oa Hendrik Kraemer en het réveil in de Hervormde Kerk: 1937-1947

1Zie J.M. van Veen, Een afscheid en een boek, Wending, jrg., 2, no. 10, dec. ’47, biz. 562-567: ‘Kraemer is de man geweest van het réveil der Hervormde Kerk; ...zijn arbeid als kerkelijk “réveilleur” heeft deze tien jaren van 1937-1947 het stempel gegeven’, blz. 563.

The awakening of the Netherlands Reformed Church in the fourties is mainly Kraemer’s personal effort and goes back to his own experience. Moved by God’s reality in the Bible, he never ceased to appeal: fellowship of believers, put yourselves under God’s reality, so He may open your eyes to the needs of the word.

Before W.W. II he saw the tide of secularism coming: man stepping in the centre of history. But western culture and an affluent society have put man into exile, away from the source of life. Calling for an awakening is a contradiction in his ears. That’s why Kraemer has not really been heard.