Dr. Cal Seerveld

Dr. Calvin Seerveld was born and raised in the fishing village of West Sayville, Long Island, New York. After study at Calvin College (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.A.) he became a Fulbright student to the Netherlands. He did graduate study in Holland, Basel, Switzerland, and the University of Rome for 5 years, and received his Ph.D. in philosophy and comparative literature from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam.

He was among the original faculty at Trinity Christian College (Chicago), teaching philosophy there from 1959-72. Appointed to the chair of philosophical aesthetics at the graduate Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, he taught there from 1972-95 when he was emeritated. He has lectured in many places and continues to write both academic and popular articles in the area of theoretical aesthetics and methodology of art historiography.  A fairly new book is Voicing God's Psalms (2005, with CD).  Other publications are How to read the Bible to hear God speak (2003), Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves, Alternative steps in understanding art (2001). There has also appeared a Seerveld Reader entitled In the Fields of the Lord (2001), edited by Craig Bartholomew, which contains many of Seerveld's lectures and shorter writings over the past years.  An earlier book Rainbows for a Fallen World has been reissued (1980/2005).

He is husband to the Dutch-born Ines Cecile Naudin ten Cate, who speaks several languages and is a very patient woman. They live in Toronto. They have three children, Anya, Gioia and Luke, who keep occupied respectively with massage therapy and orthotics, long-term care chaplaincy, and cinema/video production. They have three grandchildren living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and San Carlos, California.