THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERS - The Works of F. N. Lee

Seven: Mid-Twentieth Century Afrikaner ThoughtThe first major thinker I would like to deal with here, is Professor Frederik Potgieter. I wasprivileged to study under him for my first Doctor's Degree.Professor Potgieter was born in the Eastern Cape. He studied successively at the University of CapeTown and the University of Stellenbosch, receiving his Doctorate of Philosophy for a dissertationon Pavlovian Psychology (i.e. how to make a dog drool).Potgieter next did his Doctorate in Theology under Professor Valentine Hepp -- the successor toKuyper at the Free University of Amsterdam. There, Potgieter submitted a very importantdissertation on The Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology in the Thought of John Calvin.He ploughed through all sixty-some volumes of Calvin in the original Latin to do this.Consequently, this particular work of his is an absolute goldmine of valuable quotations.Incidentally, my own little book of some fifty pages, Calvin on the Sciences, is a further distillationof this. For I derived the Calvin quotes on the subject of Philosophy, Theology and the SpecialSciences there -- largely from Potgieter's book.Potgieter has also authored many other writings. There is his excellent book on predestination andthe ordo salutis; a fine study on pantheism, which he well refutes; and several books on occultphenomena (including the ability to see into the future) in which he attempts to explain them from aChristian viewpoint.His general explanation is that Adam, before the fall, had extraordinary powers of perception --which he lost at the time of the fall. Yet in certain of the children of Adam today, by virtue ofGod's common grace, there are sometimes strong sporadic "after-glows" (as Potgieter calls them) ofthis original ability that God gave to Adam.According to predestination, some people have these abilities more than others. These God givenabilities are then either consciously or unconsciously taken hold of by Satan or his demons, andthen misused to further the kingdom of darkness. On the other hand, says Potgieter, otherindividuals with similar special gifts consecrate them to the Lord Jesus Christ. In that way, they areenabled to perform unusual services in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.Potgieter has also written a very interesting book in English on Christ and Israel -- a book oneschatology. But I think his most important writing is a work called The Theocentric University.There he distinguishes the concrete jungles of humanist institutions from the God-centreduniversity. The latter glorifies God, and recognises God alone as the true Ground and Centre of anyuniversity, for the teaching of every subject in every faculty. Thus the Theocentric (or rather theTrinicentric) University is distinguished from the Romish or the atheistic and the humanistic andthe Islamic university (as the case may be).Potgieter was extremely upset when the South African Government, after a lot of study andconsideration, decided some fifteen or so years ago to go ahead and to establish Chairs of Hinduand Islamic Theology at some South African universities for the benefit of the considerablenumbers of Hindus and Moslems living in South Africa.Potgieter felt this was contrary to the South African Constitution, which claims to be specificallyChristian. On the other hand, one needs to recognise the problems of a Government trying tooperate in a country where only a minority of its total subjects are Christians (even though a vast