International Abraham Kuyper Month

Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

October is the month to celebrate all things Kuyperian. If you are not familiar with Kuyper, let me suggest that you get familiar with this important man. As a place to start, here is a quick introduction to his life and work. If you are familiar with Kuyper, then this is a great month to go deeper and learn more from him. 

A brief biography

Abraham Kuyper was born on October 29, 1837 in the Netherlands. He grew up in the Dutch Reformed church and his father was a minister in that denomination. His father educated him when he was young and then Abraham went on to study philosophy, theology, and literature at the university level, graduating summa cum laude.

He became a minister in the Dutch Reformed church but he saw growing corruption there and led a reforming movement and encouraged the separation of the church from the power of the state.

He was elected to parliament in 1874 and began a successful career in politics. He was Prime Minister of Netherlands from 1901 to 1905.

In his work, Kuyper encouraged a strong antithesis between Christianity and other worldly philosophies, especially Modernism and Liberal theology. He also promoted Calvinism and helped develop a deeper understanding of sphere sovereignty for the church, state, and family.

In 1898, Abraham Kuyper was invited by B.B. Warfield to give a series of lectures at Princeton Theological seminary, called the Stone Lectures. In October of that year, Kuyper gave six lectures on Calvinism as a life-system.

Key ideas

To select only a few key ideas from Abraham Kuyper is almost impossible. His theology was as big as the universe. So I will pick three essential ideas and then let the reader pursue the many others out there.

First, the Lordship of Jesus. One cannot understand Kuyper without this key foundation. The famous quote from Kuyper that everyone should know is: “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and 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!'” (Inaugural Lecture, Free University of Amsterdam) Jesus is king right now and He is ruling over it all. There is nothing that escapes His judging eye and His jurisdiction. This is the key principle that drove Kuyper to do so much theologically, philosophically, and politically. 

I am reminded of the quote from Thomas Chalmers: “Regardless of how large, your vision is too small.” Kuyper would agree. Jesus’ plan is world conquest and we have yet to truly grasp that vision. We must dream even bigger than we are.

The second key idea from Kuyper was understanding Calvinism as a life system. Kuyper rightly understood Calvin’s teaching as simply what the Bible taught about the impact of the gospel. In summary, the gospel impacts everything. Kuyper summarized it as reshaping every relationship: our relation to God, our relation to man, and our relation to the world. In our relationship with God, the Bible teaches that there is no mediator between an individual man and God, except for the God-man, Jesus. Kuyper writes, “At every moment of our existence, our entire spiritual life rests in God Himself” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 21). Based on this foundational relationship, Kuyper then drives to the second point: “… [we] have no claim whatsoever to lord over one another, and that we stand as equals before God, and consequently equal as man to man” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 27). From this flows the third principle, our relation to the world: “…the recognition that in the whole world the curse is restrained by grace, that the life of the world is to be honored in its independence, and that we must, in every domain, discover the treasures and develop the potencies hidden by God in nature and in human life” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 31).

The last key idea from Kuyper springs from these previous ones: spheres of authority. In looking at these spheres, we see that Kuyper was not an egalitarian. He understood that God has established authorities in the world and this is to maintain good order. Kuyper taught that there are three key governments: Family, Church, and State. These three assume the foundation of self-government which requires that each man must submit directly to Jesus’ lordship. The Family is set apart to care for the physical needs of reproduction, food, clothes, shelter, and education. The Church is set apart to care for the spiritual needs of teaching and preaching the word of God and administering the sacraments. The State is set apart to defend its people and punish evil. These are established so that each one does its own work but also provides accountability to the others. The state needs to focus on its tasks and not overreach into the others, e.g. administer the sacraments. Nor can the family play the church or vice versa. Each sphere has its own authority and role to play in society.

With these key ideas in place, one can dig deeper into Kuyper’s philosophy and theology. There is much to study and learn here. Over the month of October, I will post a short series on Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. Below are some selected quotes to whet your appetite for more Kuyper.

Selected Quotes

“Calvinism has liberated Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England, and in the Pilgrim Fathers has provided the impulse to the prosperity of the United States” (Lectures on Calvinism, 14-15). 

“Finally Modernism, which denies and abolishes every difference, cannot rest until it has made woman man and man woman, and, putting every distinction on a common level, kills life by placing it under the ban of uniformity” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 27).

“Hence the curse should no longer rest upon the world itself, but upon that which is sinful in it, and instead of monastic flight from the world the duty is now emphasized of serving God in the world, in every position in life” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 30).

“Only he who personally stands before God on his own account, and enjoys an uninterrupted communion with God, can properly display the glorious wings of liberty” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 49). 

“Only where all priestly intervention disappears, where God’s sovereign election from all eternity binds the inward soul directly to God Himself, and where the ray of divine light enters straightway into the depth of our heart–only there does religion, in its most absolute sense, gain its ideal realization” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 49).

“No man has the right to rule over another man, otherwise such a right necessarily, and immediately becomes the right of the strongest” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 82).

“And however powerfully the State may assert itself and oppress the free individual development, above that powerful State there is always glittering, before our soul’s eye, as infinitely more powerful, the majesty of the King of kings, Whose righteous bar ever maintains the right of appeal for all the oppressed, and unto Whom the prayer of the people ever ascends, to bless our nation and, in that nation, us and our house!” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 90)

“A Calvinist who seeks God, does not for a moment think of limiting himself to theology and contemplation, leaving the other sciences, as a lower character, in the hands of unbelievers; but on the contrary, looking upon it as his task to know God in all his works, he is conscious of having been called to fathom with all the energy of his intellect, things terrestrial as well as things celestial; to open to view both the order of creation, and the ‘common grace’ of the God he adores, in nature and its wondrous character, in the production of human industry, in the life of mankind, in sociology and in the history of the human race” (Lectures on Calvinism, p 125).

“We cannot even say that God created this beauty merely for our amusement. God himself must enjoy beauty” (Wisdom and Wonder, loc 1629).

“For us, all art and all beauty that proceed from nature constitute a prophecy and foreshadowing of that coming glory. For us Christians, therefore, art exists in direct connection with our expectations about eternity. With trembling hand, as it were, art reaches out toward the glory that through Christ will one day fill heaven and earth” (Wisdom and Wonder, loc 1852).

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