Two Items on Klaas Schilder
Considering how much he wrote, there is relatively little available in English from Dr. Klaas Schilder. For those who don’t know, Schilder was an important theologian in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. He played a significant role in the Liberation of 1944 — a church struggle wherein the Canadian Reformed Churches have their origins. The other day, I rediscovered a letter written by Schilder to one of his cousins about life after death. This letter was first published in English in Diakonia in September 1994. There’s no information included on who translated it, but when I asked the editor of Diakonia he suggested that it was probably done by the late br. Rienk Koat. He was translating it as it appeared in the Dutch periodical De Reformatie, with an introduction by Dr. W. G. de Vries. The letter is interesting for its theological content — notice the careful distinctions that Schilder draws — but also for its personal and pastoral character. You can read it here.
Also with regard to Schilder, the other day Scott Swain published this post on Reformation21 dealing with Geerhardus Vos and membership in the covenant of grace. I could not help but notice the similarities to what Schilder taught on this subject. I am not the first to reach this conclusion. Nelson Kloosterman drew attention to it in this article from a few years ago as well. One thing that Kloosterman didn’t touch on, but would be interesting to research, is how Vos and Schilder are related to each other on this point. Did they develop this view independently? Were they drawing on a common source? Did one influence the other (though I suspect if so, considering their dates, it would have to be Vos influencing Schilder)?
