Willem van 't Spijker

Willem van 't Spijker was born and grew up in Zwolle in a simple and family characterized by sincere piety.[2] He married the daughter of Professor Hovius. In Apeldoorn he studied theology. At the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam he graduated in 1970 with a dissertation titled "The offices of Martin Bucer". After being a minister at Drogeham and Utrecht, he became a professor at the Theological University of Apeldoorn of the Christian Reformed Churches. In 1997 he took leave as a professor, he was succeeded by Herman Selderhuis. In his academic education and in his publications, he specialized in the Reformation period. Internationally, he is a specialist in this period of church history.

He was promoted to knight in the order of the Dutch Lion; he received this distinctio, in particular because of his many publications in the field of ecclesiastical and scientific studies.[3] From the University of Christian Higher Education in Potchefstroom, he received an honorary doctorate in theology. He received this degree, partly because of his extraordinary academic status in national and international context.[4]

• Calvin: A Brief Guide to His Life and Thought, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009
• Calvin: Biografie und Theologie (KIRCHE IN IHRER GESCHICHTE), Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2001, ISBN 9783525523384
• The Ecclesiastical Offices in the Thought of Martin Bucer (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions) (Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava), 1996, ISBN 9789004102538