“Cornelius Van Til and the Reformation of Christian Apologetics” by K. Scott Oliphint
It would be difficult to overstate the primary and radical significance that the late Professor Dr. Cornelius Van Til has had on Reformed thinking. To have the opportunity to contribute to this volume will rekindle memories of my discussions and correspondence with Dr. Van Til as he personally, and through his writings, reformed without my own thought.
Dr. Cornelius Van Til was born in the Netherlands in 1895. When he was ten years old, his family came to the United States and settled among the Dutch immigrants on a farm in Indiana. Van Til graduated from Calvin College, Princeton Theological Seminary and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University. After teaching apologetics for one year at Princeton Theological Seminary, he left to become one of the founders of Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929 where he taught apologetics for forty seven years. Dr. Van Til went to be with Christ on April 17, 1987. Having left us physically, his influence will remain in the church until Christ comes again. No one since Thomas Aquinas has had such an enormous impact on Christ’s church in the area of apologetics. Van Til, like Augustine and Calvin, has pressed the claims of Christ on His Church in a way that cannot be ignored by serious students of theology. …