"Son of Secession" is a challenge to our understanding of thistorical origins of the Christian Reformed Church as well as the church today.Janet Sjaarda Sheeres has given us a moving, sympathetic and exciting biography of Douwe Vander Werp, one of the key figures in the Netherlands "Afgescheiden" of 1834 and a principal minister in the early development of the Christian Reformed Church. Vander Werp was a man zealously committed to his understanding of God's Word and it implications for his life, even when it required the painful sacrifice of three secessions. Sheeres's sociological observations add interesting insights into Vander Werp's fascinating and fractious times.