What does a death on a cross more than 2,000 years ago mean for how we ought to live our everyday lives? For professor of chemistry Dr. Darren Brouwer ’97, this question permeated home life as a child. For his family, salvation was about Jesus’ death and resurrection—but it was also about so much more.

“Every area of our life is touched by the good news of the Kingdom of God—that means your money, the food you buy, the clothes you wear, the car you drive,” he says. “So, there’s this real holistic sense that the Gospel is everything in our lives.”

One of the ways his parents, Dr. Henry and Jane Brouwer, centred family life around the Gospel was by committing themselves to Redeemer University. Over the university’s 42-year history, 21 members of the Brouwer family have worked and/or studied at Redeemer. This includes Dr. Henry Brouwer, professor emeritus of chemistry and environmental science, his five children and 15 of his grandchildren (so far). A significant number of Brouwer students have decided to study the sciences, and many have gone on to graduate studies. This multi-generational commitment has resulted in an unbroken streak of Redeemer involvement.

Pursuing His Calling 

Henry Brouwer immigrated from the Netherlands during his childhood, where he experienced Christian education as being an important part of living a Christian life. His personal spark for faith-based learning was lit while he was in university, where he joined a group on campus that trained students to be Christian academics and scholars. Darren Brouwer describes his father’s deep love for Christian schooling as something that was always evident in the way he lived, with the intersection between education and the Christian worldview being “just the air I breathed growing up.” In 1976, Henry Brouwer became a founding board member of the Ontario Christian College Association, an organization that sought to bring liberal arts Christian higher education to Ontario. In 1982, this vision came to life through the opening of Redeemer University, and in 1985, he was invited to teach at Redeemer. He remained a faculty member until his retirement in 2008. Jane Brouwer was also very active in Christian education, serving on the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools (now known as Edify) board for nine years, six of those years as the chairperson.

But [environmental stewardship] just felt like it was always the right thing to do. A very well thought out, ‘This is what we do as Christians.’

Darren Browuer shares that his father was passionate about environmental issues and “saw deep connections between the Christian faith and caring for God’s world.” From installing solar panels on the roof to prioritizing frugality, he stewarded the family’s resources with care. Henry Brouwer says that he always tried to teach his kids and grandkids science. For example, whenever his family was sitting around a fire, he would quiz them on the three things required for the fire: heat, fuel and oxygen. “I tried to create a sensitivity to the creation,” Henry Brouwer says. His son affirms that this sensitivity was felt deeply: “But [environmental stewardship] just felt like it was always the right thing to do. A very well thought out, ‘This is what we do as Christians.’”

Research as Worship

Over the last two decades, Darren Brouwer has explored a variety of research topics, such as applying machine learning to chemistry and understanding the molecular-level structure of materials. Most notably, he co-leads a research project on campus monitoring water quality in local watersheds in Hamilton, known as the “City of Waterfalls.” This project grew out of a desire to make the labs in his analytical chemistry course more interesting. As he and his students collected and tested the water, they stumbled across problems related to sewage contamination that they have been able to share with important stakeholders such as the City of Hamilton. Redeemer students have continued to monitor the water, providing a unique and important contribution to local conservation efforts.

When we confess that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, he created everything, it helps us see how everything is interconnected.

Like his son, Henry Brouwer was also involved in local water research, working as a volunteer researcher at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters. With the centre, he helped map out the bottom of the Hamilton Harbour, which led to discoveries around common water pollutants. He also taught and developed courses for 15 summers at the Au Sable Institute, an organization that offers environmental field instruction rooted in the Christian faith. He has continued to support student involvement through the The Au Sable Creation Stewardship Bursary he established. He has also applied his inquisitive mind to Redeemer and its facilities, putting forward a proposal in 2016 that helped Redeemer install new cost- and energy-efficient lightbulbs.

Awe and Wonder

For Darren Brouwer, there are two main ways he integrates the Christian worldview into his teaching. First, he encourages a posture of awe and wonder, wanting his students to be “blown away by how God has ordered and structured the universe.” Second, he emphasizes the importance of human responsibility, stewarding well the authority humans have over creation. “Scientific knowledge is power, and we need to be very careful with it,” he explains.

Reflecting on the value of a science education from a Christian perspective, Henry Brouwer says that it helps us understand how God’s creation has structure, pointing to the reality that Christ is Lord over all. 

“When we confess that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, he created everything, it helps us see how everything is interconnected.”