1967 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 92

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WILLEM KUYK

generally, scientists at this institute moved into some field only if there was a definite practical need of (information regarding) that field, or if the „non-christian world" pressed some issue so consistently that it could not be evaded any more. Examples of this are the development of the medical and economical faculties and the work of Dr. J. Lever on Creation and Evolution, respectively. A second observation that has to be made is the fact that the Free University was primarily an enterprise of the „small people" („kleine luyden"). This has marred its development from its youth. Here the term „small people" (not referring to immature people as opposed to adult or mature ones) means that its supporters were mainly people belonging to societal classes lower than or equal to the middle class. This has had a tremendous effect on the general cultural outlook of the University. For one thing, artistic types of people were looked upon suspiciously. More generally, a strong conformistic attitude developed. Conformism here has the additional flavour which Dr H. Berkhof once described as „a mystical bond" between the (intellectual and) theological leaders and the people supporting the Free University. Understandably, given this background, the educational philosophy of the small people behind the Free University got an intellectualist setting. Because for small people the only way of rising from the lower ranks is obtaining an education. Thus, education in the families that sacrificed so much for the upkeep of their University got an intellectualist touch, which often was detrimental to the natural development and growth of other gifts than the purely intellectual ones. People familiar with the growth and the rise of Jewish minority groups in East European countries will discover striking similarities between these two groups, except perhaps for the humor, which is not a quality of Germanic people. Being this as it is, intellectualism has also an ill effect on religious life. Because an intellectualist attitude willy nilly brings people to a scholasticistic way of experiencing their religion. Such a religion may be circumscribed as „a religion which stands or falls with a certain set of (theo-)logical propositions",*' rather than as „a life lived before the face of God, moved by the Holy Spirit". Correspondingly, the Kuyperian ideal of christian science by many was understood to mean that for every special discipline the scientist had to search the Bible for certain special principles, which then had to be made into the underlying principles of his special science. A more incisive effect was exercised by this attitude on Church life. Typical is the concept of a „pure

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