John Kok

John Kok (1948- ) studied as an undergraduate at Trinity Christian College near Chicago, Illinois, USA, under Maartin Vrieze and Calvin Seerveld. In 1971 he went to the Free University in Amsterdam for graduate studies under professors of philosophy Henk Van Riessen and Jacob Klapwijk, the successor to D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, one of the originators of Reformational philosophy. During those years Kok was reacquainted with Vollenhoven's Consequent Problem-Historical Method for the analysis of the history of philosophy in the Western intellectual tradition. Kok began to teach philosophy at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa, USA, in 1983. In 1992 he completed his dissertation on Vollenhoven's Early Development, which focused on Vollenhoven's approach to the philosophical foundations of mathematics in 1918. Today, he still teaches a few courses at Dordt College, but now serves as Dean for Research and Scholarship, Director of the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service, and Managing Editor of Dordt College Press. For thirteen years (until the fall of 2006), he was the host of the daily radio show, "Talking Our Walk" on Dordt College's radio station, KDCR 88.5 FM).

Major ideas and developments in thought

John Kok's dissertation appeared in 1992, entitled Vollenhoven: His Early Development. One of the areas of concentration in this phase of the author's study of the founder's emergence was that of Vollenhoven's pursuit of mathematics as a foundational discipline pointing to the most basic mode of creaturely existence. In Kok's Patterns of the Western Mind (1998), which began as a text for his Philosophy 201 students at Dordt College, he lays the foundation for his own original contribution in the use of Vollenhoven's thetical-critical method as well as his Consequent Problem-Historical Method. Kok continues his project of translating a number of Vollenhoven's essays, articles, and excerpts that will compose the volume, A Vollenhoven Reader (Dordt College Press, 2011 forthcoming). In the meantime, he has edited a number of volumes and has produced thematic papers on numerous topics, including shifts in ecological thought. Kok is most recently busy editing a five-volume publication of essays and lectures by his mentor Calvin Seerveld.

Works

Original studies

• Kok, John H. Vollenhoven: His Early Development (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 1992) [out of print]
• Kok, John H. Patterns of the Western Mind (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 1998). ISBN 0932914411

Collection

• Kok, John H. (ed) A Vollenhoven Reader (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 2011 forthcoming).
• Kok, John H. (ed) Celebrating the Vision: The Reformed Perspective of Dordt College (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 2004). ISBN 093291456X

Translation

• Vollenhoven, Dirk H.T.. Isagoge Philosophiae: Introduction to Philosophy. Translated by John H. Kok; preface by Calvin Seerveld; Foreword by Anthony Tol (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 2005). A Dutch/English hardcover publication. ISBN 9780932914637.
• Vollenhoven, Dirk H.T.. Introduction to Philosophy. Translated by John H. Kok; preface by Calvin Seerveld; Foreword by Anthony Tol (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 2005). An English only paperback publication. ISBN 9780932914651.

Articles

• Kok, John H. 1988. "Vollenhoven and 'scriptural philosophy,'" Philosophia Reformata 53(2): 101-142.
• Kok, John H. "Learning to Teach from within a Christian Perspective," in Celebrating the Vision: The Reformed Perspective of Dordt College (Sioux Center, Iowa, USA: Dordt College Press, 2004). ISBN 093291456X
• Kok, John H. "Woltjer on Classical Antiquity," in In the Phrygian Mode: Neo-Calvinism, Antiquity and the Lamentations of Philosophy (Lanham, Maryland: UPA, 2007). ISBN 978-0-7618-3021-4