Gerrit Cornelis "G.C." Berkouwer was for years the leading theologian of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN). He occupied the chair in systematic theology of the Faculty of Theology, Free University (VU) in Amsterdam.

The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was the second largest Protestant church in the Netherlands and one of the two major Calvinist denominations along with the Dutch Reformed Church since 1892 until being merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) in 2004. The PKN is the continuation of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.