Philosophia Reformata

Philosophia Reformata is an international scholarly journal published twice yearly in thick paper volumes, mailed to subscribers both individuals and organizations/institutions—including numerous libraries of universities, liberal arts colleges, theological seminaries, a few law schools in North America, subscribers similarly in the global British Cultural Zone, and countries of noticeable Anglo-American ethnic affinity as well as mother tongue (which no sociological analysis can afford to ignore).

In South Africa

For instance, it is read in South Africa where English is more and more the culturally dominant language, and it is read in other intellectual centers in Africa where a strong Christian cultural identity uses English as the intertribal lingua franca as in the case of Nigerian Protestant Christian intellectuals. One of PR's greatest contributors, among many experience-tested wise old philosophical theoreticians, is Dr. Daniel FM Strauss' polytheory and multiilingual approach to philosophical discourse; Prof Strauss retired after remarkable service to his university, thru the Philosophy department of the Humanities Facuilty, of the University of the Free State, then as an advisor to the Office of the Dean of Humanities, in that university's transition from apartheid days to a reorganized educational Ministry of the Mandela political party. Dr Strauss was the first director of the Dooyeweerd Centre, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.

Outside the English speaking world

Yet, the journal is also read by persons for whom English is unequivocally a Second Language. Many of these contributing scholars, whose mother-tongue is not English, are invited to the great calling of translation. Some of these are keen to translate faith-books from English into another language (like the philosopher Pierre-Charles Marcel's book in French on Infant Baptism which has been translated and published in English and from there also into Spanish. Whereas Dr Marcel's philosophical dissertation in French, has neither been translated into English, nor even published in French. A few published essays in French are known in English-language comment, such as "Pierre Charles Marcel", 'Calvin et la science: common on fait l'histoire', La Revue Réformée 58 (1966) 50-51). Dr Marcel was also a longtime pastor in the Reformed Church of France, and leader of la Societe calcviniste de France.

Other translations

Some others want to translate worldview books comparable to that of Canadian contributor Dr Albert Wolters' title, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Christian Worldview which has found its way into several translations worldwide. Wolters wrote one of the foundational works introducing Vollenhoven's method to English-speaking readers.

Current editors

The current editors of Philosophia Reformata are eight in number, as follows:

1. Bert M. Balk (Division of Macro-economic Statistics and Dissemination of Statistics Netherlands, and professor of business administration, in particular economic measurement, at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is the author of a large number of articles, and two books, on price and productivity measurement),
2. Abraham Bos ( emeritus professor in Ancient Philosophy and Patristic Studies at the Department of Philosophy of the VU-University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research is focussed on Aristotle’ psychology and biology. Two of his important revisionist books on Aristotle, Bos produced in cooperation, first, with professor G. Reale (Miland) a commentary on On the Cosmos (De Mundo) - 1995. Second, together with dr. R. Ferwerda he published a commentary on On the Life-Bearing Spirit (De Spiritu) - 2008.
3. Dr. Marc J. de Vries (affiliate professor of reformational philosophy at the Delft University of Technology, professor of science education at the same institution and assistant professor of philososophy and ethics of technology at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He authored "Teaching About Technology. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Technology for Non-Philosophers" (published by Springer) and co-author of "Denken, Ontwerpen, Maken', a similar introduction in the Dutch language. He is also the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Technology & Design Education (Spinger) and series editor of the International Technology Education Studies (Sense Publishers).
4. Jan Willem Sap (studied law at Leiden University. In 1993 he received his Ph.D in law from the VU University Amsterdam. He is associate professor in European Union Law at the VU University Amsterdam. In 1998 he was a visiting professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago, Illinois and he gave lectures at the universities of Pretoria and Potchefstroom in South Africa. In 2001 he was elected teacher of the year at the Vrije Universiteit. He published many books and articles in the field of European Constitutional Law and political theory. Two of his publications are: Decency versus Justice. The Call for Morality in the Netherlands, Assen: van Gorcum, 1997; The Netherlands Constitution 1848-1998. Historical Reflections, Utrecht: Lemma, 2000. In 2003 he published a book about the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In 2006 he was member of the National Convention on constitutional reforms in the Netherlands. He is an editor of the European Constitutional Law Review (EuConst). He is also a member of the board of the Association for Christian Lawyers and the Association for a Democratic Europe).
5. Engineering scholar Jan van der Stoep "studied biology at Wageningen University and philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 2005 he received his PhD in philosophy from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is professor Religion in Media and Public Space at the Department of Journalism and Communication of the Ede Christian University of Applied Science and lecturer at the Master Christian Studies of Science and Society at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He has published books and articles in the field of sociology, political philosophy and Science Technology and Society studies. He is especially interested in the public role of religion in an information society.
6. Dorette van der Tholen, MA, is a Ph.D. student at the Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Tilburg, The Netherlands. She received an MA in Philosophy from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
7. Rene van Woudenberg (Prof.dr. René van Woudenberg is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Vrije Universiteit with special focus on epistemology and ontology. He graduated in 1991 with a thesis on transcendental arguments in contemporary philosophy. He published several articles and books. He is working on several projects, such as 'Responsible Belief, 'Chance and Design', 'The Philosophy of Thomas Reid' and Philosophy, Science, Christianity).
8. Remko Muis studied physics and philosophy at the University of Utrecht and is now working for an IT consulting company. He is web editor of both Philosophia Reformata Online, and Beweging online (www.bewegingonline.nl).

A work of Protestant scholarship

Founded in 1932, this specialist organ of top-level scholarly inquiry, has devoted itself to developing the living philosophy of a distinctly Protestant Christian inspiration. It is self-consciously preferential to the works of Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd, among many others. The production of these early examples of advanced theoretical thought is rather sparse at first: a kind of John the Baptist Dr. Abraham Kuyper, then a founding figure, D. H. Th. Vollenhoven philosopher and historian of philosophy, and his companion Dr juris and brother-in-law Herman Dooyeweerd, who worked at recovering and comparing the history of Reformation-initiated thought. Besides juried reviews, Philosophia Reformata has conducted scholarly debates among adherents to the philosophical direction founded and pioneered by DHTh Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd, the latter being generally the philosophical movement's public persona, its most widely known figure.

The history of philosophy in the line of Vollenhoven's method remains a long-term project of "PR" 's publishing program.

Critical analyses

Often, strong critical analyses of individual contemporary, as well as historical, figures (especially analyses of the Greek-rooted Western philosophical tradition with which Christian philosophy generally over the years has [had] to interact), Vollehnoven's count suggesting there were about 16,000 such figures (by no means an infinite number) until his rather recent cut-off date for his estimate. The only complaint one may have perhaps is that he left Sappho of Lesbos off his list of pre-Socratics at the historical foundation of Western philosophy.

Book reviews

Book reviews are regularly submitted, usually written by doctoral candidates and by full doctors of philosophy and of other disciplines, for whom Philosophia Reformata presents from time to time "philosophy of a discipline". (Hendrik Van Riessen was trained as a Doctor of Engineering (D Irg in Dutch).

Articles in languages other than English

PR has published articles in other languages than Dutch—English, French, German—but articles in the philosophy's mother-tongue predominated until recently. The process of moving to English as a widest-market standard of communications for an international philosophical and scholarly journal has been pursued very gradually, also as part of a larger pattern in Dutch society toward higher education. Many Dutch university graduates speak and read English fluently as a Second Language. Many professors now write their academic books in English.

As Philosophia Reformata's official website declares:

Philosophia Reformata was founded in 1935 by the Dutch philosophers Herman Dooyeweerd and Dirk Vollenhoven. Since its inception it has carried papers, critical studies and reviews that contribute to the on-going project of Christian Philosophy.The journal has its historical and intellectual background in the so-called neo-Calvinist movement that gained momentum through the work of the 19th century Dutch theologian, politician, university founder and publicist Dr. Abraham Kuyper. One basic idea in this movement is that the pursuit of philosophy is very often, if not always, shaped by religious or quasi-religious motivations--motivations that are often hidden from sight. Another basic idea in the movement is that the Christian faith makes a difference for doing philosophy, as it does for scholarship more generally. A further basic idea in the movement is that various kinds of laws govern our world -- laws that jointly constitute a divinely created world order. These ideas have found their way into the philosophies of Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven as well as into numerous papers published in Philosophia Reformata. The journal initially accepted only papers in Dutch, later on it adopted a mixed policy; since 2010 it accepts only papers written in English.

Another online resource, the All of Life Redeemed archives of reformational philosophers and worldview thinkers, including an index of all English-language titles published by PR, is the work of Stephen Bishop (a UK teacher of mathematics and an outstanding online archivist).