pundits, truth remains a substantive and socially significant idea. As explained in the book Social Domains of Truth (Routledge, 2023), this new conception of truth simultaneously reimagines the tasks of philosophy. Philosophy, I argue, should offer both social critique and social-ethical wisdom for a world in crisis.

Shattering Silos: New Book on Knowledge from Lambert Zuidervaart

Lambert Zuidervaart, ICS Senior Member Emeritus in Philosophy, has published a new book of essays in reformational philosophy titled Shattering Silos: Reimagining Knowledge, Politics, and Social Critique (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022). 

Knowledge, he argues, takes different forms in various social domains, and all are subject to political struggle. Interweaving epistemology, social criticism, and political thought, Shattering Silos offers a new way to think about truth and politics in a supposedly post-truth society. 

The book is funded in part by grants from the Reid Trust and the Andreas Center at Dordt University. It is dedicated to Nicholas Wolterstorff. 

More details can be found at the publisher’s website.

New Book by James Olthuis Added to Currents in Reformational Thought Series

Cover image by
Jordan McIntyre

A new volume in the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics' Currents in Reformational Thought book series has just been published with Wipf and Stock!

James H. Olthuis, Senior Member Emeritus in Philosophical Theology at ICS, has authored the newest title in our series: Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call, Risk and Promise. This book is available directly from the Wipf and Stock website as well as other online book sellers. Here is a synopsis of Jim's book from the publisher's site:

In the twenty-first century, amid globalized violence, rising demagogues, and the climate emergency, contemporary philosophers and theologians have begun to debate a fundamental question: Is our reality the result of the overflowing, ever-present creativity of Love, or the symptom of a traumatic rupture at the heart of all things? Drawing on decades of research in postmodern philosophy and experience as a psychotherapist, James H. Olthuis wades into this discussion to propose a radical ontology of Love without metaphysics. In dialogue with philosophers like John D. Caputo, Slavoj Žižek, Luce Irigaray, and others, Olthuis explores issues from divine sovereignty and the problem of evil to trauma and social ethics. Experience in therapeutic work informs these investigations, rooting them in journeys with individuals on the path to healing. Olthuis makes the bold claim that while trauma, pain, and suffering are significant parts of our human lives, nevertheless Love is with us to the very end. Creation is a gift that comes with a call to make something of it ourselves, a risky task we must take on with the promise that Love will win. We are all dancing in the wild spaces of Love: ex amore, cum amore, ad amorem.

Endorsements for Jim's Book:

“The sheer attractive force of this meditation on the love at the heart of everything draws biblical hermeneutics, Derrida and Irigaray, trauma theory and social ethics into an irresistible theopoetics. In this wild dance of a text, Olthuis may be loving theology itself back to life.”

Catherine Keller

George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology, Drew University, The Theological School

Author of Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy and Other Last Chances

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“Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love is everything we have come to expect from Jim Olthuis – a beautifully written, carefully argued, wide-ranging analysis of the centrality of love in our lives, a veritable philosophical hymn to love. Olthuis is a bright light in these dark days, a balm for an age of anger, rage and divisiveness in which love is an increasingly scarce commodity. We have never needed him more than now.”

John D. Caputo

Thomas J. Watson Professor Emeritus of Religion, Syracuse University

David R. Cook Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Villanova University

- - -

“In every sense possible, Olthuis lives up to the subtitle of this remarkable book. This is indeed a theopoetics and must be engaged as such. Yes, of course there are erudite and close readings of the likes of Irigaray, Derrida, Žižek, Levinas and Caputo. But even here, Olthuis is dancing with these authors. There is a poetic allusiveness, imaginativity and generous empathy in these conversations. What else would we expect from a hermeneutics of love, informed and deepened by decades of psychotherapeutic practice? Having walked the path of trauma and profound brokenness, together with healing and hope, Olthuis embodies a wisdom born of tears. But tears can turn to dancing. So put on your dancing shoes when you read this book.”

Brian J. Walsh
Co-author (with Sylvia Keesmaat) of Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice

Remembering Henk Hart

Dear Friends,

On March 15, we lost ICS’s founding Senior Member, Henk Hart. Speaking personally, Henk was my mentor at ICS, serving as my graduate supervisor at both the Master and Doctoral levels. But he was much more than a fine, caring teacher to me; he was also my close friend and confidante, and I will miss him terribly. I was extremely fortunate to have been able to visit him at his home with my wife Cheryl the day before he died. We all thought he had several weeks if not months left to live. Apparently, Henk did too, because he had just purchased a new camera and was looking forward to taking pictures of the birds migrating north over Lake Ontario this spring. So, although we were expecting this news eventually, it still came as a sudden shock to us. In lieu of my usual President’s message, I would instead like to preface our monthly prayer letter with a moving memorial tribute penned by Jim Olthuis, Henk’s dear friend and colleague of 65 years (which can also be found on our website). Please join us in giving thanks to God for Henk’s life, a life lived fully and well, in generous service to God’s coming kingdom of shalom.

Blessings,

Ron Kuipers

Toronto, March 25, 2021

 

In Memoriam: Hendrik Hart

by Jim Olthuis

Hendrik "Henk" Hart, the pioneering first professor of the Institute for Christian Studies, beloved friend of ICS and all ICSers, passed on to glory on March 15, 2021. I write these words to celebrate his person, work, and legacy. It is not easy to find the right words. Henk was my friend for 65 years and I miss him already. 

Henk was a rare, unique, one-of-a-kind person; a penetrating thinker, a devoted teacher, husband, and father, an ardent birder, an avid gardener, a story-teller par excellence, and a faithful friend. Above all, he was a lover of Jesus, a diligent student of Scripture, of firm conviction and forgiving spirit, on whose word, like gold in the bank, one could always depend. He was interested in people and loved to hear their stories. He liked nothing better than sitting down together, preferably with a single malt scotch, and sharing stories or discussing the issues of the day. Injustice rankled his soul to no end: Something must be done. In times of trouble and distress, his support was unwavering.

Thinking back on our many years together at the Institute, the interweaving of three words does some justice in describing Henk's ICS legacy: courage-commitment-compassion all in the service of a God of Love. ICS was—and still is—a radical effort to promote the cause of integral Christian scholarship in a time of the assumed neutrality of scholarship and the pretended autonomy of theoretic thought. From day one, it took courage and commitment to challenge these assumptions, and Henk was the embodiment of commitment and compassion. Convinced that all of life, not only Sunday worship, is undertaken in service of God (distilled in the familiar phrase, “life is religion”), Henk entered the halls of academia. His mission: to show that the assumed neutrality of reason is actually faith in Reason as the way to Truth and the sole arbiter of reality. In other words, that it acts as a substitute for faith in our Creator-Redeemer God. It is worth mentioning that through these academic efforts, Henk earned the respect and friendship of well-respected Canadian atheist political philosopher Kai Neilsen.

At the Institute, Henk thought of himself not so much as a professor but as a Senior Member. From the start he resisted any kind of hierarchy, insisting on cooperative governance. His door was always open to Junior Members. His passion for understanding the world as God’s creation inspired students and touched them deeply. It led to the publication of his book Understanding Our World (1984).

In the process of Henk's disputing the autonomy of Reason, it became increasingly obvious that this doctrine had detrimental effects that reached far beyond theory. This autonomy undermined social justice, promoted inequality, exiled compassion, marginalized people of faith, women, the poor, the different. This was of crucial significance for ICS because the reason for its very existence was to set up a Christ-centered program of higher learning to help the people of God live lives of faith and compassion in their everyday existence. For Henk, it became crystal clear: being redemptively Christian in scholarship also requires outworking in our lived practice, especially by promoting and fostering justice toward the oppressed and marginalized.

Convicted, committed, and compassionate, Henk felt called to start AWARE, an organization promoting the full acceptance of gay and lesbian Christians into the church. About the same time, fighting against discrimination against women in the church, he suggested it might be possible to address God in prayer as Mother.

Henk’s acts of courage raised concerns for some people. In response, he wrote Setting Our Sights by the Morning Star (1989), in particular pointing to the promise that the Spirit of God will continue to lead us into truth even as things change. In all this, it is important to underline just how reformational it all is: semper reformanda (always reforming) to remain true to the Gospel.

Indeed, what stands out to me now was Henk’s ability to open the Scriptures. He had the wonderful knack for reading the Bible with the eyes of faith in ways that resonated deep in my soul and, I am sure, in the souls of many.

Related to this, I cannot close without mentioning one other matter. Not calling attention to it would dishonor Henk and his memory. In the 1990’s Henk began to de-center the idea of order and give love the central focus. The embrace of love gives a new redemptive orientation to life away from a focus on rational knowing. This shifts the focal point away from obeying an immutable law-order, to love as God’s gift/call that invites us to be co-workers with God in the ministry of the reconciliation of all things. This is to return to what Augustine said many centuries ago: “Love and do what you will” (dilige, et quod vis fac). This, then, is what it means to obey Jesus: “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36).

The verse with which I will end this in memoriam is the first portion of a longer poem that Henk composed after the death of his wife, Anita, and daughter, Esther. What a legacy! Thanks be to God for the fruitfulness and integrity of the life, work, and witness of Henk Hart.

* * *

Love’s Embrace

Hendrik Hart

At heart,
a human life
gains without measure
in depth and scope
exposed to giving
or receiving
love,
primeval energy
of all that is.

In the embrace of Love
we
vessels of love
become aware:
irresistible energy
compels us
be centered
in all we do
in Love’s embrace;
to seek for ourselves
and others
peace, justice, joy, life,
fulfillment, patience,
hope, life, and healing.

* * *

With love,
Jim Olthuis

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You can read the rest of the poem above, as well as other reflective writings from Henk, in our From Henk's Archives Ground Motive series. 

You can also read the recent issue of Perspective published in honor of Henk's legacy on our Institutional Repository.

New Essays on Knowledge

Senior Member Emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart has published two new essays on a Reformational approach to knowledge. “Distantial Ways of Knowing: Doug Blomberg’s Proposal for a Reformational Epistemology” explores the conception of knowledge proposed by Senior Member and former ICS President Doug Blomberg in his 1978 doctoral dissertation on reformational philosophy and school curriculum. The second essay, titled “Social Domains of Knowledge: Technology, Art, and Religion,” discusses the work of ICS Senior Member Emeritus Hendrik Hart, and it argues that knowledge takes on distinct contours in different social domains. Both essays appear in the most recent issue of the journal Philosophia Reformata (vol. 84, issue 1).

Truth in a Post-Truth Society

Do we live in a “post-truth” era? Are appeals to emotion really replacing factual truth? Has truth become irrelevant? In “Philosophy, Truth, and the Wisdom of Love,” Senior Member emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart shows why standard philosophical notions of factual truth cannot do justice to the broader meaning of truth in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Truth in this broader sense must be lived out, not simply asserted, and it requires us to seek the good, to resist evil, and to live in hope. This essay stems from the exaugural address Lambert gave in May 2017 after he retired from being a professor of philosophy at ICS and the University of Toronto; it appears in Christian Scholar’s Review 48, no. 1 (Fall 2018): 31-43.

Cal Seerveld News

Senior Member Emeritus Cal Seerveld has just published a small book with Dordt College Press (2018) titled Never Try to Arouse Erotic Love Until--. It is a companion study book to his earlier translation of the Old Testament Biblical Song of Songs, The Greatest Song, in critique of Solomon. There are provocative questions for discussion, reflection on friendship, and comment on redeeming spoiled love.

Cal has a short essay titled "WANTED: Vegetarian Kuyperians with Artistic Underwear" in Pro Rege 46.3 (March 2018), 24-28.

Also, Cal has written an extensive review of Bob Sweetman's book, Tracing the Lines: Spiritual Exercises and the Gesture of Christian Scholarship, in Pro Rege 46.4 (June 2018), 26-30.

New Book Featured at SPEP

Emeritus Senior Member Lambert Zuidervaart’s recent book on twentieth-century German philosophy will be featured in a book session at the next meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), the largest society for continental philosophy in North America. Lambert wrote most of the book and discussed it in graduate seminars when he was teaching at ICS and the University of Toronto. Titled Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval (MIT Press, 2017), his innovative study engages with major figures in German philosophy to propose a new and transformative concept of truth. The book session will take place at 12:30 – 3:00 pm on October 18 as part of SPEP’s annual conference at The Pennsylvania State University. Two scholars—Professors Kathy Kiloh (OCAD University) and Marcia Morgan (Muhlenberg College)— will present papers about the book, and Lambert will respond to their papers and address questions from the audience.

Adorno and Truth

Lambert Zuidervaart, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at ICS, has published a new essay on Theodor Adorno, a leading figure in the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. The essay is titled “Surplus beyond the Subject: Truth in Adorno’s Critique of Husserl and Heidegger.” It appears in the current issue of Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy 22.1 (Spring 2018): 123-40. In this article, Lambert examines Adorno’s critique of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger on the topic of truth. He shows how, while offering legitimate criticisms, Adorno fails to provide an adequate alternative.

New Essay on Film

Senior Member Emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart has published a new essay titled “Hegel, Malick, and the Postsecular Sublime” in the book Immanent Frames: Postsecular Cinema between Malick and von Trier, edited by ICS Senator John Caruana and Mark Cauchi (Albany: SUNY Press, 2018), 47-67.

The essay shows how Hegel’s conception of sublime art can help us interpret contemporary films such as Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” that struggle with deep loss and suffering but refuse to let societal evil have the last word.

Social Domains of Knowledge

Senior Member Emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart has completed a new essay titled “Social Domains of Knowledge: Technology, Art, and Religion,” which Philosophia Reformata will publish in 2019 or 2020. Building on the work of Cal Seerveld, Henk Hart, and Doug Blomberg, the essay proposes a new reformational conception of knowledge that explains how we can achieve different sorts of insight in different social domains. Lambert claims that knowledge, in its deepest meaning, is not a thing to possess but a complex relationship to inhabit. This essay is a companion to his earlier essay “Distantial Ways of Knowing,” which Philosophia Reformata plans to publish in 2019.

New Essay on Blomberg’s Work

Senior Member Emeritus Lambert Zuidervaart has completed a new essay on the work of Senior Member and former ICS President Doug Blomberg. Titled “Distantial Ways of Knowing: Doug Blomberg’s Proposal for a Reformational Epistemology,” the essay explores the conception of knowledge that Blomberg proposed in his 1978 doctoral dissertation on reformational philosophy and school curriculum. Lambert says Doug’s proposal contains untapped potential for a holistic and pluralist theory of knowledge. The essay will be published by Philosophia Reformata in 2019.