Building a Tower of Stories
In what was billed as her last lecture as a systematic theology professor at Calvin Seminary, Mary Vanden Berg built a small tower out of stones, setting them atop each other on a table, each one representing some portion of her life.
Friends, family members, colleagues and students filled the seminary auditorium in which she spoke.
As she began her lecture, which was taped and is available on the seminary website, she said, “I want to represent my story through stones,” said Vanden Berg. “These first four stones represent that whatever I say here about my journey, God is the firm foundation under this whole story. His steadfast power and presence is central.”
As she continued her lecture, she added a stones to represent various portions of her life. This included growing up as one of six children whose father was Rev. Wilbur DeJong, a Christian Reformed pastor; her life in college and seminary; the work she has done as a theologian and scholar; and her current thinking on several topics.
Although becoming a systematic theology professor was not on her to-do list as a young woman, she was active in church and deeply involved in the Bible Study Fellowship, an international, lay-led group founded in the 1950s by a missionary to China. “I fell in love with God’s Word,” she said, “especially the Old Testament.” That love eventually led her to Calvin Seminary where she graduated with a Master’s of Theological Study and later, a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology.
She was hired to teach Systematic Theology as she was completing her Ph.D. in 2008. Several years later, Dr. Vanden Berg became the first woman in the 150-year history of the seminary achieve tenure, an important development in the move by women to be able to use all of their talents in a range of positions for the church. “This was not just a personal milestone—it was a communal moment of gratitude and growth,” wrote Jul Medenblik, president of Calvin Seminary. “Mary opened doors and hearts, especially for women discerning a call to theological study and ministry.”
Over the years, said Medenblik, Mary Vanden Berg “has shaped hearts and minds in classrooms here and around the world—including guest teaching in Indonesia and Africa ….In addition to her service at Calvin Seminary, she also taught at Kuyper College and Western Theological Seminary, expanding her ministry’s reach across institutions and continents.”
She has also been an author of many articles that have appeared in a variety of journals and magazines, and spoken in churches and other settings. In 2023, she published Aquinas, Science, and Human Uniqueness: An Integrated Approach to the Question of What Makes Us Human, a book that argues that only human beings are created with the capacities needed to have a personal relationship with their Creator.
As she moves into retirement, Vanden Berg hopes to finish the current book she is working on, have time for herself and her family, and continue her research in theological anthopology, including finitude, sin, and death. She summarizes why she thinks studying humans is important. “Knowing who we are,” she said, “is a steady and sure reminder of whose we are. And knowing whose we are, that is, to whom we belong in life and death, means even when we are shaken or crushed or turn away from God’s light momentarily, we can look to Christ as medicine for our wounds and comfort for our dread, as Calvin writes, knowing that we are securely held in the safe and tender arms of our heavenly Father who loves us more than we could ever know.”
