Jacob Rinzema was born in Groningen on 26 May 1931. He studied theology at the Theological College in Kampen and began his career as a Reformed minister in Onderdendam, Groningen, where he was inducted on 19 August 1956. In 1958, he left the congregation to work as a minister for evangelisation.
In 1959, Rinzema was called by the Reformed Church of Aalten. He was inducted there on 13 September that year. The Reformed congregation in Aalten was large at the time and had several ministerial posts. Rinzema remained there until early 1964.
His years in Aalten were important to his development as a theologian. While serving as a minister there, Rinzema worked on a study of marriage and divorce. In 1961, he obtained his doctorate in theology from the Theological College in Kampen with the dissertation Huwelijk en echtscheiding in Bijbel en moderne samenleving (Marriage and Divorce in the Bible and Modern Society). His doctoral supervisor was Professor G. Brillenburg Wurth.
Remarkably, the dissertation was also published in Aalten, by N.V. Uitgeversmaatschappij De Graafschap. The book ran to 196 pages and appeared not only as an academic dissertation but also as a commercial edition. It marked the beginning of a subject that would recur throughout much of Rinzema’s later work: the relationship between Christian ethics, marriage, sexuality and a changing society.
His publications during the Aalten years also show that Rinzema’s interests extended beyond traditional parish work. In 1963, he wrote in the Gereformeerd Weekblad about the minister in contemporary society. Among other things, he discussed social change, the changing place of the church and the expected shortage of ministers. The article was noticed and discussed beyond the Reformed Churches as well.
In the autumn of 1963, Rinzema accepted a call to Leeuwarden. He left Aalten in early 1964. He had worked there for just over four years, but it was during this relatively short period that he obtained his doctorate and laid the foundations for the field in which he would later become known as an author.
Rinzema continued to publish on marriage and sexuality after leaving Aalten. In 1972, Kok in Kampen published De sexuele revolutie: uitdaging en antwoord. The book also attracted attention outside the Netherlands: an English translation appeared in 1974 under the title The Sexual Revolution: Challenge and Response, translated by the American theologian Lewis B. Smedes.
In 1977, he published Over liefde gesproken. Vragen rond de huwelijks- en gezinsmoraal. Across ten chapters, the book addressed questions concerning love, marriage, sexuality and family life. A reviewer in De Wekker described Rinzema as a minister and ethicist who had already published several works on marriage and sexuality.
His church career continued in the meantime. After Leeuwarden, Rinzema became minister of the Reformed Church in Soest in 1973, with responsibility for the southern district. Ten years later he moved to Utrecht-West, where he was inducted on 26 June 1983 and remained a minister until his retirement on 31 July 1992.
Jacob Rinzema died in Utrecht on 10 April 1994, aged 62. He was buried at Tolsteeg Cemetery in Utrecht on 14 April.