Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 28:3 (Fall 2024)
Article: Experiences Of Revival In The Dutch "Nadere Reformatie" Tradition: The Legacy Of Four Divines In The Netherlands And North America
Author: Joel R. Beeke

Experiences Of Revival In The Dutch Nadere Reformatie Tradition: The Legacy Of Four Divines In The Netherlands And North America

Joel R. Beeke

And

Maarten Kuivenhoven

Joel R. Beeke is the Chancellor and Professor of Homiletics and Systematic Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned his PhD from Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Beeke has written and coauthored numerous books and articles. He has served as a pastor since 1978 and currently ministers at the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids. He is the editor of the Puritan Reformed Journal and The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth magazine, the board chairman of Reformation Heritage Books, the president of Inheritance Publishers, and the vice president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He is married to Mary and they have three children and ten grandchildren.

Maarten Kuivenhoven is Professor of Theology, Assistant Professor of Church History, and Director of the DMin program at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned his PhD from Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Kuivenhoven is an ordained pastor in the Heritage Reformed Congregations and previously pastored the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids (2010–2022). He is married to Jennifer, and they have five children.

The Protestant Reformation first spread to the Netherlands through the ideas and influence of the Lutherans (around 1517), followed by the Anabaptists (around 1531).1 From 1545 onward, however, the Reformation

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in the Netherlands generally followed the doctrines of the Reformed (or Calvinist) tradition as expressed in the Belgic Confession of Faith (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Canons of Dort (1618–1619). The Reformed churches in the Netherlands flowered in particular through the experiential emphasis of the Nadere Reformatie (or the “Further Reformation”).2

The Nadere Reformatie was primarily a seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century movement that roughly paralleled English Puritanism. Early representatives of the movement include Jean Taffin (1529–1602) and Willem Teellinck (1579–1629), while its last major contributors included Alexander Comrie (1706–1774) and Theodorus van der Groe (1705– 1784). Like the English Puritans the divines of the Nadere Reformatie emphasized the necessity of vital Christian piety, fidelity to the teachings of Scripture, conformity to the Reformed confessions, and a consis...