Anti-revolutionary epistemology : Philippus Jacobus Hoedemaker’s philosophy of revelation

Abstract

The prominent Anti-Revolutionary philosopher and theologian, Philippus Jacobus Hoedemaker (1839–1910) operated in the Dutch politico-ecclesiastical scene. He achieved renown primarily because of his dispute with Abraham Kuyper over the role of common grace and the political implications of Kuyper’s doctrine. In contradistinction to Neo-Calvinists such as Kuyper and Herman Bavinck, Hoedemaker proposed a distinct philosophy of revelation, emphasising the inescapabilty and holistic nature thereof as foundational to all human knowledge. Hoedemaker’s epistemology, consciously theorized and articulated in reaction to the empiricism and rationalism of the Enlightenment, emphasises that all realities and facts are inescapably revealed realities, which are mediated by divine revelation in Scripture as well as history which he understands to be essentially the manifestation of divine providence, given that he holds God to be the ultimate First Cause behind everything in existence. For Hoedemaker, every fact in the universe is therefore completely dependent upon God and his revelation for its very existence. Hoedemaker’s distinct epistemology also has significant socio-political implications, most notably the utter impossibility of neutrality in the public domain. Since for Hoedemaker, there exists no natural, unmediated or unrevealed knowledge in all of the universe, it is only Christianity that can bring about true socio-cultural and socio-political progress, while all other worldviews only maintain themselves inasmuch as they borrow capital from the Christian worldview ultimately rooted in Christian epistemology.