Renato Coletto pages
Renato Coletto was born in Padua (Italy) in 1960 and grew up in a Roman Catholic environment. At the age of 16 he became involved with pseudo-evangelical groups of extreme pietist and dualist inclinations and he joined their communes for a few years (which implied severing all ties with family, school and occupation). He joined an evangelical church in 1981, where he was helped adopting a biblical worldview and completing his secondary education. As he continued with informal studies, he came to know the Reformational movement and tried to study and promote its worldview in Padua, especially at the (theological) Istituto di Formazione Evangelica e Documentazione (IFED). In those years he also established contacts with several leading figures of the Reformational movement in different countries, in particular with Prof. JD Dengerink in the Netherlands and Dr S Fowler in Australia. In 1996 he migrated to Potchefstroom, South Africa, where he studied philosophy at the former “Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education” under B J van Der Walt, J J (Ponti) Venter and M E Botha. In 2007 he obtained a PhD with a thesis on "The legitimacy crisis of science in late-modern philosophy: towards a reformational response" (promoted by M E Botha). He is currently professor at the School for Philosophy of the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University, South Africa, and since 2007 he is also a research fellow at its Center for Faith and Scholarship (recently renamed Institute for Foundational Studies). The main focus of his research is on philosophy of science and scholarship and its links with religion/ Christianity. He is married to Melina and has one daughter (Giulia).
All the following texts are electronically available from the author, who can be contacted at renato.coletto<at>nwu.ca.za (replace the <at> by @)
Books
1994. Parole per la scienza: lineamenti per una riflessione sulla scienza in chiave filosofica Cristiana. Padova (unpublished document presented to the Istituto di Formazione Evangelica e Documentazione).
Research articles
2008. The “eclipse” of the object of research in late-modern philosophy of science: causes and possible remedies. Tydskrif vir christelike wetenskap/Journal for christian scholarship, 44(1-2):19-38.
2008 [2007]. Presuppositions and the challenge to objectivity in late-modern philosophy of science: causes and possible remedies. Koers, 72(4):583-602.
2008. When the “paradigms” differ: scientific communication between skepticism and hope in recent philosophy of science. Koers, 73(3):445-467.
2009. The progress of scientific knowledge: evolution, revolution or involution? Tydskrif vir christelike wetenskap/Journal for christian scholarship, 45(1-2):155-174.
2009. Christian scholarship within reformed circles. Acta academica, 41(3):16-41.
2009. Strategies towards a reformation of the theology-based approach to christian scholarship. In die Skriflig, 43(2):291-313.
2009. Theology and philosophy: the controversies concerning their nature and role in the reformational tradition. Tydskrif vir christelike wetenskap/Journal for Christian Scholarship, 45(3):97-115.
2009. Wolterstorff’s critique of the reformational view of scholarship in his essay On Christian Learning. Koers, 74(3):387-407.
2010. Interaction and antithesis in reformational scholarship. Acta academica, 42(1):1-25.
2010. Traces of neo-Calvinism in France and Italy. Koers, (Special Edition: Essays dedicated to Prof. B.J. van der Walt: “Scholarship in the light of the morning star”), 75(1):149-172.
2010. The role of the Bible in reformational philosophy: historical and systematic notes. In die Skriflig. 44(3-4): 545-564.
2011. Towards a theory of presuppositions: kuyperian contributions. Koers, (Special Edition: Festschrift dedicated to Prof. M.E. Botha), 76(1):99-118.
2011. Science and non-science: the search for a demarcation criterion in the 20th century. Tydskrifvir christelike wetenskap/Journal for christian scholarship, 47(1):63-79.
2011. The elaboration of a demarcation criterion in reformational philosophy. Acta Academica, 43(2):41-65.
2015. Kuyper's razor? Re-thinking science-and-religion, trinitarian scholarship and God's eternity. In die Skriflig, 49(1):10 pp. online. http:// dx.doi.org/10.4102/ids. v49i1.1891
2017. Khosrow Bagheri Noaparast and Islamic scholarship: a Calvinist appraisal. Tydskrif vir Christelike wetenskap/Journal for Christian scholarship, 53(special edition);29-55.
2011. Educational associations in the Kuyperian tradition. Woord en daad /Word and action. 50 (Summer, n. 414): 9-12.
2011. Reformational outposts for information and communication. Woord en daad /Word and action 51 (Autumn, n. 415): 29-33.
2011. Neo-Calvinist organisations for farming, business, tourism and so forth. Woord en daad /Word and action 51 (Winter, n 416): 19-24.
2012. Christian organisations: a few concluding reflections. Woord en daad /Word and action.