Background
Bouma was born Klaas Bouma in the Netherlands in 1891 as the son of Doeke Bouma and Trijntje de Jong.
Bouma was born Klaas Bouma in the Netherlands in 1891 as the son of Doeke Bouma and Trijntje de Jong.
He went on to earn his Master of Arts (1919) from Princeton University, and his Doctor of Theology (1921) from Harvard Divinity School.
The family immigrated to the United States in May 1905. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (1917) at Calvin College, and his Bachelor of Divinity (1918) at Princeton Seminary, where he was awarded the Gelston-Winthrop Fellowship in Apologetics. After briefly serving as a pastor in the Summer Street Christian Reformed Church in Passaic, New Jersey, Bouma joined the faculty at Calvin Theological Seminary in 1924.
His first role was as Chair of Dogmatics, but shortly thereafter moved to a new role as Chair of Apologetics and Ethics.
He was succeeded in Dogmatics by Louis Berkhof, author of Systematic Theology. In 1935, he became the editor of The Calvin Forum, and continued to serve in that role the rest of his career.
Bouma also served for one semester in 1940 as visiting professor at Gordon College and Divinity School. Bouma was influential in the 1942 formation of the National Association of Evangelicals, and in 1949 was elected the first president of the Evangelical Theological Society.
He was a member of the Reformed Ecumenical Synods of 1946 and 1949.