LOUIS BERKHOF:

PASTOR, THEOLOGIAN, AUTHOR and SERVANT

CRC Pedia Assignment

Jason McNabb

jmcn255@calvinseminary.edu

Dr. Gayle Doornbos

5584O CRC Christian Reformed Church History

A paper presented in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the

Ecclesiastical Program for Ministerial Candidacy

Calvin Theological Seminary

April 12, 2026

Louis Berkhof was a Reformed theologian of Dutch-American heritage, who was fervently active in the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to being a prolific writer, he served for an exceptionally long time as a professor in the Theological School for the Christian Reformed Church—later expanded to Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. He was also a key voice in the life and thought of the CRC. He has written a great deal of published material, and is most well-known for his magnum opus, Systematic Theology.

EARLY LIFE

Louis Berkhof was born on October 13, 1873 in Emmen in the province of Drenthe, the Netherlands. His father Jan Berkhof, a baker by profession, and mother Geesje were members of the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk (Christian Reformed Church), which had seceded from the state church several decades earlier in 1834. The religious life of the Berkhof family would have been characterized by a “deep and simple piety fused with devotion to the Reformed faith articulated in the historic confessions of the Reformed churches in The Netherlands,” as would have been typical for “most members of the churches of the Secession of 1834.” Young Louis emigrated with his family to the United States in 1882 when he was 8 years old. The family settled in Grand Rapids, MI, where his father resumed his baking profession.

The Berkhof’s immigration to the U.S. came at a time when droves of Dutch families were also coming with hopes of starting a new life in America. In the Netherlands, they had come up in a society and religious landscape that was heavily influenced by views and values of Neo-Calvinism, being formed and led by the movement’s leader, Dr. Abraham Kuyper. These same views would be brought over with them and championed in their new American homeland.

The Neo-Calvinist movement, the Kuyperian ideas that inspired it, and the impact it made on social, political, and church life in The Netherlands all exercised considerable formative influence on the Christian Reformed Church in America and on the life of Louis Berkhof.

FORMATIVE YEARS

In his teenage years, Louis sat as the secretary for the first Reformed Young Men’s Society established in Grand Rapids. The purpose of the society was “to study Reformed doctrine and the principles of Calvinism for all areas of human life.” Through his involvement and time spent with the society, Berkhof acquired the skills useful for study and also to communicate his thoughts and ideas. Those doctrines and principles had a profound impact on him, leading to his own burgeoning sense of call to ministry. Even as a youth, Berkhof demonstrated a significant capacity for leadership, vision and organization, urging the society to organize nationally, which lead to the establishment of the American Federation of Reformed Young Men’s Societies.

In 1893, at the age of 19, Berkhof made his public profession of faith, and subsequently enrolled in the Theological School at Grand Rapids that same year. The program at the school at that time included a four-year literary course of study and a three-year theological course. “The literary program was expanded into Calvin College, and the theological department became Calvin Theological Seminary.” There he studied systematic theology with Hendrickus Beuker, who was keenly influenced by Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. Berkhof graduated with his seminary diploma in 1900 and soon after, married Reka Dijkhuis.

He was ordained to pastoral ministry at Christian Reformed Church in Allendale, MI on September 16th of that year, where served as pastor until 1902.

At that time, the CRC Synod initially shortlisted him for the chair of exegetical theology position at the Theological School, then subsequently passed him over in favour of a different candidate who carried a Ph.D. Berkhof resolved to pursue more formal education, in alignment with his future trajectory. He enrolled at Princeton Seminary that year, studying under notable scholars, B. B. Warfield and Geerhardus Vos, who had formerly taught exegetical theology and dogmatics at the CRC’s Theological School for five years. Vos left for Princeton just a few years before Louis entered the school in 1900. Both Warfield and Vos have been described as “staunch defenders of Reformed confessional orthodoxy and the authority of holy Scripture, including verbal infallibility and inerrancy,” and Vos has ever been regarded as a favoured son of the CRC. Over the course of his life, Berkhof commonly shared his admiration for the latter, saying that he owed more to Vos than anyone else for his insights into Reformed theology.

Berkhof earned a B.D. degree (Bachelor of Divinity) from Princeton Seminary in 1904. That same year, after completing his studies at Princeton, he was installed as minister at Oakdale Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, where before long he “gained a reputation for his biblically insightful, well-prepared, and effectively delivered sermons.” In spite of this measured success as a minister of the gospel to a local congregation, his pastorate at Oakdale CRC would last just two years before he would move on to new horizons.

PROFESSOR, THEOLOGIAN, AUTHOR & SPEAKER

In 1906, Berkhof became the professor of exegetical theology and bible at the Theological School, where he became very engaged, serving nearly 40 years. The first twenty years (1906-1926), he taught in the biblical department of the seminary, whereas his last 18 years were centred on systematic theology (1926-1944). Over the course of that long tenure came two World Wars, not to mention the challenge of Americanization faced by the CRC. That challenge was made all the more significant with the major growth in the denomination (nearly 500%) that had come about due to the significant numbers of immigrants from the Netherlands at the turn of the century. As the CRC navigated the complex array of issues arising out of world events and the clash of cultures, Berkhof was a key voice that helped to clarify and shape the collective thought and trajectory of the denomination, and for the Reformed community in general. He was vocal about threats to Reformed theology and views, decrying modernism and liberalism.

Notable Published Works

While there are far too many of his published works to mention here, we will highlight just a few of his notable contributions. One such important work is The Church and Social Problems, published in 1913 just before the outbreak of WWI, at a time when “liberalism was still widespread, the social gospel was at its peak, and fundamentalism had not yet discovered its ‘uneasy conscience.’” Therein, Berkhof asserts the centrality of the gospel in the face of social issues, and the Church’s call to “stand for all that is true and beautiful and just in every sphere of life. Hence the Church as a social organism is certainly not exempt from duty in the movements for social betterment.” As a call to action, he proffered this important reminder:

The Church should never forget the social message entrusted to her. Most assuredly, the Church is concerned first of all with individuals and their preparation for life eternal. Hence the pulpit should never degenerate into a chair of sociology. At the same time she must continually remember that she is God’s chosen instrument, not only to save individuals, but to seek, as far as may be, the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.

What Berkhof is perhaps most well-known for is his Systematic Theology. Originally published in 1932 in two volumes as Reformed Dogmatics, it was later expanded and compiled into a single, substantial tome in 1941 under the refreshed title, which has sold over 200,000 copies to date. Klooster suggests that through his Systematic Theology, “Berkhof has been able to promote Reformed theology throughout the world.” That theology had been informed by a long list of Reformed thinkers whom he admired—especially John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, Geerhardus Vos and Herman Bavinck. Berkhof’s own work, in fact, is quite dependent on Bavinck’s Gereformeerde Dogmatiek, such that his theology was “essentially the theology of Herman Bavinck . . . . often to the point of literally reproducing Bavinck’s words and phrases.”

Even so, it is clear that Berkhof—while he did not reinvent the wheel or break the mold of Reformed theology in his published works—did possess a keen mind and an extraordinary “capacity to assimilate a large body of material, to sort out its essential content, and reproduce it in condensed form.” This made him a particularly gifted teacher and theologian in his own right. His ability to express large concepts can be seen in this example from Systematic Theology, explaining the already/not yet tension surrounding the concept of the Kingdom of God.

The primary idea of the Kingdom of God in Scripture is that of the rule of God established and acknowledged in the hearts of sinners by the powerful regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit, insuring them of the inestimable blessings of salvation, — a rule that is realized in principle on earth, but will not reach its culmination until the visible and glorious return of Jesus Christ.

In praise of Berkhof’s Systematic Theology, contemporary theologian Wayne Grudem has said, “This book is a great treasure-house of information and analysis and is probably the most useful one-volume systematic theology available from any theological perspective.”

Controversies

After he had been established as a man with unique gifts and abilities with reference to theological study and interpretation, but while he was still relatively young, the CRC faced a handful of controversies that shook the young denomination. These pivotal moments saw Berkhof thoughtfully engaging with the issues, sometimes standing as the voice of reason, sharing his expertise on their Reformed foundations. At other times, he stood as the voice of correction and critique in the face of emerging issues and ideas that went askew of those foundations.

Bultema’s “Maranatha” and Premillennialism

Pastor Henry Bultema of First Christian Reformed Church in Muskegon, MI published his book, Maranatha, which applied Reformed principles to Dispensational eschatology. With the global upheaval of WWI happening at that time, there was a “profound spiritual and cultural crisis and uncertainty about the changing world.” Bultema’s book received a good deal of attention in the light of that, provoking the CRC to make a response. Berkhof was the natural candidate to speak to the issue at hand. Without pointing fingers at Bultema, or deriding Maranatha itself, Berkhof deftly refuted the premillenarian argument, citing four objections to their views: (1) the “mistaken insistence on a strictly literal interpretation” of prophecy; (2) the millennial kingdom of Christ and doctrine of the second resurrection; (3) the “absolute separation of Israel and the church”; and (4) the “customary use of the distinction between the Kingdom and the church in the New Testament. ” In the end, Synod agreed with Berkhof, Bultema was deposed, and he and his followers left the CRC to form the Berean Church.

Biblical Studies and Higher Criticism

In 1919, Berkhof and three other professors at the Theological School raised an issue with their colleague, Ralph Janssen, professor of Old Testament. They were concerned that Janssen was teaching higher criticism in the seminary.

Given the rationalistic principles undergirding Janssen’s approach, the professors predicted that his teaching, if allowed to continue, would certainly lead to a surrender of the authority of Scripture to modern critical science and a denial of Scripture as a divine redemptive revelation.

In our day, the use of higher criticism is welcome and understood by most people that have taken some form of seminary training. But in early 1920’s America, conservatives within Reformed camp viewed it as a slippery slope that led toward Liberalism—which had plagued the European church, and was gaining ground in U.S. as well. Such a fateful slip was something that the CRC in general, and Berkhof specifically, were determined to avoid. A bitter controversy ensued, lasting a year. At the end of the saga in 1922, Janssen was deposed and left the seminary and the CRC.

Common Grace

Another theological controversy for the CRC came about in 1924 regarding the doctrine of common grace. Two Michigan CRC pastors, Herman Hoekstra and Henry Danhof, rejected the doctrine. That year, Synod declared three points: (1) the existence of a general or common grace that is shown to all; (2) the Holy Spirit constrains the power of sin in the world; and (3) God enables lost people to do civil good.

Berkhof was not directly involved in the dispute before synod’s action, but when protests and appeals were submitted to the next synod, Berkhof published a pamphlet (in Dutch) in which he maintained that the three points were in every respect Reformed.

Those protests and appeals on the matter were ultimately rejected by the CRC. The outcome sadly led to a schism, with Hoeksema and Danhof leaving the CRC with a number of followers, among whom they established the Protestant Reformed Church.

Over the last hundred-plus years since Berkhof’s pamphlet, “The Three Points in All Parts Reformed” was published, it has been reviewed again many times, receiving both criticism and support from voices both within and outside of the CRC. While the debates surrounding the pithy doctrines of election and grace will likely continue to froth well into the future, it is fair to say that Berkhof’s faithful support of his denomination have served her well, right up to our day.

THE LATER YEARS

Louis’ marriage to Reka lasted 28 years, and ended sadly when she passed away. The couple had raised two sons and four daughters, and eventually Berkhof was blessed with nine grandchildren. About four years later he married his second wife, Dena Heyns, a music teacher working in the Christian schools in Grand Rapids, who was also the widow of a missionary to the Navajo people. By all accounts, Louis and Dena shared a very full, harmonious and loving relationship together over the course of their marriage.

In 1931, as Berkhof celebrated 25 years as a professor of theology, he was established as the president of Calvin Theological Seminary. He held this post until his retirement in 1944, and during that time he published several major works, the most important being Systematic Theology. “His textbooks . . . became the virtual standards of Reformed theological orthodoxy in the Christian Reformed Church,” serving as the basis for synodical examinations and classical ordination examination of candidates for pastoral ministry.

Upon his retirement in 1944, he remained in very good condition both physically and mentally. He continue to write and publish theological works, including: Aspects of Liberalism (1951), The Kingdom of God (1951), and The Second Coming of Christ (1953). Likewise, he was a regular contributor to the two weekly publications of the CRC, the Banner and De Wachter, right up to the time of his death in 1957.

Zwaanstra states: “No theologian or churchman has made a greater impact on the Christian Reformed Church than Professor Berkhof.” As a thinker, teacher and faithful servant to his Lord and his church community, Berkhof left his mark in so many ways, only some of which we have touched on in this paper. He was deeply respected by his peers, his students and the Reformed community at large, which was made abundantly clear through the many different tributes to him on the occasions of his appointment to president of Calvin Seminary, upon his retirement, and after his death.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berkhof, Louis. The Church and Social Problems. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans-Sevensma, 1913. Logos edition.

_________. “Disillusionments of Modernism.” The Calvin Forum 2: no. 3 (1936): 59-60

_________. “Calvinistic Training in a Disillusioned World [part 1].” The Calvin Forum 10. No. 1-2 (1944): 9-13

_________. “Calvinistic Training in a Disillusioned World [part 2].” The Calvin Forum 10. No. 3 (1944): 40-42.

_________. De Drie Punten in Alle Deelen Gereformeerd. (The Three Points in All Parts Reformed.) Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1925.

_________. Systematic Theology. Expanded Edition. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2023.

Blacketer, Henry. “The Three Points in Most Parts Reformed: A Reexamination of the So-Called Well-Meant Offer of Salvation.” Calvin Theological Journal. 35 (2000): 37-65.

Bolt, John. “Common Grace, Theonomy, and Civic Good: The Temptations of Calvinist Politics.” Calvin Theological Journal. 35 (2000): 205-237.

Bultema, Henry. Maranatha: Eene Studie Over de Onvervulde Profetie. (Maranatha: A Study Concerning Unfulfilled Prophecy.) Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans-Svensma, 1917.

Calvin Theological Seminary. “History.” Accessed April 11, 2026. https://calvin.edu/about/history

Christian Reformed Church in North America. “Common Grace.” https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/position-statements/common-grace. Accessed April 11, 2026.

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Second Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020. Logos edition.

Henry, Carl F. The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1947).

Holcomb, Justin. “Pillar of Faith in an Innovative Age: The Life and Legacy of Louis Berkhof.” From The Gospel Coalition online. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/pillar-of-faith-in-an-innovative-age/. Last accessed April 9, 2026

Klooster, Fred. “Louis Berkhof.” In Handbook of Evangelical Theologians. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993. PDF online. https://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books%20II/Elwell%20-%20Handbook%20of%20Evangelical%20Theologicans.pdf. Accessed on February 24, 2026.

Thomas, Geoff. “Louis Berkhof 1873-1957: The 2007 Evangelical Library Lecture.” Banner of Truth. https://banneroftruth.org/uk/resources/articles/2008/louis-berkhof-1873-1957/. Accessed April 10, 2026.

Zwaanstra, Henry. “Louis Berkhof.” In Reformed Theology in America: A History of Its Modern Development. Edited by David F. Wells. 153–71. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985.

Footnotes

Fred Klooster, “Louis Berkhof,” in Walter Elwell, ed., Handbook of Evangelical Theologians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993), PDF online: https://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books%20II/Elwell%20-%20Handbook%20of%20Evangelical%20Theologicans.pdf accessed February 24, 2026.

Zwaanstra, 154-55.

Ibid., 155.

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof”: “In later life, [Berkhof] acknowledged that he owed more to the young men’s society than he would ever be able to repay.”

Zwaanstra, 155.

Justin Holcomb, “Pillar of Faith in an Innovative Age: The Life and Legacy of Louis Berkhof,” from TGC online, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/pillar-of-faith-in-an-innovative-age/; last accessed April 9, 2026.

Zwaanstra, 155; cf. Calvin Theological Seminary, “History,” https://calvin.edu/about/history, last accessed April 11, 2026.

Zwaanstra, 156.

Holcomb, “Pillar of Faith.”

Zwaanstra, 156.

Zwaanstra, 156.

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof.”

Geoff Thomas, “Louis Berkhof 1873-1957: The 2007 Evangelical Library Lecture,” from Banner of Truth online, https://banneroftruth.org/uk/resources/articles/2008/louis-berkhof-1873-1957/, last accessed April 10, 2026.

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof”: “During those four decades the globe was embroiled in two world wars. Liberalism and the social gospel dominated the theological scene before the First World War. In the United States, fundamentalism was the major conservative reaction to those trends. . . . Berkhof and Calvin Seminary vigorously maintained the heritage of Reformed theology, especially as it was developed in the Netherlands by Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. . . . After its fragile beginnings as a denomination in 1857, the Christian Reformed Church had remained small and paid little attention to its American environment. But during the 1880s immigrants from the Netherlands, the Berkhofs among them, swelled the size of the church so that by 1900 the denomination had increased by almost 500 percent in the number of its families, individual members, and ministers. The size of its congregations, largely rural, grew significantly, and the total number of congregations increased from 39 to 144. Yet almost a third of those congregations were without a regular minister in 1900. One of the tasks of Berkhof and his colleagues was to confront the demands of Americanization while they instructed their students in the precious Reformed heritage, which they were convinced was relevant to all areas of life in America as well as in the Netherlands.”

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof”: “In 1893 he [Vos] left for Princeton Theological Seminary, where he pioneered in the development of biblical theology from a Reformed perspective. Berkhof studied Vos’s syllabi on dogmatics before going to Princeton. Vos’s Teaching of Jesus concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church must have been of special interest to him…. In later years Berkhof claimed that his insight into Reformed theology was more indebted to Vos than to anyone else.”

For a very small sample, see his articles in Calvin’s early theological journal: “Disillusionments of Modernism,” The Calvin Forum 2: no. 3 (1936): 59-60; and “Calvinistic Training in a Disillusioned World,” with part 1 in The Calvin Forum 10: no. 1-2 (1944): 9-13; and also part 2 continued in The Calvin Forum 10: no. 3 (1944): 40-42.

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof.” Here Klooster points to Carl F. Henry’s book, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Eerdmans, 1947), which served as a critique of conservative Christianity’s relative inaction toward social problems of the world, causing her to lose her cultural impact.

Louis Berkhof, The Church and Social Problems (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans-Sevensma, 1913), Logos edition, 16. As

Thomas, “Louis Berkhof.”

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof.”

Zwaanstra, 167.

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), Logos edition, p. 1490.

Ibid.

Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Expanded Edition (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2023).

Henry Bultema, Maranatha: Eene Studie Over de Onvervulde Profetie (Maranatha: A Study Concerning Unfulfilled Prophecy) (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans-Svensma, 1917).

Gayle Doornbos, “Defining Decade: 1918-1928” (class lecture, 5584O CRC History, Calvin Theological Seminary, Online Course, Winter 2026).

Zwaanstra, 160. For a more detailed breakdown of Berkhof’s four objections, see Zwaanstra, pp. 159-61

Ibid., 161.

Thomas, “Louis Berkhof.”

Klooster, “Louis Berkhof,” citing Berkhof’s pamphlet: De Drie Punten in Alle Deelen Gereformeerd (The Three Points in All Parts Reformed) (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1925).

Christian Reformed Church in North America, “Common Grace,” https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/position-statements/common-grace, accessed April 11, 2026.

For an example of critique, see Henry Blacketer, “The Three Points in Most Parts Reformed: A Reexamination of the So-Called Well-Meant Offer of Salvation,” Calvin Theological Journal, 35 (2000): 37-65.

For an example of support, see John Bolt, “Common Grace, Theonomy, and Civic Good: The Temptations of Calvinist Politics,” Calvin Theological Journal, 35 (2000): 205-237.

Zwaanstra, 167-68. “Berkhof established a theological reputation in America almost exclusively through the publication of Systematic Theology. An Eerdmans advertisement stated that since the death of Warfield, Hodge, Kuyper, and Bavinck, Professor Louis Berkhof occupied a unique place in the world of Reformed dogmatics. His Systematic Theology was unequalled by any contemporary treatise in the English language. . . . In addition to Calvin Seminary many other conservative American theological schools and Bible colleges have used Berkhof's Systematic Theology as a textbook for instruction. Berkhof's Systematic Theology brought him international recognition as a Reformed theologian. English editions of his work have been sold in Australia, Canada, South Africa, England, and other European countries. This work has also been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese” (p. 168).

Zwaanstra, 167.

Ibid.

Ibid., 168.

Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 592.

Ibid., 18.

Thomas, “Louis Berkhof.”

Ibid.

Henry Zwaanstra, “Louis Berkhof,” in David F. Wells, ed., Reformed Theology in America: A History of Its Modern Development (Grand Rapids, MI : Eerdmans, 1985), pp. 153–71; 154.

Ibid.