Philippus Jacobus Hoedemaker
Philippus Jacobus Hoedemaker (1839–1910) was a leading figure in the tumultuous late-19th to early-20th century Dutch politico-ecclesiastical landscape. Early life Born in 1839 into a Separated Reformed ("Afgescheiden Gereformeerde") church family – although his subsequent career would be conducted within the "Hervormd" national church – Hoedemaker spent his teen and early-college-age years in the United States, where his family moved in 1852. He studied theology for three years at the Congregationalist College in Chicago (again noteworthy considering his future ecclesiastical orientation), during which time he supported himself by preaching, for which, it was acknowledged on all sides, he had a gift. Hoedemaker returned to Europe in 1861 to complete his education, in 1867 graduating magna cum laude from Utrecht University with a doctorate in divinity, by virtue of a dissertation entitled Het Probleem der Vrijheid en het Theïstisch Godsbegrip [The Problem of Freedom and the Theistic Concept of God] (Amsterdam, H. Höveker, 1867). In the dedication he makes mention of a surprise figure, Ralph Waldo Emerson. First, he quotes him: Profounder, profounder mans [sic] spirit must dive, To his aye rolling orbit, no goal will arrive, The heavens which now draw him, with sweetness untold Once found, for new heavens