KUYPER, ABRAHAM (1837-1920)
Theologian and statesman of the Netherlands
Widely recognized as historian, theologian, philosopher, writer, and professor-educator, Kuyper was born in Maassluis, the son of a State Church (Reformed) pastor, later to accompany his family to the university town of Leyden, where his father accepted a charge. In 1862 Kuyper was awarded the doctor of theology from Leyden University.
Having fully embraced orthodox Calvinism, Kuyper held pastorates in Utrecht, Amsterdam, and elsewhere. Prompted by his interest in the legitimacy of private schools, he became affiliated with the Anti-Revolutionary Party (opposition to godless revolution and support for the Word of God and its implications for life), ultimately becoming its head. He edited a weekly, De Heraut (The Herald), “for a free church and a free church school in a free land,” as well as a daily party organ, De Standaard (The Standard).
Beginning in 1874, Kuyper served repeatedly as a member of one or the other of the two houses of the Netherlands’ legislature. He continued to champion the recognition of private education (common and higher) by government. On October 20, 1880, through the work of Kuyper and cofounders, the Amsterdam Free University was opened, dedicated to a Calvinistic orientation, a tribute to Kuyper’s persistence in striving for the right of private higher education in the Netherlands.
In 1886 he led the break from the State Church, establishing the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. Kampen became the seminary of the denomination. Kuyper’s close association with Herman Bavinck, professor of systematic theology at the seminary, came during this period. In 1901 Kuyper became prime minister of his homeland, a position he held for four years.
Kuyper’s copious writings include some 16,800 Standard editorials, nineteen major convention addresses, sermons, Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology (1898), Calvinism (1899), and The Work of the Holy Spirit (1900). P.Veltman
J. D. Douglas, Philip Wesley Comfort and Donald Mitchell, Who’s Who in Christian History, Illustrated Lining Papers. (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1997, c1992).
After three-quarters of a century, Dr. Abraham Kuyper's exhaustive study of the work of the Holy Spirit — now available for the first time in a paperback edition — still stands undiminished as a comprehensive Protestant statement about a central but much-misunderstood part of the Christian faith. / “I have made an effort,” Dr. Kuyper writes in his preface, “to represent the work of the Holy Spirit in its organic relations, so that the reader may survey the entire domain. And in surveying, who is not surprised at the ever-widening dimensions of the work of the Holy Spirit in all the things that pertain to God and man?” / The 123 brief sections that make up this work first appeared in the Heraut, a Dutch religious weekly of which Dr. Kuyper served as editor. So it is that this profound exposition is lucidly written in the language of the ordinary people for whose spiritual growth he was deeply concerned. / “Brings together the material belonging to this great topic with a systematizing genius that is very rare, and presents it with a penetrating appreciation of its meaning.”—from the introduction by B. B. Warfield / Few men of his era accomplished as much in as many diverse areas of human life as Abraham Kuyper. When he died at 82 in 1920, he was on of the Netherlands' most famous citizens. As pastor, educator, author, editor, and politician, he was tireless in his efforts to apply the Christian faith to every department of life, and thus earned the esteem of his countrymen and the respect of many beyond the borders of Holland. He was the founder of the Free (Reformed) University of Amsterdam in 1880, and served from 1901 to 1905 as Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality . . . it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence." The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism." This treasure of inspiration is supplemented with a complete index of Scripture texts.
After three-quarters of a century, Dr. Abraham Kuyper's exhaustive study of the work of the Holy Spirit — now available for the first time in a paperback edition — still stands undiminished as a comprehensive Protestant statement about a central but much-misunderstood part of the Christian faith. / “I have made an effort,” Dr. Kuyper writes in his preface, “to represent the work of the Holy Spirit in its organic relations, so that the reader may survey the entire domain. And in surveying, who is not surprised at the ever-widening dimensions of the work of the Holy Spirit in all the things that pertain to God and man?” / The 123 brief sections that make up this work first appeared in the Heraut, a Dutch religious weekly of which Dr. Kuyper served as editor. So it is that this profound exposition is lucidly written in the language of the ordinary people for whose spiritual growth he was deeply concerned. / “Brings together the material belonging to this great topic with a systematizing genius that is very rare, and presents it with a penetrating appreciation of its meaning.”—from the introduction by B. B. Warfield / Few men of his era accomplished as much in as many diverse areas of human life as Abraham Kuyper. When he died at 82 in 1920, he was on of the Netherlands' most famous citizens. As pastor, educator, author, editor, and politician, he was tireless in his efforts to apply the Christian faith to every department of life, and thus earned the esteem of his countrymen and the respect of many beyond the borders of Holland. He was the founder of the Free (Reformed) University of Amsterdam in 1880, and served from 1901 to 1905 as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Source
Lectures on Calvinism offers a timeless exploration of the theology and thinking of key reformer John Calvin.
These six classic lectures by distinguished scholar Abraham Kuyper on the key figure in Reformation theology were delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898. Kuyper introduces Calvinism as a life-system, discussing its relationship to religion, politics, science, and art. According to Kuyper, Calvinism seeks to unify the cosmos under universal laws. For instance, he states that predestination proves that a set of laws exists to govern the world, and science is merely trying to figure them out. Kuyper defends Calvinism in the realm of art as well, providing a thorough and elegant explanation of this outlook on life. The collection is called Lectures on Calvinism and not lectures on Christianity because Kuyper believed that Calvinism most truthfully and most completely articulates the Biblical Christian faith.
KUYPER, ABRAHAM (1837-1920)
