Dordt University is pleased to announce the recipients of the Lambertus Verberg Prize for Excellence in Kuyperian Scholarship, one of the largest scholarships made available to Dordt students. Vincent Keane, a sophomore theological studies major from Staten Island, New York, placed first. He will receive a one-year $15,000 scholarship.
Dordt University is pleased to announce the recipients of the Lambertus Verberg Prize for Excellence in Kuyperian Scholarship, one of the largest scholarships made available to Dordt students.
Vincent Keane, a sophomore theological studies major from Staten Island, New York, placed first. He will receive a one-year $15,000 scholarship.
Trygve Bulthuis, a sophomore economics and philosophy double-major from Rock Valley, Iowa, placed second. He will receive a one-year $10,000 scholarship.
Honorable mentions went to:
Keane’s winning essay is entitled “Unity in the Church across Traditions: How Abraham Kuyper’s Ecclesiology Helps Further Contemporary Ecumenical Engagement between Protestants and Catholics.” Bulthuis’s essay is “Kuyper in the Postmodern World: Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism and Postmodern Philosophy.”
Keane and Bulthuis will present their essays at the annual Kuyper Conference, held this year at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in early April.
Professor of Business Administration and Criminal Justice Donald Roth, who is also co-director of the Kuyper Honors Program, says he continues to be impressed by the quality work that students do for this competition. “It reaffirms our initial vision to leverage generous donor support to inspire the next generation of neo-Calvinist scholars,” he says. “We are so excited to see how this effort continues to grow and develop.”
Receiving first place has inspired Keane to keep working hard toward reaching his goal of attending graduate school. “I loved the process of researching and writing for the Verberg Prize and look forward to any similar task during my time at Dordt,” he says.
Throughout the research and writing process, Keane learned that “one doesn’t have to agree with everything a theologian or any figure says for them to be beneficial.”
“I also learned that being charitable and loving in ecumenical dialogue is something that needs to be lived out consciously every day as we relate to brothers and sisters in Christ from diverse ecclesial traditions. We are much more in agreement than we can sometimes think,” he adds.
Bulthuis says receiving the Verberg Prize provided him with a sense of validation that he is “pursuing the correct subject area and that my future academic goals of attending graduate school are, at least, possible.”
“This scholarship allows students to take their classroom learning and make it their own,” Bulthuis says.
The Lambertus Verberg Prize for Excellence in Kuyperian Scholarship is funded by an estate gift from Rimmer and Ruth de Vries, in memory of Rimmer's great-grandfather, who settled in Sioux Center, Iowa, in the 1890s.
About Dordt University
As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Located in Sioux Center, Iowa, Dordt is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by U.S. News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal, Times Higher Education, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review.
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