How to encapsulate Jay van Hook? How to display for public admiration the essence, van Hook in himself, the ding an sich? It seems appropriate to begin by quoting from an essay in The Banner by Harry Boer entitled "First Tango At Calvin" (an event in which Jay may well have been involved): "When notable men and women retire from professional life they usually fade out of the public eye until the occasion of their death. Then in greater or lesser degree, note is taken of the life they have lived, the achievements that earned them attention, and their effect on society." Happily, van Hook yet lives and indeed exhibits no propensity to fade. We sum him up not post facto but in mid-course, seeking to send him on with a flurry of well-earned praise.
We could of course retrace his philosophical
trajectory, examining the formative influences of such philosophical mentors
as Harry Jellema, Paul Oskar Kristeller, John Hermann Randall, E. P. Mahoney,
Alvin Plantinga and Wamba-dia-Wamba, noting the curious and intricate routes
by which his unique intellectual vision evolved, culminating in his own
distinctive contribution to the philosophical conversation of humankind.
We could praise his readiness to forgo the accoutrements of philosophical
conformity, his sensitivity to the prophetic voices on the edges of respectability,
to Jacques Ellul, Richard Rorty and Jack Caputo, his readiness always and
everywhere to enliven faith with skepticism, dogma with deconstruction.
I could recount vignettes from his philosophical career: forcing the 'Reformed
epistemologists' to encounter the Great Pumpkin, biting the bullet on my
reductio ad absurdums: "Well, I guess cats do have immaterial souls
after all!" or making us consider the possibility that it really is turtles
all the way down.
We must remark also on the effects of his long excursion into African philosophy, a quest undaunted by the possible non-existence of its prey. Like the African sage philosophers whose wise sayings are treasured by the tribe and passed on down the generations, van Hook's sayings - brief, pungent, enigmatic - no grand metanarrative for him, no system building, no 'ifs and only ifs' - are captured for posterity's edification in The Beacon's 'Campus Quotes.' And again following in the tradition of those African wise men known for making frequent perilous trips to distant locales to bring wisdom back to their villages, van Hook sacrificed who knows how many precious moments with his Intro. students, journeying off to remote and risky places like Ann Arbor and Orlando, a more frequent flyer than even the Owl of Minerva.
But on this occasion we must above all ask
where this college would have been over the last quarter century without
van Hook among us, doing his philosophical duty, exercising his penchant
for telling the truth, especially those truths his peers weren't always
disposed to let him get away with saying. We are wont to catalogue
him as a liberal - the only faculty member to have a life-size Hilary Clinton
in his office, not to mention an autographed photo of the first cat, but
beneath that left-leaning veneer lies a true conservative, a man who cares
- and fights - for what is worth keeping. Standing up for the
liberal arts against the inroads of more worldly pursuits, contending for
the depth and dignity of the Reformed tradition against all who would thump
Bibles and sing praise songs, and delivering philosophy from its analytic
trivializers. Without him we fear we'll drift, lacking our moral
ballast.
Florida's comfortable and complacent are already bracing themselves, while here in the home office many of us mentally compose our personal top ten lists of reasons we will miss Jay van Hook. My list would express my gratitude not merely for a colleague who afforded me the opportunity to be the skinniest guy in the philosophy department, but for a colleague who graciously and generously put up with someone whose philosophical, theological, and political ideas he found pretty loony, for a fellow philosophical bachelor who - rumor to the contrary notwithstanding - attended no singles dances but did try each and every special at the Hatchery. Thanks Jay for being a good friend and colleague. Go, as I know you will, in grace and style.
Don Wacome
Professor of Philosophy
Northwestern College
27 April 1999