Calvin Seerveld received a BA from Calvin College in 1952, an MA in English literature and classics from the University of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 in 1953. He then went on to study under D. H. Th. Vollenhoven

D. H. Th. Vollenhoven

Dirk Hendrik Theodoor Vollenhoven was with Herman Dooyeweerd the first generation of reformational philosophers, an intellectual movement with which Vollenhoven worked communally from his election in 1936 as President of the newly-organized group formed to advance the movement; the organization is...

 at the Free University

Vrije Universiteit

The Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...

 (VU) in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, where his doctoral dissertation dealt with Croce's aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

. It was supervised by Vollenhoven and Carlo Antoni. He then taught philosophy and German at Trinity Christian College

Trinity Christian College

Trinity Christian College is a liberal arts college located in Palos Heights, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago. The college was founded in 1959 by a group of Chicago businessmen who wanted to establish a college providing students with a Christian higher education in a Reformed tradition...

, and went on to teach philosophical aesthetics at the Institute for Christian Studies

Institute for Christian Studies

The Institute for Christian Studies Toronto, Ontario is one of several unrelated institutions bearing that name.ICS Toronto is an independent graduate school of inter-disciplinary philosophy. At ICS, Junior Members and Senior members take part in shared learning through participatory seminars,...

 in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

.

Seerveld is extremely influential in the reformational movement

Reformational philosophy

Reformational philosophy is a Neo-Calvinistic movement pioneered by Herman Dooyeweerd and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven that seeks to develop philosophical thought in a radically Protestant Christian direction.- Historical overview :...

. In fact he was the first to coin the term 'reformational' to describe the philosophical aspects of neo-Calvinism. He has taken Dooyeweerd's

Herman Dooyeweerd

Herman Dooyeweerd was a Dutch juridical scholar by training, who by vocation was a philosopher and the founder of the philosophy of the cosmonomic idea. He received early support for his work from his brother-in-law D. H. Th. Vollenhoven...

aesthetic modal aspect and developed Dooyeweerd's ideas. His book Rainbows for a Fallen World has influenced many Christian artists. In it he argues that "aesthetic obedience is required of everyone by the Lord-artist or not."²

Lambert Zuidervaart identifies four claims that constitute Seerveld's contribution to aesthetics¹:

• The aesthetic is part of the fabric of created reality, and aesthetic norms can be violated or ignored only at great cost.
• The arts, despite their variety and their continuing development, are a unified sphere distinct from other spheres of cultural endeavour, offering opportunities for vocational service to Christians today.
• The aesthetic is not limited only to the arts, just as the arts have many facets other than the aesthetic.
• The core meaning of the aesthetic - and distinguishing characteristic of the arts - is 'allusiveness' or 'imaginativity'.

Publications

• Rainbows for a Fallen World Tuppence Press, 1980
• On Being Human: Imaging God in a Modern World Welch Publishing, 1998
• Take Hold of God and Pull Paternoster, 1999
• In the Fields of the Lord: A Calvin Seerveld Reader Craig Bartholomew (Editor) Piquant/ Tuppence Press, 2000.
• Voicing God's Psalms Eerdmans, 2005

All available from Tuppence Press