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

Now you will not find in any of Stoker's many writings a systematic presentation of philosophy in aset of volumes (such as in Dooyeweerd's New Critique of Theoretical Thought). Stoker's thoughtrather consists of scores and scores of monographs -- nearly all of them written in Afrikaans, andmost still untranslated. They cover a variety of subjects, the most important of which are perhapshis works on ontology.Here we are thinking especially of his masterpiece The Philosophy of the Idea of creation -- andalso of his work against evolution and on Calvinism and the Doctrine of the Law-Spheres. He hasalso given a rather critical evaluation of the "newer" philosophy at the Free University ofAmsterdam (the views of Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd). Also his brochure Something About aCalvinistic Philosophy is well worth studying.Moving out of the area of ontology into the area of epistemology, Stoker has written a whole hostof works. I think his masterpiece in this field is his work The Necessity of Christian Scholarship.There he, in great detail, gives suggestions for a formal methodology to be used in the pursuit of allof the various sciences at a Christian university. It is a very valuable work, and we desperately needit translated into English. (By the way, the Philosophy Department of Dordt College here in theUnited States believes that this work should enjoy priority to be translated into English, to be auseful tool for English-speaking Christian academicians throughout the world.)Other works Stoker has written on epistemology are The Problems of a General Gnosiology - and awork I myself have translated into English Something About Reasonableness and Rationalism. Ihave also translated his work, The Snail's Shell Theories of Consciousness. His Crisis in ModernPsychology is also an important work.Stoker has written many methodological works. His Principles of a Christian Doctrine of Scienceand his Christianity and Science I have available in translation (but not yet published). His workScriptural Faith and the Pursuit of Science I also translated (some twelve or thirteen years ago).Other works he wrote, were in the realm of causation theory -- Something About Causality. Thenthere are his works on moral philosophy: The Basis of Morality -- and his Theological,Philosophical and Special Scientific Ethics.A very important work that we need to get translated into English, is Stoker's work that he wroteduring World War II -- perhaps from the concentration camp. It is entitled: The Battle of theOrders. There, he contrasts Nazism, Communism, Socialism, Liberal Democracy and Calvinism --saying that the Calvinistic position on statecraft, in rejecting the others, is the only viable position.Just recently, in the last decade, some of his major writings have been collected in two volumes inthe anthology Oorsprong en Rigting (alias Origin and Direction).Now to Stoker, the idea of creation is far more encompassing than is the Amsterdam school'scosmonomic idea. Hence Stoker's so-called creationistic philosophy, or the philosophy of the ideaof creation. Within the unity of God's creation, says Stoker, there are a variety of ontic differencesof modalities, degrees, qualities, values and being. There are not just different law-spheres, asDooyeweerd holds. Each of Stoker's different ontic realities not only possesses sovereignty in itsown sphere (as also in Dooyeweerd) -- but also possesses universality in its own sphere.In other words, you cannot say that each thing in the universe is sovereign in its own sphere - cutoff from everything else. Each thing in the universe, in its own way, also reflects the wholeuniverse within itself.You can now see why Van Til thinks so highly of Stoker as a philosopher. Because in Stoker's