HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Western Seminary’s former President and Professor of Theology the Rev. I. John Hesselink died Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018.
He was the President of Western Theological Seminary between 1973 and 1985. Following his service as president, he was the A.C. Van Raalte Professor of Systematic Theology at Western until his retirement from the faculty in 1992. He was a beloved figure and frequent visitor to the school, especially for communion on Fridays, until a few weeks preceding his death.
Seminary officials announced the news on Sunday with a Facebook post, saying in part, “He was a giant in Reformed theology and in the life of our school … Please join us in praying for his wife, Etta and their family.”
The responses ranged from simple prayers to warm memories, their comment peppered with such words as “supporting,” “caring,” “remarkable,” “encouraging,” and “calming.”
“I remember him saying that the only feather he expected to find in his eternal crown came from teaching German to Japanese students,” wrote Dave Willerup. “But there are more, I’m sure, for the one who so faithfully clarified and promoted the best of Calvinism, who was the only person to study with both Barth and Brunner, who brought them together to discuss their differences, who inspired hundreds and hundreds of pastors to understand why good theology matters, who helped lead a seminary toward better denominational and ecumenical relations, and whose love for Christ, the church, his family, and his students was so deeply embracing and formative. Thank you, Dr. Hesselink. Thank you.”
One of those Japanese students, Hajime Fujii, wrote, “He was my advisor when I was in Western. Greatly appreciate his passionate teaching on Calvin and warm friendship. I am still his student/Calvinist (a little bit liberal one though). May God comfort Etta-san and his family!”
Doug McClintic remembered Rev. Hesselink as a leader, mentor and friend “during a difficult and formative time in my life, … His life was a model of the integration of missional engagement and theological reflection. He was a man of prayer whose life was formed by both the Scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit. Truly a gift to the Church and to all who knew him.”
Born in Grand Rapids in 1928, Hesselink was the son of a Reformed Church in America minister, and spent much of his youth in Pella, Iowa. He attended Central College in Pella and after a year at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, transferred to Western, where he graduated in 1953.
Upon graduation, he became an RCA missionary in Japan. Over the course of 20 years of missionary service he taught in several Japanese universities and became a friend of the esteemed theologian Emil Brunner, who was also teaching in Japan. In 1961, Hesselink earned a Ph.D. at the University of Basel, Switzerland. His Ph.D. mentor was Karl Barth, perhaps the most significant theologian of the 20 th century. In the early 1960s, Hesselink engineered a reunion between Karl Barth and Emil Brunner, who had become estranged decades earlier. Hesselink also did post-doctoral study at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Chicago, the Free University of Amsterdam, and Oxford University in England.
Hesselink was the author of several books including On Being Reformed: Distinctive Characteristics and Common Misunderstandings (1983) and his final book was Calvin’s Theology and its Reception, which he co-edited with his Western Theological Seminary colleague J. Todd Billings in 2012. Hesselink was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America in 1953 and served as President of the General Synod of the RCA in 1995-1996. He was known as one of the world’s foremost scholars on the life and work of John Calvin, and his knowledge of Calvin brought him a friendship with the Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson, which he enjoyed greatly in the latter years of his life.
“John Hesselink was not only a great mentor and role model,” said Western Theological Seminary President Timothy Brown, “but one of my dear friends as well. I miss him deeply. He possessed an incredibly sharp theological mind and also a very warm and sincere Christian faith. He was a giant in the history of Western Theological Seminary, and a giant in the world of Reformed theology. I treasured my relationship with John.”
Hesselink married his college sweetheart Etta (ter Louw) in 1951. They celebrated their 67 th wedding anniversary in August. He and Etta are the parents of four grown children.
He served as Karl Barth Society of North America’s president. Funeral arrangements, incomplete at this time, are being handled by the Langeland-Sterenberg Funeral Home.
