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The Dutch statesman Abraham Kuyper founded two newspapers, a university, a political party, and a denomination. Nor was he content to start something and then move on to quite a different project. During his career, which lasted from his ordination in the 1860s until his death in 1920, he regularly wrote articles for his newspapers; he taught theology at the Free University; he led his party both as a member of the Dutch Parliament and, for a few years, as prime minister; and he played an active role in the life (and controversies) of the Dutch Reformed churches.

Kuyper visited the United States in 1898, to deliver the Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary. To observe the centennial of that visit, Princeton invited Yale philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff to be this year's Stone Lecturer. Wolterstorff focused his lectures on political thought, describing his views as "in the line of Kuyper." The Princeton event, held this past February, drew an audience of over 300; it also featured two days' worth of seminars (cosponsored with Princeton Seminary by the Free University, Calvin College, and the Center for Public Justice) on Kuyper's thought, with presenters from the United States, Canada, England, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

The influence of Kuyper's thought has long been felt in the Reformed—especially Dutch Calvinist—branch of American evangelicalism, but the Princeton conference displayed a renewed interest in his thought, especially as it applies to contemporary challenges in public discipleship. His views were compared to the Puritan political traditions, the liberal "social gospel" theology, and recent themes in Catholic social thought.

Princeton ethicist Max L. Stackhouse, a principal organizer of the centennial celebration, saw the gathering as an important step in what he described as a "quest for a new public theology that will provide a viable alternative to both liberationism and a laissez faire ideology." Stackhouse, who was once an assistant pastor in a Unitarian congregation, describes himself as a "convert" to Reformed thought. "It happened when I began reading the Puritans," he says; "I now see the Reformed heritage as at the center of future ecumenical thinking about our Christian responsibilities in the world."

Abraham Kuyper also came to Reformed orthodoxy by way of conversion. Entering the pastorate steeped in the liberal theology that he had been taught at the University of Leiden, he encountered parishioners who exhibited a vibrant evangelical faith. One of them, Pietje Baltus, a miller's young daughter, boycotted his worship services because of the content of his preaching. When Kuyper visited her, she refused to shake his hand. Instead of being offended, Kuyper listened carefully. Later he wrote: "I did not set myself against them, and I still thank my God that I made the choice I did. Their unwavering persistence has been a blessing for my heart, the rise of the morning star in my life."

Having embraced evangelical Calvinism, Kuyper ever thereafter placed a strong emphasis on personal piety. In the midst of his busy public career, he wrote hundreds of meditations about the need for the individual believer to turn away from the demands of the active life and retreat into that very private sacred space where the soul is alone with her Maker.

In addition to his celebration of the experience of a Savior's love, he also placed a strong emphasis on the supreme lordship of Jesus Christ over all spheres of creaturely life. Kuyper's followers are fond of quoting the manifesto he issued at the Free University's inaugural convocation: "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry 'Mine!' "

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October 26 1998, Vol. 42, No. 12