mardi, mars 05, 2013

Hans Rookmaaker: Complete Works


 

     It was in a German PoW camp during WW2 that Hans Rookmaaker read the Bible and so got converted. It was there also that he first read Herman Dooyeweerd, who deeply influenced his thinking and so his academic career after the war. Rookmaaker became a History of Art Professor in the Free University of Amsterdam (where Dooyeweerd was Professor of Philosophy of Law). He was also an authority on Blues music. I had the privilege of chauffeuring Hans Rookmaaker around a snowy Scotland on a university art lecture tour in the early 1970s, though I was too young and introvert to ask the questions I would love to ply him with now. Sadly he died unexpectedly in 1977, aged only 55.

     William Edgar, a jazz musician himself (and an editor of recent Cornelius Van Til re-editions), writes of Rookmaaker's musical interests: 
     "Hans Rookmaaker spoke of the great artistry and authenticity of Victoria Spivey, Texas Alexander, Bumble Bee Slim, Blind Willie Johnson, and a host of other founders of classic black music. Not only was Rookmaaker the European editor of Fontana Record's series, Treasures of North American Negro Music, but he had been to America and met Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Langston Hughes. What was the attraction of jazz to this Dutch art historian? For that is what he was during his professional career. He said it often in his lectures and throughout his writings. It put iron into the blood! Discussing his hero, Joseph "King" Oliver, he compares the New Orleans cornetist's orchestral sounds to the music of J. S. Bach. He finds very similar musical qualities in the baroque polyphony of the Brandenburg Concertos and Oliver's Creole Jazz Band from the 1920s. Not only the technical structure, but the mood and atmosphere are similar. Especially, he finds in both of them joy, true joy, not romantic escape. In stark contrast to Theodor Adorno's attacks on jazz, which found it "unruly," "rebellious," and "emasculating," Rookmaaker describes it as orderly, harmonious, and full of vigor. The opposite of joy for him is happiness, or the escapism of those who look for depth in the tragic and ruinous. And the ultimate source of true joy, whether in jazz or any other human expression, is biblical Christian faith, which Bach and Oliver shared." ("Why All This?": Rediscovering the witness of Hans Rookmaaker, William Edgar 2006). (Article available online HERE)
     Hans Rookmaaker writes of Dooyeweerd's influence:
     "In the course of the years [Francis] Schaeffer and I discussed many things, among which philosophy and particularly Dooyeweerd’s philosophy were favourite topics. Dooyeweerd’s ideas have had an influence on Schaeffer and L’Abri in that way. Of course Schaeffer incorporated these ideas in his own thinking and continued on. Neither of us is a slavish pupil of Dooyeweerd. I make quite an effort not to use his difficult terminology, which in a way belonged to the style of the 1930s. So you will not find Dooyeweerd’s vocabulary in our discussions at L’Abri, but his thoughts are there just the same.
     Dooyeweerd himself wrote a good and short introduction to his work called In The Twilight of Western Thought. In the first part of that book he asks the question how Western thought is to be approached. Is it really Christian and if not, what is it? Escape from Reason [Full book free online in French as "Démission de la raison"] is Schaeffer’s version of what Dooyeweerd develops in those chapters. They both talk for instance about nature and grace and about the influence of Greek concepts. Dooyeweerd tries to trace the various ways of thinking in Western history to their starting points. A starting point can be defined as the basic answers that are given to basic questions like: What is the world? Who is God? or What is the source of this world? The answers given to those questions colour the answers that are given to all other questions. The second part of Dooyeweerd’s book deals with a truly Christian approach to reality. Firstly it is basic to such an approach that we begin with a world that is created. Secondly we hold that this world is fallen, it is not perfect. But thirdly we say that this is not the end, there is redemption as Christ came to redeem this world. On the basis of these truths we can try to grasp reality and analyse how this world is made. Dooyeweerd then proceeds to give such an analysis." (Hans Rookmaaker 'A Dutch view of Christian philosophy' The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker edited by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker Vol 6 Part III The L'Abri Lectures. Piquant, 2005)
The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker are available from PIQUANT Editions HERE
(Reduced from £150.00 to £49.99)


CONTENTS:
1. Art, Artists and Gauguin
2. New Orleans Jazz, Mahalia Jackson and the Philosophy of Art
3. The Creative Gift, Dürer, Dada and Desolation Row
4. Western Art and the Meanderings of a Culture
5. Modern Art and the Death of a Culture
6. Our Calling and God’s Hand in History

ALSO, the above Complete Works are available from
PIQUANT Editions on CD-Rom HERE
(Reduced from £20.00 to £2.49)!!
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A full AUDIO: "The Artist Needs No Justification" 
by Hans Rookmaaker can be listened to free HERE
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Download PDF of Hans Rookmaaker's:
"A R T Needs No Justification" HERE
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Faic cuideachd:
Seasick Steve, Dooyeweerd, Rookmaaker, Van Til, Schaeffer
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