Books
Review

How a Dutch Neo-Calvinist Helped Birth an Intellectual Movement

Abraham Kuyper imagined a world fallen yet still infused with the grandeur of a God willing to redeem it.

How a Dutch Neo-Calvinist Helped Birth an Intellectual Movement

How a Dutch Neo-Calvinist Helped Birth an Intellectual Movement

Illustration by Amanda Duffy

Mark Noll, the very image of a careful historian, says that the career of Abraham Kuyper "was as filled with noteworthy achievements as that of any single individual in modern Western history." Either Noll has turned careless, or Kuyper—the turn-of-the-20th-century Dutch theologian, churchman, journalist, and statesman—requires our attention.

Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat (Library of Religious Biography (LRB))

Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat (Library of Religious Biography (LRB))

Eerdmans

499 pages

$32.99

Fortunately, James D. Bratt, professor of history at Calvin College, has been trailing Kuyper for years. Now at trail's end, he has delivered a biography of great significance, particularly for people of faith who are searching for ways to speak decisively in a world that denies faith even as it is embroiled in it.

As the first full English biography of Kuyper, Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat (Eerdmans) reflects the achievements of a generation of influential scholars—including historians Noll and George Marsden and philosophers Nicholas Wolterstorff and Alvin Plantinga among, literally, dozens. As such, it bears witness to the force and vitality of Kuyper's revisioning of the Calvinist tradition, often called simply "neo-Calvinism" (without which an institution like Calvin College would not exist). Indeed, the historian James Turner calls neo-Calvinism the "decisive influence" on what he terms the "evangelical intellectual revival" of the past three decades.

So what did Kuyper do? More important, what did he believe? For both questions, Bratt is an invaluable guide, with a sprightly, erudite style and a sharp grasp on Kuyper's sprawling career and writings. To be clear, this is anything but a heroic gloss; Bratt's Kuyper is prescient, canny, profound, and flawed. But above all, he is significant, and Bratt shows us this significance by centering our attention on Kuyper's public voice.

A Narrow Pathway

Born in 1837 to a pastor in the national Dutch Reformed Church, Kuyper earned his doctorate in theology by age 26. After a short time in the pastorate, he made his way from theological liberalism to "orthodox Calvinism as a firm rock in a stormy world." Kuyper's alert, searching engagement with this world made possible his renewal of Calvinism in the Netherlands and beyond. Bratt writes that by the mid-19th century, "Reformed scholastic language was so outworn and orthodoxy so marginalized that neither its original terms nor its current posture fit the demands of the times." In response, Kuyper took up the task of redefining the terms and altering the posture in a way that would force his nation to contend with Calvinism as not a relic but "a world religion, indeed a world-formative one," capable of spawning a vision of life and grounding a culture.

It was bound to be a narrow pathway, between a private faith guarded for the sake of purity and a public faith diluted for the sake of relevance. Kuyper's theological and intellectual depth, though, enabled him to mark out this way, all the while summoning thoughtful believers to his side. Bratt calls him a "rare combination of first-rate intellectual and first-rate organizer." And everything in his volume supports this claim. Moving from the pastorate to the Dutch parliament by age 35, Kuyper also became the editor of a daily newspaper, De Standaard. From this post, he rallied and educated a movement that would have a transformative impact in the 1870s. Besides ushering in a new denomination, that movement would launch the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), which endured for several decades thereafter. (About 30 years ago, it merged with two other parties that were important to Kuyper's governing coalition.) By 1901, as leader of the ARP, Kuyper would become prime minister, an office he held for four tumultuous years.

Kuyper's vision centered on grace: the special grace of salvation for the elect, and the common grace God elects to give to all. This grace makes possible a full, culture-invading, culture-making witness.

His political vision was worked out over decades, and aimed to impede the centralizing tendencies that capitalism appeared to require. The vision rested upon the notion of "sphere sovereignty": The belief that God created the distinct realms of life—church, education, family, state—to function independently, each ruled by the "ordinances" God had set in place. "It was identifying, celebrating, guarding, and translating those ordinances into action," Bratt notes, "that defined his ultimate purpose in politics." Under Kuyper, the ARP sought to convince the nation of these ordinances and align its policy and law according to them. It was a narrow pathway indeed, yet for a time, the ARP was able to follow it with success, thanks in part to an alliance with Roman Catholics seeking to "restore a Christian Netherlands."

Yet even as he was proceeding in this Christianizing direction, Kuyper also deeply believed in the need for "principled pluralism": for a public square where diverging parties were "operating from their own convictions while respecting those of others." Kuyper hoped that dynamic, corporate Christian witness would foster the conditions in which Western nations might redeem the promise of modernity—improved material conditions, enlarged democracy—all around the world.

Grace That Endures

Kuyper was a progressive—and a disappointed one. Bratt notes Kuyper's affinity with his American Presbyterian contemporaries, William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson. Both men also "wished not to overthrow the prevailing order but to humanize it." In fact, when Kuyper came to the United States in 1898, he found himself both attracted and repelled. He found hopeful the open religiosity of American politics and politicians. But he disdained the unabashed materialism there. "Your capitalistic classes have too much power," he told reporters. Decentralizing power and dispersing authority was his hope for a truly human life.

Kuyper was stateside to give the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary—later published as Lectures on Calvinism. He sounded what Bratt calls a "revolutionary proposal": that, in Kuyper's words, "all knowledge proceeds from faith of whatever kind," and that "the person who does not believe does not exist." It took some time to find its American audience, but Kuyper's thinking on "worldview" would lay the foundation for the intellectual renaissance among evangelicals.

By the turn of the century, Kuyper had spent decades distilling and developing these insights into a form that was impelling movement of all kinds—cultural, intellectual, political, social. From his teaching at the Free University (which he helped found in 1880 and where he taught until 1901) to his reporting and scholarly writing, he elaborated what Bratt calls his "enduring dream," the hope of a Calvinism refitted for action on the world's stage. Orthodox yet contemporary, it would transcend "mere dogmatic theology" to forge a "'life system' whose 'root principle' branched out into every domain of human life and learning." Kuyper's vision centered on grace: the special grace of salvation for the elect, and the common grace God elects to give to all. This is the grace that makes possible a full, culture-invading, culture-making witness.

Kuyper himself often fell short of this standard. Bratt describes him as "a great man but not a nice one," plagued by compulsive overworking and a need for control—a man's man in a world beyond any man's control, however valiant, determined, or smart.

But the grace Kuyper proclaimed was grand enough to overcome such excesses and limitations. Kuyper imagined a world fallen yet still infused with the grandeur of a God willing to redeem it, thoroughly and completely. We are still in that world. Thankfully, the grace to which Kuyper so powerfully bore witness is too.

Eric Miller is the author most recently of Glimpses of Another Land: Political Hopes, Spiritual Longing (Cascade Books). He teaches history and the humanities at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Easter Wings

Cover Story

National Tragedy and the Empty Tomb

If the Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage, What Next?

Testimony

Antidote to Poison

Suffering Servants

The Hope Roaster

Excerpt

Taking Action Through Radical Kindness

The Mystery of Original Sin

News

First Language First

Conversion Confusion

The Trouble with Cussing Christians

Knowing What the Bible ‘Really’ Means

News

Is Concern Over the Rise of the 'Nones' Overblown?

My Top 5 Books on Singleness

Rick Warren's Final Frontier

News

Is 'Incoherent' Christianity Better Than None at All?

News

Black Churches' Missing Missionaries

Letters to the Editor

Notes from Newtown

Review

So All May Learn

Quick Takes

Wilson's Bookmarks

The Way We Give Now

News

Gleanings

News

Go Figure

News

Quotation Marks

News

Passages

Girls Talk

News

No GRACE in Sexual Abuse Investigation of Missionary Kids

Editorial

A Pope for All Christians

News

Quitting Time: The Pope Retired. Should Your Pastor?

The Man Who Birthed Evangelicalism

View issue

Our Latest

Ethics Aren’t Graded on a Curve

President Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden was wrong, and no amount of bad behavior from Donald Trump changes that fact.

News

UK Christians Lament Landmark Vote to Legalize Assisted Dying 

Pro-life faith leaders say Parliament’s proposed bill fails to protect the vulnerable and fear it will “create more suffering and chaos.”

Strike Up the Band: Sixpence None the Richer Goes Back on Tour

With its perennial hit “Kiss Me” still in our ears and on our playlists, the Christian band reunites with nothing to prove.

Christianity Today’s Book of the Year

Two volumes rose to the head of the class.

The Christianity Today Book Awards

Our picks for the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.

The Bulletin

Matrescence with Lucy Jones

 

The Bulletin welcomes Lucy Jones for a conversation with Clarissa Moll on the neuroscience and social transformation of motherhood. 

Testimony

I Demolished My Faith for ‘My Best Life.’ It Only Led to Despair.

Queer love, polyamory, and drugs ruined me. That’s where Jesus found me.

The Book Screwtape Feared Most

Once a bedrock Christian classic, Boethius’s “Consolation of Philosophy” has been neglected for decades. It’s time for a revival.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube