Encouraging Faith Manifestoes for People with Open Ears: Biblical Narrative History

Encouraging Faith Manifestoes for People with Open Ears: Biblical Narrative History. In Tough Stuff from the Bible, Tendered Gently series (Vol. 1). By Calvin G. Seerveld, Jordan Station: Paideia Press, 2024. 

[404 pages, ISBN 9780888153432]

Find it on: Paideia Press

This is the first volume in a forthcoming series, Tough Stuff from the Bible, Tendered Gently. 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 Calvin Seerveld. Certain old traditional hymns (no longer under copyright) and a few newly composed Psalms texts by Seerveld, with melodies, are included, which are relevant to the exposition. Occasional photographic illustrations document what is spoken.

Congregations of Christian believers constituted the majority of audiences for these public presentations. Exposition represents a hermeneutics in the tradition of Martin Luther and Jean Calvin, often with a contemporary twist that relates the biblical passages to current societal problems, political troubles, and ordinary daily life. A few meditations end with a prayer.

Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth

Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth

Lambert Zuidervaart. New York: SUNY Press, 2024.

Available at: SUNY Press


Publisher's Overview:

An elusive and complex idea of truth lies at the center of Theodor Adorno's thought. Yet he never spells out what it is. Through close readings of Negative Dialectics, Aesthetic Theory, and related course lectures, Lambert Zuidervaart reconstructs Adorno's conception of truth, contrasts it with the conceptions of Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, and explores its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics. Adorno regards truth as a dynamic constellation in which various dialectical polarities intersect. The most decisive polarity, Zuidervaart argues, occurs between society as it has developed and the historical possibility of a completely transformed world. Critically reconstructed, Adorno's conception of truth can help inspire hopeful critiques of an allegedly post-truth society.


Review of the Book:

Zuidervaart, who already published numerable books on critical theory in general and Adorno in particular, again shows himself to be an excellent and critical reader of Adorno. The greatest strength of Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth is that it offers an in-depth study of Adorno's concept of truth, based on a thorough reading and understanding, and an original and critical interpretation of Adorno's work. It also surpasses that in demonstrating the need for a conception of 'truth as a whole' beyond propositional truth, and the need to link the concept of truth to social critique and social hope. All this makes this book a must-read for Adorno scholars.

— Thijs Lijster, author of Benjamin and Adorno on Art and Art Criticism: Critique of Art

Table of Contents:

1. Adorno’s Conception of Truth

2. The Humanly Promised Other of History

3. Surplus beyond the Subject

4. What Is, Is More Than It Is

5. Politics of Truth: Adorno, Foucault, and Feminist Critical Theory

6. “Weh spricht vergeh”: Truth in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory

7. Promises of Truth

Appendix: Reflections from Damaged Life: Theodor W. Adorno (1903–69)

Gestures of Grace: Essays in Honour of Robert Sweetman

Gestures of Grace: Essays in Honour of Robert Sweetman. Currents in Reformational Thought series. Edited by Joshua Lee Harris & Héctor Acero Ferrer. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2023.

Available at: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Publisher's Overview:

Gestures of Grace is a celebration of the life and career of Robert Sweetman, H. Evan Runner Chair in the History of Philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies (2001-2023). These essays, written by students and colleagues, testify to the remarkable breadth and depth of Sweetman's research and teaching, from his early scholarly career at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies to his time at ICS. Throughout the volume, there is extensive engagement with Sweetman's influential historical scholarship on topics such as the emergence and development of the Dominican order in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, medieval women authors, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, and indeed on Sweetman's own systematic contribution to the nature and promise of Christian scholarship today.

Praise for Gestures of Grace:

“Joshua Lee Harris and Héctor A. Acero Ferrer’s collection of essays in honor of Prof. Robert Sweetman is a remarkably fine tribute to an outstanding medievalist and Christian scholar who engages in contemporary as well as historical thought. The collection, unlike so many other Festschriften, offers studies by a wide-ranging group of contributors who enter into dialogue with the equally catholic work of the scholar honored. No better tribute could be imagined for so broad, yet scholarly and keenly philosophical a mind, as Sweetman’s.”

—Timothy B. Noone, chair in philosophy, The Catholic University of America

The Artistic Sphere: The Arts in Neo-Calvinist Perspective

The Artistic Sphere: The Arts in Neo-Calvinist Perspective. Edited by Roger D. Henderson & Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker. Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2024.


Available at: InterVarsity Press


Publisher's Overview:

While some Christians have embraced the relationship between faith and the arts, the Reformed tradition tends to harbor reservations about the arts. However, among Reformed churches, the Neo-Calvinist tradition—as represented in the work of Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd, Hans Rookmaaker, and others—has consistently demonstrated not just a willingness but a desire to engage with all manner of cultural and artistic expressions.

This volume, edited by art scholar Roger Henderson and Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, the daughter of art historian and cultural critic Hans Rookmaaker, brings together history, philosophy, and theology to consider the relationship between the arts and the Neo-Calvinist tradition. With affirmations including the Lordship of Christ, the cultural mandate, sphere sovereignty, and common grace, the Neo-Calvinist tradition is well-equipped to offer wisdom on the arts to the whole body of Christ.

Contents: 

Introduction

    Roger D. Henderson and Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

Part One: Roots

1. Geneva's Artistic Legacy: From Calvin to Today

    Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

2. Calvin and the Arts: Pure Vision or Blind Spot?

    Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin

3. Rumors of Glory: Abraham Kuyper's Neo-Calvinist Theory of Art

    Roger D. Henderson

4. Dooyeweerd's Aesthetics

    Roger D. Henderson

Part Two: Art History

5. Art, Meaning, and Truth

    Hans R. Rookmaaker

    Looking with Historical Depth: Hugo van der Goes, Filippino Lippi and Albrecht Dürer

6. The Vocation of a Christian Art Historian: Strategic Choices in a Multicultural Context

    E. John Walford

    Ridentem dicere verum—Pieter Bruegel’s Peasant Wedding of Circa 1567

7. More than Can Be Seen: Tim Rollins and K.O.S.'s I See the Promised Land

    James Romaine

Part Three: Aesthetics

8. The Halo of Human Imaginativity

    Calvin Seerveld

    The Meaning of the Crucifixion: Grünewald and Perugino

9. Rethinking Art

    Nicholas Wolterstorff

    The Social Protest Meaning of the Graphic Art of Käthe Kollwitz

10. Imagination, Art, and Civil Society: Re-envisioning Reformational Aesthetics

    Lambert Zuidervaart

    Redemptive Art Criticism

11. Art, Body, and Feeling: New Roads for Neo-Calvinist Aesthetics

    Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin

    Chris Ofili: Contemporary Art and the Return of Religion

Part Four: Theology and Art

12. The Theology of Art of Gerardus van der Leeuw and Paul Tillich

    Wessel Stoker

13. The Elusive Quest for Beauty

    William Edgar

14. Fifty-Plus Years of Art and Theology: 1970 to Today

    Victoria Emily Jones

God Picks up the Pieces: Ecclesiastes as a Chorus of Voices

God Picks up the Pieces: Ecclesiastes as a Chorus of Voices. By Calvin G. Seerveld, Sioux Center: Dordt University Press, 2023. 

[138 pages, ISBN 978-0-932914-16-3]

Find it on: Tuppence

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.

Philosophies of Liturgy: Explorations of Embodied Religious Practice

Philosophies of Liturgy: Explorations of Embodied Religious Practice. Edited by J. Aaron Simmons, Bruce Ellis Benson, Neal DeRoo. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

Available at: Bloomsbury Academic

Publisher's Overview:

Mainstream philosophy of religion has primarily focused on the truth and justification of religious beliefs even though belief is only one small facet of religious life. This collection remedies this by taking practice and embodied action seriously as fundamental elements of any philosophy of religion.

Emerging and established voices across different philosophical traditions come together to consider religious actions, including public worship, from perspectives such as trauma and social ontology, sound and silence, and knowledge and hope. Embodied religious practice is viewed through the lens of liturgy, intrinsically connecting religious rituals to human existence to show clearly that, no matter where one finds oneself in terms of the so-called 'analytic-continental' divide, philosophy of religion must be concerned with more than just beliefs if it is to adequately deal with the subject matter of 'religion.'

The purpose of these studies is not to reject what has gone before but to expand the focus of philosophy of religion. This approach lays the groundwork for investigations into how beliefs are situated in our theological, moral, and social frameworks. For any philosophy of religion student or scholar interested in how thinking and living well are intimately related, this is a go-to resource. It takes seriously the importance of historical religious traditions and communities, opening the space for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary debates.


Table of Contents

Part I: On Spiritual Practice

1. Clare Carlisle – “What is Spiritual Practice”

2. Christina M. Gschwandtner – “Why Philosophy Should Concern Itself with Liturgy: Philosophical Examination of Religion and Ritual Practice''

3. John Cottingham – “Engagement, Immersion, and Enactment: The Role of Spiritual Practice in Religious Belief”

4. John Sanders – “Liturgical Jellyfish”

Part II: Liturgy and Social Existence

5. Michelle Panchuk – “Power and Protest: A Christian Liturgical Response to Religious Trauma”

6. Bruce Ellis Benson – “Religion as a Way of Life: On Being a Believer”

7. Terence Cuneo – “Blessing Things”

8. Kevin Schilbrack – “Liturgical Groups, Religions, and Social Ontology”

Part III: Materiality and Religiosity

9. Neal DeRoo – “Material Spirituality and the Expressive Nature of Liturgy”

10. Wendy Farley – “Dark Times and Liturgies of Truth: The Uses and Abuses of Reason”

11. Sharon L. Baker Putt – “Compassionate Action: Taking Eckhart, Farley, and the Beguines to Bethany”

12. Emmanuel Falque – “After Metaphysics?: The 'Weight of Life' According to Saint Augustine”

Part IV: Knowledge, Sound, and Hope

13. Nicholas Wolterstorff – “Knowing God by Liturgically Addressing God”

14. Sarah Coakley – “Beyond Belief: Liturgy and Cognitive Apprehension of God”

15. Joshua Cockayne – “Corporate Liturgical Silence”

16. Brian A. Butcher – “'You Have Given Us the Grace to Pray Together in Harmony':

Orthodox Liturgical Singing as a Criterion for (Philosophical? Theological?) Aesthetics"

17. J. Aaron Simmons and Eli Simmons – “Liturgy and Eschatological Hope”

Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude: Analytic, Continental, and Religious

Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude: Analytic, Continental, and Religious. Edited by Joshua Lee Harris, Kirk Lougheed, Neal DeRoo. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

Available at: Bloomsbury Academic

Publisher's Overview:

Existential gratitude - gratitude for one's very existence or life as a whole - is pervasive across the most influential human, cultural and religious traditions. Weaving together analytic and continental, as well as non-western and historical philosophical perspectives, this volume explores the nexus of gratitude, existence and God as an inter-subjective phenomenon for the first time.

A team of leading scholars introduce existential gratitude as a perennially and characteristically human phenomenon, central to the distinctive life of our species. Attention is given to the conditions under which existence itself might be construed as having a gift-like or otherwise gratitude-inducing character.

Drawing on a diversity of perspectives, chapters mark out new territory in philosophical inquiry, addressing whether and in what sense we ought to be grateful for our very existence. By analysing gratitude, this collection makes a novel contribution to the discourse on moral emotions, phenomenology, anti-natalism and theology.

Table of Contents

Introduction – Joshua Lee Harris, Kirk Lougheed, and Neal DeRoo

Part I. Gratitude in Human Life

1. Grounding Existential Gratitude: A Social Form Account – Joshua Lee Harris (The King's University, Canada)

2. Gratitude and Resentment: A Tale of Two Weddings – Graham Oppy (Monash University, Australia)

3. Gratitude and the Human Vocation – Brian Treanor (Loyola Marymount University, USA)

Part II. Gratitude and Existence

4. Generous Existence? Gift, Giving, and Gratitude in Contemporary Phenomenology – Christina Gschwandter (Fordham University, USA)

5. Analogia Gratiae: Creation, Existence, and Gift in the Christian Metaphysics of Erich Przywara – Eric Mabry (St. Mary's Seminary and University, USA)

6. Gratitude for Life-Force in African Philosophy – Thaddeus Metz (University of Pretoria, South Africa)

Part III. Gratitude and the Divine

7. The Dilemma of Gratitude – Michael Almeida (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA)

8. Is Gratitude Necessary? Avicenna on Existential Dependence – Catherine Peters (Loyola Marymount University, USA)

9. Do we Owe Gratitude to God for Our Existence? – Kirk Lougheed (University of Pretoria, South Africa)

10. Thank You: William Desmond's Ethic of Gratitude and Personal God – Ethan Vanderleek (Marquette University, USA)

Social Domains of Truth: Science, Politics, Art, and Religion

Social Domains of Truth: Science, Politics, Art, and Religion

Lambert Zuidervaart. New York: Routledge, 2023.

Available at: Routledge Publishers

Publisher's Overview:

Truth is in trouble. In response, this book presents a new conception of truth. It recognizes that prominent philosophers have questioned whether the idea of truth is important. Some have asked why we even need it. Their questions reinforce broader trends in Western society, where many wonder whether or why we should pursue truth. Indeed, some pundits say we have become a "post-truth" society. Yet there are good reasons not to embrace the cultural Zeitgeist or go with the philosophical flow, reasons to regard truth as a substantive and socially significant idea.

This book explains why. First it argues that propositional truth is only one kind of truth—an important kind, but not all important. Then it shows how propositional truth belongs to the more comprehensive process of truth as a whole. This process is a dynamic correlation between human fidelity to societal principles and a life-giving disclosure of society. The correlation comes to expression in distinct social domains of truth, where either propositional or nonpropositional truth is primary. The final chapters lay out five such domains: science, politics, art, religion, and philosophy. Anyone who cares about the future of truth in society will want to read this pathbreaking book.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Truth Is Not a Minted Coin

1.1 On the Very Idea of Truth

1.2 Kinds and Domains of Truth

1.3 Holistic Alethic Pluralism

2. Propositional Truth: Facts and Propositions

2.1 Facts and States of Affairs

2.2 Beliefs and Propositions

2.3 Decontextualized Disclosure

3. Accurate Insight and Inferential Validity

3.1 Knowledge and Propositions

3.2 Truth of Propositions

3.3 Propositional Truth and Objective Knowledge

4. Alethic Pluralism

4.1 Functionalism: Michael Lynch

4.2 Practical Pluralism

4.3 Social Domains of Truth

5. Propositional Truth and Discursive Justification

5.1 Alston’s Minimal Alethic Realism

5.2 Putnam’s Internal Realism

5.3 Post-Anti/Realism

6. Truth as a Whole and Authentication

6.1 Isomorphism, Fidelity, and Disclosure

6.2 Kinds and Types of Truth

6.3 Bearing Witness to Truth

6.4 Modes of Authentication

7. Truth and Science

7.1 Science as a Social Domain

7.2 Scientific Realism and Theoretical Truth

7.3 Science in Society

8. Truth and Politics

8.1 Hannah Arendt: Speaking Truth to Power

8.2 Michel Foucault: Linking Power to Truth

8.3 Political Truth

9. Truth in Art and Religion

9.1 Artistic Truth

9.2 Art and Politics

9.3 Religious Truth

9.4 Religion and Science

10. Philosophy, Truth, and Wisdom

10.1 Art, Religion, and Philosophy

10.2 Truth and Historicity

10.3 Social Critique and Practical Wisdom

Shattering Silos: Reimagining Knowledge, Politics, and Social Critique

Shattering Silos: Reimagining Knowledge, Politics, and Social Critique.

Lambert Zuidervaart. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2022.

Available at: McGill-Queen's University Press

Publisher's Overview:

Questions first raised by Hannah Arendt in the 1960s take on new urgency in the post-truth era, as political leaders blithely reject facts in the public domain: Is truth politically impotent? Are politics inherently false? Is the search for truth still relevant?

Shattering Silos, a companion volume to Religion, Truth, and Social Transformation and Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal, provides a path-breaking response. As in his two previous books, Lambert Zuidervaart challenges the boundaries philosophers set up between epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. Knowledge, he argues, takes different forms in various social domains, and all are subject to political struggle. A critique of contemporary society must draw on many social domains of knowledge, including the arts and religion, and should recast politics as a striving for truth in the broadest sense. Proposing a new conception of truth - one that emphasizes the unity of knowledge and truth, as well as their diversity among different social domains - Zuidervaart asks what such holism and pluralism suggest about how we understand politics and society. This book proposes a new understanding of large-scale social change, challenging how most people think about knowledge and truth.

Interweaving epistemology, social criticism, and political thought, Shattering Silos aims to help redirect an allegedly post-truth society.

Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call

Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call. Currents in Reformational Thought series. James H. Olthuis. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2022.

Available at: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Publisher's Description:

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.

Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness

Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness. Currents in Reformational Thought series. Jeffrey Dudiak. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2022.

Available at: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Publisher's Description:

In Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness, Jeffrey Dudiak explores the fissures and fractures that vex our so-called "post-truth" era, searching for a deeper, dare we say truer, understanding of the cultural forces that have led North American society to become so polarized. Eschewing the kind of easy responses that trade pluralistic solidarity for tribalistic certainty, Dudiak diagnoses a deeper breakdown in social trust as the underlying issue that has everyone today scurrying for comforting, ideological cover. In this context, Dudiak reminds the reader that truth is more, and runs deeper, than simple correspondence to the facts.

Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings: Scholarly and Artistic Comment on Art, Truth, and Society in Honour of Lambert Zuidervaart

Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings: Scholarly and Artistic Comment on Art, Truth, and Society in Honour of Lambert Zuidervaart. Currents in Reformational Thought series. Edited by Héctor Acero Ferrer, Michael DeMoor, Peter Enneson and Matthew Klaassen. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2021.

Available at: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Publisher's Overview:

Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings pays tribute to Lambert Zuidervaart, one of the most productive Reformational philosophers of the present generation, by picking up the central concerns of his philosophical work--art, truth, and society--and working with the legacy of his published concern to see what more can be understood about our world in light of that legacy. Zuidervaart is an internationally recognized expert in critical theory, especially the work of Theodor Adorno, and a leading systematic philosopher in the reformational tradition. His research and teaching range across continental philosophy, epistemology, social philosophy, and philosophy of art, with an emphasis on Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Habermas. He is currently developing a new conception of truth for an allegedly post-truth society. At the Institute for Christian Studies (2002-2016), Zuidervaart held the Herman Dooyeweerd Chair in Social and Political Philosophy and served as founding Director of the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics. He was also an Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty and Full Professor, status only, in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, and a member of the Advanced Degree Faculty at the Toronto School of Theology. Zuidervaart is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings seeks to promote new scholarship emerging from the rich and dynamic tradition of reformational intellectual inquiry. Believing that all scholarly endeavor is rooted in and oriented by deep spiritual commitments, reformational scholarship seeks to add its unique Christian voice to discussions about leading questions of life and society. From this source, it seeks to contribute to the redemptive transformation and renewal of the various aspects of contemporary society, developing currents of thought that open human imagination to alternative future possibilities that may helpfully address the damage we find in present reality. 

As part of this work, Currents in Reformational Thought will bring to light the inter-and multi-disciplinary dimensions of this intellectual tradition, and promote reformational scholarship that intentionally invites dialogue with other traditions or streams of thought.

Contributors:

Ronald A. Kuipers

Robert Sweetman

Janet Wesselius

Hendrik Hart

Calvin Seerveld

Joshua Lee Harris

Michael J. DeMoor

Shannon Hoff

Allyson Carr

Nicholas Wolterstorff

Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin

Rebekah Smick

Henry Luttikhuizen

Lauren Bialystok

Karen Nisenbaum

Martin Jay

Clarence Joldersma

Jonathan Chaplin

Artistic Contributors:

Joyce Recker

Michaeleen Kelly

Linda Nemec Foster

Sue Sinclair

Diane Zeeuw

Deborah Rockman

Jay Constantine

Ron and Miriam Pederson

Janet Read

To Sing Once More: Sorrow, Joy, and the Dog I Loved

To Sing Once More: Sorrow, Joy, and the Dog I Loved. Lambert Zuidervaart. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2021.

Available at: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Publisher's Overview:

How do we honor the dog friends who keep us company without complaint? How do we prepare when their all-too-short lives near an end? How do we grieve their passing and take joy in their memory? This memoir celebrates the life of a beautiful Golden Retriever named Hannah Estelle. It tells how, at a time of deep sadness, Hannah's puppy presence helped the author learn to sing again; how, as he became an accomplished vocalist, her faithful friendship brought grace and joy; and how, during the cancer-wracked months that ended her life, his singing to Hannah helped her departure. Woven around texts from poignant songs, the book speaks of loss and love, of sorrow and joy, of suffering and hope. Each chapter is a dog song, inspired by the canine companion it is about, and songlike in its own aspiration. Lambert Zuidervaart tells lyrical stories about a dear dog's life to thank her for helping him learn to sing once more.

Bewondering God's Dumbfounding Doings: God Talking to Us Little People in the Final Book of the Bible

Calvin G. Seerveld, 2020

Jordan Station: Paideia Press, 2020. [163 pages ISBN 978-0-88815-251-0]

Find it on: Tuppence

These 11 meditations were given live to a Toronto congregation over two years (2014-2016), and cover the troubling visions and events of the whole biblical book of Revelation, its metaphorical truth and urgent practical message.

How to Read the Biblical Book of Proverbs--In Paragraphs

Calvin G. Seerveld, 2020

Ed. John H. Kok. Sioux Center: Dordt Press, 2020. [iii-189 pages ISBN 978-1-940567-24-2]

Find it on: Dordt University Press (or to Canadian personal addresses via Tuppence by special arrangement)

An introductory fresh treatment of the Bible as God-speaking literature, showing that the book of Proverbs--aphoristic poetry--comes in paragraphs rather than as one-liners. Especially chapters 25-31 of Proverbs are presented to be read as clusters of surprising, wide-ranging wisdom for daily life.

The Greatest Song: In Critique of Solomon

Calvin G. Seerveld, 2019 reprint

Music by Ina Lohr
Woodcuts by Flip van der Burgt
Design by Sypko Bosch

Find it on: Wipf & Stock (2019 reprint) or Tuppence

A poignant translation from the Hebrew of the Song of Songs as a chorus of voices. A convincing look at this enigmatic book of the Bible treated as God's Word about erotic human love in the wisdom tradition.

Personal Memories of God-given Opportunities 1959-1972 at Trinity Christian College in Chicagoland USA

Calvin G. Seerveld & Inès Seerveld, 2018

Find it on: Tuppence

Various speeches made at Trinity home-comings in the 1990s with reflections on the early years of Trinity's special place for philosophy in the curriculum. Mention of the Seerveld Art Gallery and "Art in Society" project, concluded by a meditation on Psalm 71.

Never Try to Arouse Erotic Love Until...

Calvin G. Seerveld, 2018

Find it on: Dordt University Press (or to Canadian personal addresses via Tuppence by special arrangement)

A companion study book to Cal's earlier translation of the Old Testament Biblical Song of Songs, The Greatest Song, in critique of Solomon. This book contains provocative questions for discussion, reflection on friendship, and comment on redeeming spoiled love.

Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval

Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval. Lambert Zuidervaart. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2017.

Available at: MIT Press.

An innovative, ambitious, tradition-crossing study drawing on the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas to propose a new and transformative concept of truth.

Publisher's Overview:

The idea of truth is a guiding theme for German continental philosophers from Husserl through Habermas. In this book, Lambert Zuidervaart examines debates surrounding the idea of truth in twentieth-century German continental philosophy. He argues that the Heideggerian and critical theory traditions have much in common—despite the miscommunication, opposition, and even outright hostility that have prevailed between them—including significant roots in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Zuidervaart sees the tensions between Heideggerian thought and critical theory as potentially generative sources for a new approach to the idea of truth. He argues further that the “critical retrieval” of insights from German continental philosophy can shed light on current debates in analytic truth theory.

Zuidervaart structures his account around three issues: the distinction between propositional truth and truth that is more than propositional (which he calls existential truth); the relationship between propositional truth and the discursive justification of propositional truth claims, framed in analytic philosophy by debates between epistemic and nonepistemic conceptions of truth; and the relationship between propositional truth and the objectivity of knowledge, often presented in analytic philosophy as a conflict between realists and antirealists over the relation between “truth bearers” and “truth makers.” In an innovative and ambitious argument, drawing on the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas, Zuidervaart proposes a new and transformative conception of truth.

Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal: Essays in Reformational Philosophy

Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal: Essays in Reformational Philosophy. Lambert Zuidervaart. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. 

Available at: McGill-Queen's University Press.

A call for solidarity and renewal in the arts and the academy.

Publisher's Overview: 

What good is art? What is the point of a university education? Can philosophers contribute anything to social liberation? Such questions, both ancient and urgent, are the pulse of reformational philosophy. Inspired by the vision of the Dutch religious and political leader Abraham Kuyper, reformational philosophy pursues social transformation for the common good.

In this companion volume to Religion, Truth, and Social Transformation, Lambert Zuidervaart presents a socially engaged philosophy of the arts and higher education. Interacting with the ideas of leading Kuyperian thinkers such as Calvin Seerveld and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Zuidervaart shows why renewal in the arts needs to coincide with political and economic transformation. He also calls for education and research that serve the common good. Deeply rooted in reformational philosophy, his book brings a fresh and inspiring voice to current discussions of religious aesthetics and Christian scholarship.

Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal is a testament to the practical and intellectual richness of a unique religious tradition, compelling in its call for social solidarity and cultural critique.