Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader.
Hall, David W.
Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader
Edited by James D. Bratt
Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998, 498 pp.
Creating a Christian Worldview:
Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism
Peter S. Heslam
Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998, 300 pp.
For too long, the English-speaking world has been without easy
access to the abundant corpus of Abraham Kuyper. Publishings spawned by
this year's centennial commemorations of his Stone Lectures at
Princeton, however, remedy that lacuna. Two outstanding volumes have
been released in the past year that will end that theological drought.
Prior to 1980, besides Kuyper's devotional works (To Be Near
to God and The Work of the Holy Spirit) and the massive Principles of
Sacred Theology, only a few selections by Kuyper were widely available.
Although Kuyper's 1898 Lectures on Calvinism were released earlier
(1931), copies were often difficult to locate. The year 1991 saw the
reissue of his The Problem of Poverty, formerly Christianity and the
Social Question, and translations of selections on science and politics.
Yet, prior to 1998, it would have been difficult to provide
English-language texts for studies on Kuyper's own voluminous
works--a corpus comprising 223 separate publishing entries exclusive of
his newspaper editorials. With these two new books, classes on
Kuyper's thought and Christian worldview now have adequate primary
sourcing.
James Bratt and Peter Heslam have provided two very different books
that work well in tandem. Bratt's volume contains primary resource
material that has long been out of print or never before translated. He
has reproduced representative samples from various periods of
Kuyper's writings and also from a variety of disciplines. Bratt
attempts to complement the Stone Lectures (which present the mature
conclusions of "the statesmanlike scholar") with documents
from speeches, newspaper columns, sermons, party speeches, and other
academic addresses to round out more of Kuyper's "nuances of
thought, his pragmatic applications of principle, the contexts of his
thinking, the sources off which he drew," and so forth. He succeeds
in providing the reader with a wide, overdue, and prudent cross-section
of the Kuyper corpus.
Following a short introduction to the context and work of Abraham
Kuyper, James Bratt collects primary source material under the following
rubrics: Beginnings (a narrative of Kuyper's conversion and an
early cultural critique), Church and Theology (including sermons against
modernism and critiques of unorthodox theology of the day), Politics and
Society (with essays on Calvinist political principles and a variety of
political discourses), and Culture and Education (with an essay
clarifying the dangers of evolutionary thought, an epistemology of
common grace, and his 1880 inaugural address at the Free University on
sphere sovereignty). These selections are well-chosen and
representative; already one professor has told me that he had identified
many of these as the most exemplary samples of the Kuyperian
corpus--only heretofore he had to provide his own Dutch translations.
Especially intriguing for their thrust are Kuyper's early
social critique ("Uniformity: The Curse of Modern Life"),
which shows a surprisingly Romantic side of Kuyper; his brilliant
"Modernism: A Fata Morgana in the Christian Domain" (which
could serve as a prophylactic against the seduction of neolatry);
"Common Grace" and "Common Grace in Science" (for
Kuyper's own formulations of his distinctive contribution to
neo-Reformed systemics); and "Evolution," which both skewers
naturalism more than some would expect while also respecting organic
development more than often anticipated.
Most enjoyable for those delivered from what Kuyper called
"politicophobia" are the seminal political essays:
"Maranatha" (the keynote at the formation of the
Antirevolutionary Party); "Our Instinctive Life" (on the
interface of human nature and practical politics); and the champion
piece de resistance "Calvinism: Source and Stronghold of Our
Constitutional Liberties," a straightforward manifesto of the
history and philosophy of Calvinistic political principles.
Regarding technical aspects of Bratt's volume, pictures grace
the book well, the selected bibliography is worthwhile even if short,
footnotes are insightful and reserved, and an index would have been
helpful. Bratt supplies a brief, unobtrusive introduction to each
selection, and occasional sidebars provide useful supplements. This
should become the leading text for studies in Kuyperianism if the
original voice is valued.
Peter Heslam's volume will fill in some of the gaps that
Bratt's primary sources cannot address. Heslam's book is an
excellent analysis of Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism. It is indeed,
as James Bratt assesses, the most comprehensive English treatment
available. Heslam, an Anglican curate and Oxford scholar, has provided a
fine talmud on Princeton's 1898 Stone Lectures. Heslam defends his
choice of Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism as the best exposition of
Kuyperian thought because: (1) it is a summary of Kuyper's thought;
(2) it reflects his peak performance, occurring at the high point of his
career; (3) occurring in a foreign context, it demanded that he
enunciate his findings in universalistic rather than particularistic categories ("it is therefore of singular value ... to interpret
Kuyper's ideas in a context wider than that of the Netherlands
alone"); and (4) it had the greatest international influence.
Heslam has selected the "manifesto of Kuyperian Calvinism" to
exhibit "the most complete, cogent, and visionary expression of
Kuyperian thought."
His intent of analyzing some of Kuyper's motivation is
attained without stretching the textual fabric too thin. Among the other
goals of Heslam's volume are: to explore "the way in which
America and Calvinism were related in Kuyper's thought" (15);
"to contextualize Kuyper's school of thought" (16) within
its international setting; to compare Kuyper's thought with
Calvin's (17); and to provide a sympathetic but realistic appraisal
of Kuyper's life, work, and impact.
Heslam offers three preliminary chapters--the first is an
elaboration of the historical importance of the Stone Lectures, the
second includes a lively biography of Kuyper based on primary sources,
along with pertinent discussions of religious and cultural factors at
the time, and the third sets the Stone Lectures in the context of
American evangelicalism and especially the Princeton tradition.
Heslam's doctoral work that compares Kuyper and Warfield (also
James Orr to some extent) is useful and illuminating at points.
Chapters 4-9 each discuss one of the six 1898 lectures. Each
chapter provides summary, analysis, scholarly documentation, and
perspective. The final chapter discusses the public and academic
reception of the Stone Lectures, and contains Heslam's own
concluding assessments. An excellent bibliography (complemented by the
first chapter's review of the secondary literature) and index round
out this book, which will certainly become a standard for classroom use
and research.
Among the few points that might be disputed: Heslam may have
slightly overstated Kuyper's inclination toward progressivity (e.g., p. 4, especially when compared with his Fata Morgana piece), and
at times may reflect an attempt to tailor an historical figure to modern
contexts. The volume could be strengthened by showing the continuity of
Kuyper's thought with that of Groen van Prinsterer, while the
connection to Burke is noted several times. However, Heslam has not
marred the image of Kuyper in these attempts to render him intelligible
to a later audience. To the contrary, he has provided a very literate
and useful replica. It may even prove that future studies of Kuyper will
be held up against Heslam's icon.
This volume also indicates the pragmatic efficacy of Roman Catholic
and Reformed cooperation in social issues, it accurately displays
Kuyper's philosophy of education (and founding of the Free
University) against the Dutch relief, it explicates Kuyper's
emphasis on the difference palingenesis makes for scientific theorizing,
and it illustrates the affinity between Kuyper and fin de siecle American evangelicalism--a nexus that is frequently overlooked,
minimized, or miscast. Heslam also perceptively notes that differences
of interpretation of Kuyper stem from the interpreter's own choice
to focus primarily on either common grace or antithesis as the core
dynamic of this thought (18). The author has also clarified
Kuyper's limited appreciation for and repudiation of Marxism (99).
Moreover, the enduring significance of Kuyper's views will
remain important, as Heslam suggests, while "postmodern people of
today find much to agree with in Kuyper's critique of modernity,
especially its core beliefs in human progress and autonomy" (ix).
With the ubiquity of the notion of worldview, and with the continuing
need to critique pantheism in modern and future discussions,
Kuyper's thought will remain an important part of the arsenal of
public theologians.
Such analysis of a Dutch Calvinist by a British Anglican must
surely bring a smile to Kuyper in Abraham's bosom as a vindication
of his belief in common grace. It also will become necessary material
for discussions about the future of Calvinism. Both volumes are
contributions that will help unveil one of the most influential hidden
hands of our time.
Review by David W. Hall
Senior Fellow
Kuyper Institute
