DR. ALBERT M. WOLTERS shaped the minds of young Christian learners at Redeemer University for 24 years, and now his personal library will continue this legacy. His books, sermon manuscripts, letters and more have found their home in the new H. Evan Runner Reading Room at the university. Redeemer staff and faculty are excited to take full advantage of the collection’s resources, which are ideal for neo-Calvinist scholarship, through class visits, student-curated displays and conferences.
The H. Evan Runner Reading Room, which opens March 27, also houses the personal collection of Dr. Cal Seerveld. The university views these collections as a foundation for what will develop into a rich archive of neo-Calvinist thought specifically from Canada and around the world. A Canadian Neo-Calvinism Archives website is also under development that will contain digitized materials from the collections.
Wolters was recently celebrated at a Redeemer event recognizing the 40th anniversary of the publication of Creation Regained. This world-renowned book was born out of a compilation of lectures Wolters gave in the 1980s at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto aiming to clearly and succinctly explain the
Reformed Christian worldview. The book has since been translated into 12 languages.
In a Resound story introducing the newly named Albert M. Wolters Centre for Christian Scholarship at Redeemer in 2022, Wolters had this to say about Creation Regained: “Its success has taken me completely by surprise. In retrospect, I think what made it attractive to many people was the simplicity and clarity of its language, and its explicit grounding in Scripture throughout. I wanted to show that the worldview of neo-Calvinism, which is the subsoil of the Reformational philosophy of Dooyeweerd and others, has direct roots in the Bible. At the same time there has been a growing interest among Christians worldwide in the neo-Calvinist vision of faithful cultural engagement, and Creation Regained has functioned as an accessible introduction to that tradition. It has been a source of deep gratification for me to learn that many people have said: ‘This book has changed my life.’
I wanted to show that the worldview of neo-Calvinism, which is the subsoil of the Reformational philosophy of Dooyeweerd and others, has direct roots in the Bible.
There is much that visitors can learn about Wolters from exploring the materials in his collection. The items arrived neatly organized into his areas of interest with each item labelled with his name, the date and the location where he obtained it. His unique interests include the Dead Sea Scrolls, Zechariah (about whom he wrote a commentary), Plotinus (the third-century founder of Neoplatonism), Reformational philosophy, Dooyeweerd, Bavinck, and dictionaries and fiction in many languages (he knows 12). The collection also includes several items of particular significance. Wolters generously donated a Geneva Bible from 1594, which predates the King James Version. Archivist Brandon Swartzentruber says it’s the
oldest book in the Peter Turkstra Library. “It’s the Bible Shakespeare would have been using. We’re very grateful [Wolters] gave this to us.”
Another priceless item in the collection is a letter written in Dutch in 1948 by Wolters’ father. He was writing to family members who had already immigrated to Canada from The Netherlands. In it he describes what it was like living in Nazi-occupied territory. Wolters’ parents hid a Jewish family in their attic during the war. None of the children knew about it except for Al, who was only three years old at the time. The letter includes an English translation.
These and many other items are now preserved in the H. Evan Runner Reading Room within Redeemer’s Peter Turkstra Library, which is fitting for a number of reasons. Wolters’ in-person dedication and commitment to Redeemer students for so many years can now continue through the fascinating materials
of this important neo-Calvinist scholar’s collection. H. Evan Runner, for whom the room was named, also had a significant influence on Wolters and his decision to commit his life to Christ and pursue Christian scholarship. It was at Calvin College in the early 1960s that Wolters, then a self-proclaimed agnostic, studied under Runner and his life was changed forever.