Grace Journal 1 (2) (Fall 60) p. 38-39
In the Twilight of Western Thought. By Herman Dooyeweerd. The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Nutley, N.J., 1960. 195 pp., $3.50.
This book consists of a series of lectures delivered by Dr. Herman Dooyeweerd during his tour through the United States and Canada in 1959. Dooyeweerd is Professor of the Philosophy of Law in the Free University of Amsterdam and is well known on the Continent for his new school of Christian philosophy—”The Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea.” In the Twilight of Western Thought serves as an excellent introduction to this philosophy contained in Dooyeweerd’s four-volume work entitled A New Critique of Theoretical Thought.
Although considerably less technical in comparison to his larger work, Dooyeweerd’s lectures are not easy reading and require close attention as well as an extensive knowledge of history of Western philosophy. The sub-title of the book, “Studies in the Pretended Autonomy of Philosophical Thought,” indicates the central thesis of Dooyeweerd’s position—all non-Christian philosophy is invariably dogmatic in assuming the self-sufficiency and autonomy of its philosophical thinking and only a truly Christian philosophy is critical. Dooyeweerd argues that non-Christian philosophies are based on presuppositions which are religious in nature, that the non-Christian absolutizes his own thought or an aspect of creation, and that God is made relative in these systems. “Under the influence of unrecognized absolutizations of theoretical abstractions there arose a diversity of opposing philosophical views concerning human experience and empirical reality, locking a truly critical verification” (p. 53). These non-Christian attitudes led inevitably to doubt and skepticism as the history of Western thought amply testifies.
In opposition to the religiously originated “dialectical basic-motives” of Hellenic, medieval, and humanist philosophies, which are forcefully challenged and exposed in the first chapters of the book, Dooyeweerd advocates a biblically oriented philosophy. “The radical biblical basic motive unmasks any absolutization of the relative, and may free philosophical thought from dogmatic prejudices, which impede an integral view of the real structures of human experience. This effect is verifiable since it manifests itself within the temporal experiential horizon, whose structural order has a general validity for every thinker” (pp. 53–54). The Christian philosophical system thus developed by Dooyeweerd is not entirely original but is based largely on the thought of John Calvin and Abraham Kuyper. In that biblically-grounded thinking the cosmos is viewed in all its aspects as ordered by the instituted law of God, the Creator and the Redeemer. It is only on this Christian foundation that Dooyeweerd believes a system of philosophy can be formed whereby the antinomy, paradox, and tension of non-Christian thought will be avoided and the naive experiences of man will not be violated. God provides the norms by which the Christian philosopher is enabled to think in a truly critical and constructive manner.
In the development of his position, Dooyeweerd contends “that the true knowledge of God and ourselves…surpasses all theoretical thought. This knowledge cannot be the theoretical object either of a dogmatical theology or of a Christian philosophy. It can only be acquired by the operation of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit in the heart, that is to say, in the religious center and root of our entire human existence and experience. True knowledge of God and self-knowledge are the central presuppositions both of a biblical theology (in its scientific theoretical sense) and, of a Christian philosophy insofar as the latter has a really biblical starting-point. This implies that the central principle of knowledge of dogmatic theology and that of Christian philosophy ought to be the same” (p. 120). Chapter VII, entitled “What is Man?”, carries out this theme, and, in the opinion of the reviewer, best presents the essence of Dooyeweerd’s positive contribution to a truly Christian philosophical system.
There are concepts expressed in the course of the lectures, especially in the chapters concerning the relation of philosophy and theology, with which the reviewer cannot agree; but the main thrust of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy is certainly one which must be given serious consideration as a possible starting point for a vital and significant Christian philosophy. This book is recommended reading for every individual interested in the development of the Christian world and life view.
J. Worl Stuber
Grace College