Roots Of Western Culture: Pagan, Secular and Christian Options, Vol. 18 (Collected Works, Series B)

by Herman Dooyeweerd

Publisher:

Paideia Press

, 2012

Overview

Confronted with the implications of a biblical understanding of the human condition, human society and the place and calling of scholarly reflection, Dooyeweerd contends that humanism has done more for the recognition of human freedom for religious convictions than did 17th-century Calvinism.

Key Features

• Follows the order in which the text appeared in the Dutch edition
• Includes page numbers of the 1979 edition inserted in the running text between square brackets
• Argues that humanism has contributed more to the recognition of freedom of religious belief than 17th-century Calvinism did

Contents

• Roots of Western Culture
• Sphere Sovereignty
• History, Historicism, and Norms
• Faith and Culture
• The Great Synthesis
• Classical Humanism
• Romantic Redirection
• The Rise of Social Thought

Product Details

• Title: The Roots of Western Culture, Vol. 18
• Author: Herman Dooyeweerd
• Series: Collected Works, Series B
• Publisher: Paideia Press
• Print Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 258
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Resource ID: LLS:RTSWSTRNCLTR18
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-06-19T16:06:02Z

About Herman Dooyeweerd

Herman Dooyeweerd (7 October 1894, Amsterdam – 12 February 1977) is widely considered one of the most outstanding Christian philosophers of the twentieth century. Born in Amsterdam to devout Christian parents, he was raised within the Dutch neo-Calvinist tradition espoused by Abraham Kuyper. Dooyeweerd studied law at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam from 1912-1917 and served as professor of law and jurisprudence at the same institution from 1926-1965. Throughout his career, Dooyeweerd made significant contributions to philosophy and other academic disciplines, particularly concerning the transcendental conditions for theoretical thought and the relationship between religion, philosophy, and scientific theory. Alongside his colleague and brother-in-law, Dirk Vollenhoven, he developed a stream within the Kuyperian school of thought that became known as Reformational Philosophy. As arguably the best philosophy of everyday life available at the time, Reformational Philosophy was highly influential in the Netherlands during his day. The translation of Dooyeweerd’s main work De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee into English as The New Critique of Theoretical Thought (1953) extended his influence to North America in the 1950s and 1960s. Dooyeweerd’s legacy became global by the twenty-first century. Reformational philosophers and Dooyeweerd scholars are present in Brazil, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea (among other countries), and since 1982 the Association for Reformational Philosophy has held international conferences attended by participants from over 20 countries.