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

The Professor of Philosophy -- or I should say one of the several Professors of Philosophy -- atStellenbosch University, is Dr. Hennie Rossouw. He promoted under Berkouwer in Holland with adissertation on The Perspicuity of Holy Scripture. He has also written in other areas of philosophyand theology. He has the distinction of having received the highest marks ever achieved in thehistory of the Reformed Theological Seminary at Stellenbosch University in its existence of morethan a hundred years. When he was finally awarded his doctorate under Berkouwer, the latter madethe statement that Rossouw was the most brilliant student that he had ever had -- and thatBerkouwer had nothing left to teach him which Rossouw did not already know.Another very brilliant man is Professor Pieter du Plessis -- formerly of the University of PortElizabeth, and currently Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at the Rand AfrikaansUniversity in Johannesburg. His doctoral dissertation was written on The Abridgement of theEthical. There, he protested against the tendency to abridge ethical decisions in modern life. He hasalso written works on philosophy, culture and the future -- a kind of eschatological orientation ofculturology and philosophy. He has further written a work on The Renaissance and theReformation and the Revolution -- the impact of these three movements in the development of thesciences. He has also written a polemic work entitled, Calvinism on the Attack. All of these, andespecially the last, need translating into English.There have also been other important thinkers in the last ten years or so. I'd like to refer to Dr.Schalk Duvenage. Schalk is a man with three earned doctor's degrees. He was Professor of BiblicalStudies at the University of Potchefstroom -- until he recently resigned (because he felt that heenjoyed preaching as a Pastor in the churches more than he enjoyed teaching). He was alsoChairman of some twenty business Companies. He has written a number of works. These include:The Church and the Future and The Relationship Between the Church and the Kingdom in theAfrikaner Culture. He kindly consented to be the Co- Examiner of my work toward my Master ofCultural Science (Sociology) at Potchefstroom University -- which status I attained several yearsago.His brother, Ben Duvenage, is also a learned man. He is Professor of Inter-Disciplinary Sciences atthe University of Potchefstroom. He wrote a very fine work that would be of interest to us here -- awork on Calvin's Vocational Ethics. It is a collection and a discussion of all that Calvin had to sayon the ethics of choosing different vocations -- in the extension of God's kingdom. Ben Duvenagealso wrote a work on the ethical aspects of the population increase. That is a demographical surveyin the light of Reformed ethics. Indeed, he further wrote yet another work on The Kingdom of Godand Ecumenism; and also even a further work (on The Kingdom and Reformation).There have also been several theologians of note. Professor J.J. Mueller of Stellenbosch, a NewTestamentician who died just recently, was perhaps the world's leading authority on the kenosisdoctrine (or at least on the Reformed understanding of the kenosis). See his doctoral dissertationthereon. He was also the writer of the commentaries on Philemon, Philippians and Colossians -- inthe Westminster series of Bible commentaries (which he wrote in English). Indeed, he has alsocommented widely on most of the books of the New Testament.Then there is Professor Willie Jonker. He taught for several years, under very difficult conditions,at a Dutch Theological Seminary -- until he was called back to South Africa -- to the Chair ofSystematic Theology at Stellenbosch, in order to succeed Professor Potgieter (who was thenretiring, and who had suggested me as his successor). I read just recently that Jonker received aprize for writing a definitive work on The Church. It has been crowned as the best South Africanreligious work written in the year. He also functioned as a Visiting Professor of SystematicTheology here in the United States in the recent past.