1967 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 91

ESSAY CONCERNING CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING

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student world as its prime missionary field. Contrary to what is often stated, it is not a „fundamentalist" organization, whatever the latter term may mean, because inside its fellowship there is a great freedom of different persuasions regarding various dogmatical positions. That which binds the fellowship together, however, is a concrete practical and Evangelical awareness that a job for Jesus Christ has to be done. In practice the Fellowship functions much as a kind of „categorical Church". „Categorical", because the body is composed mainly of students, men from one category of life, „Church" because there is fellowship around the communion table, for those who feel free to do so. Within the fellowship there is a growing awareness that Christians should also study the implications of their faith for science as a body of knowledge. However, the striking point of the IVCF remains that for their workers the actual „kerygmatic" and practical meaning of the Bible far outstrips the importance of any theoretical reflection on it. This leads us to the discussion of some further attempts, viz. those made by Reformed Christians in the Netherlands. Reformed answers The general Reformed answer to these questions in the Netherlands is an approach that may perhaps best be circumscribed by means of the word „Christian education". For many however the word „education" suggests even too narrow a scope. They view the „principle of Christian organization" as the pre-eminent directive for Christian people to convey Christ's message to the world. The latter idea has been the underlying motive of the founding of the Free University in Amsterdam. The founder of the Free University, Dr A. Kuyper, envisaged this institution to become a Christian „bulwark" in Dutch society. He also envisaged that, by the work of the professors at this institute, eventually every special science would be reformed christianly and radically into a science free from „paganisms". Before attempting to assess some of the results of this approach we have first to make a few remarks regarding the general nature of it. First of all, as the term „bulwark" suggests, the University from the outstart has had a defensive and preservative character. Or, to put it milder, the Free University was primarily intended to render service to (a part) of the christian faction of society, and thus, via them, to be of benefit to society as a whole. This may perhaps be the reason that.

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