Conversion To Christianity
As Rookmaaker was a naval officer, he was interned as a prisoner of war in Stanislau, now Ukraine and later on in Neubrandenburg in northern Germany. In Stanislau he met the Christian philosopher J.P.A. Mekkes who would have a lasting impact on his life. He returned home as a Christian, but was severely tested as his bride-to-be was nowhere to be found. His study of the Old Testament, dedicated to her during the camp years, never reached her. It has been established that Sophia Henriëtte Spetter died in Auschwitz on September 30, 1942. Rookmaaker changed his career and took up a doctoral study in art history. In 1948, through his fiancé and bride-to-be Anky Huitker, he met Francis Schaeffer. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with a very fruitful exchange of ideas. Rookmaaker had a dominant influence on Schaeffer's ideas on art and culture and also introduced Schaeffer to Reformational philosophy.
Rookmaaker's famous saying "Jesus didn't come to make us Christian. Jesus came to make us fully human" formed the central theme of Dick Staub's 2010 book About You.
Read more about this topic: Hans Rookmaaker
Famous quotes containing the words conversion and/or christianity:
“The conversion of a savage to Christianity is the conversion of Christianity to savagery.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death freely chosen, death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully accomplished amid children and witnesses: then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is taking leave is still there; also a real estimate of what one has wished, drawing the sum of one’s life—all in opposition to the wretched and revolting comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)