Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper

By Michael R. Wagenman

Christ declares "Mine!" over every square inch of creation.

In his well--known quote, Abraham Kuyper expressed the defining characteristic of his public theology: Jesus' sovereignty extends over all things. He believed Christians should engage the whole world in all of its various spheres. But what does that comprehensive calling practically look like for us today?

In Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper, Michael Wagenman explores the practical application of Kuyper's public theology. Using Kuyper's own life as an example, he shows us how the gospel can permeate all aspects of society: our identity, public discourse, education, the church, politics. Ultimately, this means engaging the world with perceptive truth that's mindful of the dynamics at work in our time and place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781683592433

Michael R. Wagenman

Michael R. Wagenman teaches Christian theology and religious studies at Western University (London, Canada). He earned his PhD at the University of Bristol (UK) and his research seeks to illumine the dynamics of power from the perspective of postmodern continental philosophy and Reformational (Kuyperian) theology. He is the author of Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper (2019) and Together for the World (2016). He is also an adjunct faculty member at Redeemer University (Ancaster, ON) and the Institute for Christian Studies (Toronto, ON).

Book preview

2019

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

When Christians imagine what it means to engage the world or bear witness to Christ, we often think first of personal piety and relational evangelism. These are good and necessary, but is there more?

We live in a church context in North America deeply influenced by a sacred-secular dualism. Many Christians instinctively assume that what really matters to God is church attendance and explicit forms of Christian ministry that are mostly relegated to the margins of our calendars—evenings and weekends. But what does Christ want from us during the working hours Monday through Friday—from the largest part of our life?

North American culture is increasingly secular, especially at the elite levels of society. As a result, Christian faith is becoming more marginalized and Christians struggle to know how to respond. Should Christians engage in some kind of culture war to regain a dominant place in society?¹ Should Christians reject the growing secular culture and retreat into a Christian subculture, disconnected from the public stage?² Should Christians accommodate their historic faith to be more acceptable to non-Christians today? These, and many more options, are hotly debated today.³

Today Christians have an ongoing need for models and mentors of fully formed and engaged Christian faith and life. One dynamic example from recent history that we could still learn much from is Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920).

Kuyper was a Christian leader who engaged his culture—in a fascinatingly wide array of ways—with the single goal of displaying the beauty of Jesus Christ and his relevance to life. He was a brilliant but flawed man. Despite Kuyper’s shortcomings, God used Abraham Kuyper during a key period of Dutch, European, and North American history.

WHO WAS ABRAHAM KUYPER? A SHORT HISTORY

Abraham Kuyper was born on October 29, 1837. His father was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederlandse Hervormed Kerk, NHK). He was the third child and oldest son of the family. He began his studies at the Gymnasium in Leiden when he was twelve. He graduated in 1855 and enrolled at the University of Leiden to study literature where he graduated summa cum laude two years later. The following year he took his qualifying exams in classical languages and letters and on November 24 began studying theology at the University of Leiden.

Less than two years later, Kuyper won an essay competition sponsored by the University of Groningen in which he compares John Calvin’s (1509–1564) and the Polish theologian Jan à Lasco’s (1499–1560) concepts of the church. This became the heart of his doctoral dissertation which he successfully defended in September of 1862. His studies had been interrupted in 1861 by a nervous breakdown due to exhaustion from overwork. In 1862, after defending his dissertation he was admitted into the pastoral ministry of the NHK. The following year he married Johanna Hendrika Schaay (1842–1899) in Rotterdam. Between 1864 and 1882 the couple had five sons and three daughters.

From 1863 to 1874 Kuyper pastored three congregations of increasing cultural significance. He began in the small town of Beesd, then moved to Utrecht in 1867, and finally to Amsterdam in 1870. During these years, Kuyper continued to publish academic volumes while also becoming involved in church and governmental reform through his association with Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801–1876), an influential Dutch aristocrat with similar interests.

In 1869, Kuyper had begun writing articles for the Christian newspaper The Herald (De Heraut). He later became the editor in chief of The Standard (De Standaard) newspaper along with his Amsterdam pastoral duties. Despite the many changes he experienced, these two newspapers would remain a constant part of his life until his dying day. He also began to engage the growing influence of the Enlightenment worldview within the NHK, writing a series of books and pamphlets refuting these ideas. During this time he began to speak publicly, drawing large crowds who resonated with his perspective.

In 1872 Kuyper combined The Herald and The Standard and converted them into a daily national Christian newspaper oriented to current events rather than devotional material. Due to his growing popularity and widespread support among Dutch Calvinists, Kuyper was encouraged to run for public office in 1873, but it was not until the following year that he was elected to the Dutch parliament. He left his pastoral work at that time but continued to serve as an elder in the Amsterdam church council until 1886.

In 1875 Kuyper traveled to Brighton, England, to attend a Christian revival meeting. Initially, he was intrigued by the experience but upon later reflection distanced himself from the enthusiastic individualist revival tradition. The following year he suffered a second case of nervous exhaustion and traveled through Europe until April of 1877 to convalesce. When he returned he received an honorary discharge from the Dutch parliament, devoted himself full time to his newspaper writing and editing, and wrote the foundational document for the creation of a new Dutch political party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), which he also led as party chairman. In 1880, he helped to establish an independent Christian university, serving as its first rector and professor of theology. These tasks monopolized his time and energy until 1886.

In 1886 Kuyper began to experience significant conflict with the leadership of the NHK. That summer, he was deposed from ministry in the NHK and began forming a new, break-away denomination that officially became the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands (Gereformeerde Kerken Nederlands) in 1892. He continued to write for his Christian newspapers, teach at the Free University, and serve as the chairman of the ARP until 1894 when he was re-elected to the Dutch parliament for a second time. Because of his involvement in the Dutch Social Congress of 1891, where he gave the opening address, his time in parliament was devoted to suffrage, labor rights and working conditions, and foreign affairs in the lead-up to World War I.

In 1898, Kuyper made an extended trip to the United States where he received an honorary doctorate from Princeton University, gave the Stone Lectures (which were later published as Calvinism: Six Stone Lectures), and traveled and spoke widely among Dutch immigrant communities. Upon his return to the Netherlands, he was elected (effectively, the first modern) prime minister in 1901 and also served as the Minister for Internal Affairs. His party was defeated in the elections of 1904–1905 (though Kuyper himself remained a member of parliament), and he became a member of the official government opposition. In late 1905, Kuyper embarked on a Mediterranean tour that lasted almost a year. Shortly after his return, he resigned from parliament but took up his former roles as chairman of the ARP and newspaper editor.

In 1908, Kuyper retired as professor from the Free University but was elected for a third time to parliament. His pace of publication even increased during this time, covering a wide range of theological and political topics. In 1912, Kuyper resigned from parliament due to his increased loss of hearing, but the following year he was elected for the first time to the upper house of the Dutch parliament, a post he held until just months before his death in 1920. In the years between 1916 and 1919, Kuyper was forced, due to declining health, to transfer many of his roles to others. He wrote his last book in 1916. He delivered his last speech to the ARP convention in 1917. In 1918, he resigned as chairperson of the ARP. And in 1919, he concluded his editorship of The Standard newspaper. On September 21, 1920, he resigned from the upper house of parliament and, just six weeks later, died on November 8, 1920.

KUYPER’S CENTRAL CONCERN

Abraham Kuyper was a pastor, journalist, theologian, politician, institution-founder and -builder, church reformer, and cultural critic. His peers regarded him as a theological genius.⁴ But it was his sustained concern for ordinary Christians and their public witness that animated his prodigious life. Kuyper was convinced that the problem of how the church related to modern society was none other than the problem of Christianity itself.⁵ That was true from the beginning of his career to his death—from a dissertation on ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) to his his death notice, which was published alongside his last installment in his series Concerning the Church.

Kuyper believed two things about the church. First, the church has a God-given role to play in the civic marketplace of cultural institutions. And, second, this role cannot be carried out faithfully if the church retreats into the private sphere and adopts a defensive posture against the world or accepts the sacred-secular dualism and engages in a restricted ministry of only saving souls for heaven. And so Kuyper worked tirelessly to motivate Christians to be active in a wide array of cultural endeavors without forfeiting their Christian faith and convictions. As we will discover, Kuyper was convinced that it is through active Christian engagement in culture that the lordship of Christ is displayed to the world. And Kuyper helps us understand how he approached his cultural roles. By exploring his thought we can begin to imagine how God might be calling Christians today to be active in the public square as well. In this way, Kuyper serves as an excellent example of how Christians today can bear witness to the lordship of Christ across a range of cultural endeavors.

Kuyper was exceptional at translating and renewing the church and theology. (In his day the church and theology were increasingly influenced by the anti-Christian thinking of Enlightenment Europe.) His enormous scholarly output and widespread public speaking birthed a tradition in Reformed Christianity that persists to this day. Kuyperians have been known to follow their founder with an equal commitment to the church’s comprehensive engagement of the world. Kuyper and his followers sparked a tremendous shift in the church’s posture toward a secularizing culture. In these ways, Kuyper is an early forerunner of what would come to be called missional Christianity and missional church in the mid-twentieth century.

But Kuyper’s followers, like Kuyper himself, were not content to only have the church engage the culture. They envisioned individual Christians and Christian organizations taking their faith, in the power of the Spirit, into the world for Christ. In fact, one Kuyper scholar has said of Kuyper and the tradition that follows him that it is so broad in its scope, distinctive in its emphasis, lasting in its influence, and successful in its practical consequences, that it deserves ongoing study and reflection.⁶ Even in academic fields beyond theology, Kuyper’s influence can be discerned in philosophy, education, political science, media, and technology to this day.

His followers immigrated to North America, started new denominations, and founded Christian elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, a Christian labor union, and a Christian political party. Kuyper birthed a movement that has propelled faithful Christians into the world through civically engaged Christian faithfulness. Kuyper can help us discover for our own time and place how to engage the world with the comprehensive gospel of Jesus Christ.

THIS BOOK

Even with this cultural engagement which has flowed from Kuyper’s life, work, and