Philosophy in full colour

If you read the passages about wisdom in the Bible¹ as I do, you probably have a sense of a vibrant, intriguing personality whose presence is to be found in all kinds of exciting places. She was there rejoicing at the Creator’s side as he made the Earth, unfurled the sky, setting its lights ablaze, and set boundaries for the sea. She cries aloud in the streets of the ancient city, beckoning adolescents to find the right ways to live. We are to love her so passionately that she will guide all our actions and thinking. As Jesus says, she is known by her children².

If philosophy is the love of wisdom, surely it should be an adventurous pursuit – a lively journey through the market squares, alcoves and passageways of civilizations ancient and modern, on the trail of a scintillating yet elusive character. Being a philosopher would call for resourcefulness, imagination and wit – even a dash of humour. Proverbs, parables and paradoxes would roll off the philosopher’s tongue alongside principles, prose and hypotheses. And only full technicolour rendering could do justice to this pilgrimage.

This allegorical sketch doesn’t sound much like anything we expect to find in a modern philosophy course, or in the writings of most of the celebrated philosophers of the anglophone tradition. Socrates comes across as witty in the works of Plato, and some of the modern existentialists can be allusive and satirical in places (Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche – and above all GK Chesterton, if we can count him… can you suggest others?). But my sketch of colourful philosophy does allude to a vision that I’ve had the privilege of glimpsing through my association with the Reformational movement. My colleague at Thinking Faith Network Mark Roques likes to use crocodiles to illustrate principles of philosophy, and to suggest that we philosophise about jokes, celebrities – and even evangelism. For me and some others, TFN in particular has been a community of apprenticeship into a movement that seeks a renaissance in philosophy so that it might connect more deeply with everyday life, and recognise the religious roots that theorising always has. This was the project of Herman Dooyeweerd, the leading light of Reformational philosophy. And while Dooyeweerd’s writings are not noted for wit or humour – perhaps partly reflecting their historical situation as Dutch society emerged from the oppression of Nazism – they do draw on metaphors of space, and of colour.

It gives me great pleasure, therefore, to announce the publication of a book presenting the philosophy of Dooyeweerd in an accessible style and with numerous full-colour diagrams. The Intellectual Legacy of Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977): A Hopeful Philosophy for our Time is the work of a gifted illustrator (Suzan Sierksma-Agteres), writers Maarten Verkerk and Gerrit Glas, and translator David Hanson to bring it from its original Dutch into English. Indeed, numerous readers and assistants (including yours-truly) have helped ensure this book should be readable for students and non-philosophers as well as those seeking to place Dooyeweerd’s thought within the traditions of both philosophy and theology. The book sets out key concepts of this Christian philosophical framework and then brings them into dialogue with contemporary thinking, including critical perspectives. And it’s the iconic, geometric yet evocative illustrations that really set it apart as a friendly introduction to a rich vein of ideas and inspiration.

Diagrams can bring a form of objectivity to ideas, as I’ve written before. And I mentioned above how Dooyeweerd himself uses metaphors of space and colour. His principal metaphor for the suite of aspects he proposes is that of a prism refracting white light into its many colours; and almost every page of his writing is shot through with spatial metaphors. This book therefore feels like one that was waiting to be created. And we now have two special opportunities for readers to hear from its creators:

1. On Thursday 23 Oct at 20:00 UK time (UTC+1), a special edition of our monthly Iron Sharpens Iron series will host the team of writers, illustrator and translator to hear about the creative process, the reception of the original Dutch edition, and the project to translate the book into other languages. Please email me (richard ‘at’ thinkfaith.net) for an invitation!
2. On Saturday 29 Nov from 14:30 to 20:00 UK time (UTC), an event in Cambridge and webcast on Zoom will host the same team along with other key people including Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin and Jonathan Chaplin, to share more about the reach of this book in the context of the historic and contemporary significance of Dooyeweerd’s thought. Please sign up at https://kirbylaingcentre.co.uk/dooyeweerd-2025/.

A final piece of good news: once published, the book will be available open access. We’ll post here again when a link becomes available!

_______________

1. Proverbs 8 is the main passage where wisdom is personified as a lady. Job 28 is another key passage. The outworking of Solomon’s wisdom in literature, natural history, economics and jurisprudence is celebrated (e.g. in 1 Kings 3 – 10) before Solomon departs from God’s ways. ↩︎
2. Luke 7:35. We must not miss the way that Jesus regularly speaks with proverbs, as “one greater than Solomon” (Matthew 12:42). ↩︎

• About
• Latest Posts

Richard Gunton

Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London

Richard is the Director of Faith-in-Scholarship at Thinking Faith Network.He's also a senior lecturer in data science at Queen Mary University of London.His passions include Reformational philosophy, history of sciences, and wildlife gardening.He worships, and occasionally preaches, at St Mary's Church in Portchester.
[Views expressed here are his own.]

Latest posts by Richard Gunton (see all)

• Philosophy in full colour - October 21, 2025
• Flowers not flavours in AI: How large language models resonate with the beauty of creation - May 19, 2025
• Artificial thinking? - April 2, 2025