Hans Rookmaaker
Encyclopedia
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
scholar, professor, and author who wrote and lectured on art theory, art history, music, philosophy, and religion.
In 1948 he met Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer
Francis August Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland...
and became a member of L'Abri
L'Abri
L'Abri is an evangelical Christian organization founded by Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland on June 5, 1955. They opened their alpine home as a ministry to curious travellers and as a forum to discuss philosophical and religious beliefs.- The development of...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Hans and his wife Anky opened a Dutch branch of L'Abri in 1971.
Following a doctorate in art history with a dissertation on Gauguin at the University of Amsterdam, he became the founder of the art history department at the Free University
Free University
Free University may refer to any of the following universities:* Université Libre de Bruxelles, located in Brussels, Belgium* Vrije Universiteit Brussel, located in Brussels, Belgium* Free University of Berlin, located in Berlin, Germany...
in Amsterdam.
Rookmaaker combined his academic career with a prolific role of addressing ambiguity about art among Christians and ambiguity about faith among artists. His main thesis was laid out in his 1970 publication entitled Modern Art and The Death of a Culture.
Throughout his career, he lectured in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, as well as in his native Netherlands
Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
.
Two books by Rookmaaker were published posthumously: Art Needs No Justification in 1978 and The Creative Gift : Essays on Art and the Christian Life in 1981. In 2003 The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker, edited by his daughter Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, were published.
Childhood and youth
Born in The HagueThe Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, the Netherlands Hans was the last born in a non-Christian family of colonizers with non-white blood, his grandmother having been half Indonesian. He was largely raised raised in Indonesia, but returned to Holland to join the Royal Netherlands Navy
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. Already as a teenager he had begun what would become an extensive collection of African-American music. As a junior officer, he began to study ship construction at Delft University prior to the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. There, prior to the war, Rookmaaker met and became engaged to Riki Spetter, who was Jewish.
Conversion to Christianity
As Rookmaaker was a naval officer, he was interned as a prisoner of war in Stanislau, now UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and later on in Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg is a city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located in the southeastern part of the state, on the shore of a lake called the Tollensesee ....
in northern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In Stanislau he met the Christian philosopher J.P.A. Mekkes who would have a lasting impact on his life. He returned home as a Christian, but was severely tested as his bride-to-be was nowhere to be found. His study of the Old Testament, dedicated to her during the camp years, never reached her. It has been established that Sophia Henriëtte Spetter died in Auschwitz on September 30, 1942. Rookmaaker changed his career and took up a doctoral study in art history. In 1948, through his fiancé and bride-to-be Anky Huitker, he met Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer
Francis August Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland...
. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship with a very fruitful exchange of ideas. Rookmaaker had a dominant influence on Schaeffer's ideas on art and culture and also introduced Schaeffer to Reformational philosophy
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 :...
.
Rookmaaker's famous saying "Jesus didn't come to make us Christian. Jesus came to make us fully human" formed the central theme of Dick Staub's 2010 book About You.
Career
Rookmaaker stood in the tradition of Neo-CalvinismNeo-Calvinism
Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is the movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper.- Introduction :...
, developed in the late 19th century. The essential feature of this philosophy is the treatment of all of life as God's creation. There is no neutrality, while secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
is just another religion. Rookmaaker ventured to apply this basic viewpoint to culture. With his expert ear of black music, multi-cultural roots and after a profound change of direction, he devoted his PhD to the ideas of Paul Gauguin and how they influenced his paintings. He also was an art critic for the Dutch Christian newspaper Trouw
Trouw
Trouw is a Dutch daily newspaper. "Trouw" is a Dutch word meaning "fidelity", "loyalty", or "allegiance", and is cognate with the English adjective "true"...
. He edited a 12-part Fontana Records
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
series of black music, wrote a book on this subject and developed a Christian approach to art in a book aiming at a wide audience. On the political level he wrote about art and culture for the magazine of the Reformed party. By the mid '60's he was invited to start the department of art history at the Free University
Free University
Free University may refer to any of the following universities:* Université Libre de Bruxelles, located in Brussels, Belgium* Vrije Universiteit Brussel, located in Brussels, Belgium* Free University of Berlin, located in Berlin, Germany...
. His broad international perspective brought a large number of foreign students to the department at a time when this was still far from usual.
From 1955 onwards he frequently visited his friend Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer
Francis August Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland...
to lecture at the Swiss l’Abri community in Huémoz. He took Schaeffer on a tour to address Dutch audiences and started l'Abri
L'Abri
L'Abri is an evangelical Christian organization founded by Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland on June 5, 1955. They opened their alpine home as a ministry to curious travellers and as a forum to discuss philosophical and religious beliefs.- The development of...
meetings for university students in his Amsterdam home. He visited North America where he met his hero Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
. More and more Rookmaaker focused his career on motivating Christian believers to take culture seriously and live a life that integrates conviction and deeds. Traces of his influence are still to be found in many places, while the present awakening of Evangelicals to the arts proves Rookmaaker's prophetic stand. Rookmaaker died suddenly on a Sunday in March 1977.
Further reading
- Gasque, L.: Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H. R. Rookmaaker, Crossway Books 2005. ISBN 1-58134-694-8. An excerpt is available in PDF.
- Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, Marleen (ed.): The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker, 6 volumes, Piquant 2001-2003. ISBN 1-903689-04-X; also available on CD-ROM.
- Rookmaaker, H. R.: Modern Art and The Death of Culture, Crossway Books 1994. ISBN 0-89107-799-5.
- Hegeman, David Bruce (2004) "The Importance of Hans Rookmaaker", WRF Comment, November 2004 - V. 22 I. 9.
External links
- Hans Rookmaaker Papers at the Wheaton College Archives and Special Collections