Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) is one of the most remarkable men in the history of Reformed Christianity. He was eminent in Dutch public life for half a century and left a deep imprint on Dutch immigrant communities in the United States, Canada, and South Africa. A theologian, politician, journalist, university founder, and seminal thinker in the history of modern Calvinism, Kuyper offered an engaging critique of the nineteenth century that still has much to say at the end of the twentieth.
This anthology, published in the centennial year of Kuyper's famous Stone Lectures, gathers sixteen key writings by Kuyper never before available in English. Included in this volume are Kuyper's definitive statements on politics, education, culture, and the religious currents and social problems of his time. Also included are Kuyper's own conversion narrative, his critiques of Modernism and of Holiness theology, his proposals on common grace and Calvinist politics, his reflections on a culture in thrall to pantheism and evolution, and his classic address on "sphere sovereignty."
Freshly translated and rendered in a clear, accessible style, these writings clearly display Kuyper's wide-ranging and creative Christian mind. Editor James Bratt provides helpful explanatory notes and an introduction to each piece. Photographs, cartoons, and short excerpts from some of Kuyper's better-known works also make this an attractive volume that will stand as the premier Kuyper reader for years to come.
Abraham Kuijper, generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a Dutch politician, journalist, statesman and theologian. He founded the Anti-Revolutionary Party and was prime minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905.
In May 1862 he was declared eligible for the ministry and 1863 he accepted a call to become minister for the Dutch Reformed Church for the town of Beesd. Around 1866 he began to sympathize with the orthodox tendency within the Dutch Reformed Church. He was inspired by the simple reformed faith of Pietje Balthus, a farmer's wife. He began to oppose the centralization in the church, the role of the King and began to plead for the separation of church and state.
In North America, Kuyper's political and theological views have had a significant impact, especially in the Reformed community. He is considered the father of Dutch Neo-Calvinism and had considerable influence on the thought of philosopher Herman Dooyeweer
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