Abraham Kuyper

Minister of the Interior
In office 1 August 1901 – 17 August 1905
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Hendrik Goeman Borgesius
Succeeded by	Pieter Rink
Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives
In office 13 November 1908 – 18 September 1912
Preceded by	Jan Hendrik de Waal Malefijt
Succeeded by	Gerrit Middelberg
In office 16 September 1896 – 1 August 1901
Preceded by	Jan van Alphen
Succeeded by	Jan van Alphen
In office 20 May 1894 – 1 July 1894
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Jan van Alphen
Leader of the Anti-Revolutionary Party
In office 3 April 1879 – 31 March 1920
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Hendrikus Colijn
Chairman of the Anti-Revolutionary Party
In office 12 February 1907 – 31 March 1920
Leader	Himself
Preceded by	Herman Bavinck
Succeeded by	Hendrikus Colijn
In office 3 April 1879 – 17 August 1905
Leader	Himself
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Herman Bavinck
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 13 November 1908 – 18 September 1912
In office 16 May 1894 – 31 July 1901
In office 20 March 1874 – 1 June 1877
Personal details
Born	Abraham Kuyper (1837-10-29)29 October 1837 Maassluis, Netherlands
Died	8 November 1920(1920-11-08) (aged 83) The Hague, Netherlands
Political party	Anti-Revolutionary Party (from 1879)
Spouse	Johanna Hendrika Schaay ​ ​ (m. 1863; died 1899)​
Children	Herman Kuyper (1864–1945) Jan Kuyper (1866–1933) Henriëtte Kuyper (1870–1933) Abraham Kuyper Jr. (1872–1941) Johanna Kuyper (1875–1948) Catharina Kuyper (1876–1955) Guillaume Kuyper (1878–1941) Levinus Kuyper (1882–1892)
Alma mater	Leiden University (Bachelor of Theology, Master of Theology, Doctor of Theology, Doctor of Philosophy)
Occupation	Politician · Minister · Theologian · Historian · Journalist · Author · Academic administrator · Professor
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Abraham Kuyper (

Abraham Kuyper was born on 29 October 1837 in Maassluis, Netherlands. His father Jan Frederik Kuyper served as a minister for the Dutch Reformed Church in Hoogmade, Maassluis, Middelburg and Leiden.

Kuyper was

In 1872, he founded his own paper, De Standaard (The Standard). This paper laid the foundation for the network of Reformed organisation (the Reformed pillar), which Kuyper founded.

Doleantie

In 1886, Kuyper led an exodus from the Dutch Reformed Church. He grieved the loss of Reformed distinctives within the State Church, which no longer required office bearers to agree to the Reformed standards which had once been foundational.^[4]

Kuyper and the consistory of Amsterdam insisted that both ministers and church members subscribe to the Reformed confessions. This was appealed to Classis, and Kuyper, along with about 80 members of the Amsterdam consistory, were suspended in Dec. 1885. This was appealed to the provincial synod, which upheld the ruling in a 1 July 1886 ruling.^[4]

Refusing to accept his suspension, Kuyper preached to his followers in an auditorium on Sunday, 11 July 1886. Because of their deep sorrow at the state of the Dutch Reformed Church, the group called itself the

By 1889, the Doleantie churches had over 200 congregations, 180,000 members, and about 80 ministers.

Kuyper, (although at first antagonistic towards them), soon began to seek union with the churches of the

He vigorously ridiculed modernism in theology as a new-fangled fad based on a superficial view of reality. He argued that modernism missed the reality of God, of prayer, of sin, and of the church. He said modernism would eventually prove as useless as 'A Squeezed Out Lemon Peel,' while traditional religious truths would survive.[5] In his lectures at Princeton in 1898 he argued that Calvinism was more than theology—it provided a comprehensive worldview and indeed had already proven to be a major positive factor in the development of the institutions and values of modern society.^[6]

Political life

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Member of Parliament

In 1873, Kuyper stood as candidate in the general election for parliament for the constituency of Gouda, but he was defeated by the incumbent member of parliament, the conservative Jonkheer Willem Maurits de Brauw (1810–1874) [nl]. When De Brauw died the next year, Kuyper stood again in the by-election for the same district. This time he was elected to parliament, defeating the liberal candidate Herman Verners van der Loeff.

Kuyper subsequently moved to The Hague, without telling his friends in Amsterdam. In parliament he showed a particular interest in education, especially the equal financing of public and religious schools. In 1876, he wrote "Our Program" which laid the foundation for the Anti-Revolutionary Party. In this programme he formulated the principle of antithesis, the conflict between the religious (Reformed and Catholics) and non-religious. More broadly, this programme articulated his broader political philosophy, emphasizing the proper role of government among the other spheres of life, including the family and the church. Kuyper argued that government's authority, like all human authority, derived from God's authority. In 1877, he left parliament because of problems with his health, suffering from overexertion.

In 1878, Kuyper returned to politics, he led the

In the

. In 1920, at the age of 83 Kuyper died in The Hague and was buried amid great public attention.

Views

Kuyper's theological and political views are linked. His orthodox Protestant beliefs heavily influenced his anti-revolutionary politics.

Theological views

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In 1905 there was a higher education law enacted, but Kuyper was against this and became part of the opposition.

Theologically Kuyper has also been very influential. He opposed the liberal tendencies within the Dutch Reformed Church. This eventually led to secession and the foundation of Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. He developed the so-called neo-Calvinism, which goes beyond conventional Calvinism on a number of issues. Furthermore, Kuyper made a significant contribution to the formulation of the principle of common grace in the context of a Calvinist world-view.

Most important has been Kuyper's view on the role of God in everyday life. He believed that God continually influenced the life of believers, and daily events could show his workings. Kuyper famously said, "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!'"^[8][9] God continually re-creates the universe through acts of grace. God's acts are necessary to ensure the continued existence of creation. Without his direct activity, creation would self-destruct.^{[citation needed]}

Political views

Kuyper's political ideals were orthodox-Protestant and anti-revolutionary.

The concept of sphere sovereignty was very important for Kuyper. He rejected the popular sovereignty of France in which all rights originated with the individual, and the state-sovereignty of Germany in which all rights derived from the state. Instead, he wanted to honour the "intermediate bodies" in society, such as schools and universities, the press, business and industry, the arts etc., each of which would be sovereign in its own sphere. In the interest of a level playing field, he championed the right of every faith community (among whom he counted humanists and socialists) to operate their own schools, newspapers, hospitals, youth movements etc. He sought equal government finances for all faith-based institutions. He saw an important role for the state in upholding the morality of the Dutch people. He favoured monarchy, and saw the House of Orange as historically and religiously linked to the Dutch people. His commitment to universal suffrage was only tactical;^{[inconsistent]} he expected the Anti-Revolutionary Party would be able to gain more seats this way. In actuality, Kuyper wanted a Householder Franchise where fathers of each family would vote for his family.^{[citation needed]} He also favoured a Senate representing the various interest, vocational and professional groups in society.

With his ideals, he defended the interests of a group of middle class orthodox reformed, who were often referred to as "the little people" (de kleine luyden). He formulated the principle of

Kuyper's political views and acts have influenced Dutch politics. Kuyper stood at the cradle of pillarisation, the social expression of the anti-thesis in public life. His championing of parity treatment for faith-based organisations and institutions created the basis for the alliance between Protestants and Catholics that has dominated Dutch politics to the present day. One of the major political parties of the Netherlands, the CDA, is still heavily influenced by Kuyper's thought. His greatest theological act, the founding of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was largely undone in 2004 with the creation of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands which united the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There is still a small federation named the Continued Reformed Churches in the Netherlands which remains loyal to the foundations laid by Kuyper.

In

Saul Dubow notes that Kuyper advocated "the commingling of blood" as "the physical basis for all higher development" in the Stone Lectures (1898). Harinck argues that "Kuyper was not guided by the cultural racism of his day, but by his Calvinistic creed of human equality".^[11]

Kuyper's legacy includes a granddaughter,

• Disquisitio historico-theologica, exhibens Johannis Calvini et Johannis à Lasco de Ecclesia Sententiarum inter se compositionem (Theological-historical dissertation showing the differences in the rules of the church, between John Calvin and John Łaski; his dissertation, 1862)
• Conservatisme en Orthodoxie (Conservatism and Orthodoxy; 1870)
• Het Calvinisme, oorsprong en waarborg onzer constitutionele vrijheden. Een Nederlandse gedachte (Calvinism; the source and the safeguard of our constitutional freedoms. A Dutch thought; 1874)
• Ons Program (Our program; ARP political program, 1879)
• Antirevolutionair óók in uw huisgezin (Anti-revolutionary in your family too; 1880)
• Soevereiniteit in eigen kring (Sovereignty in its own circle; 1880)
• Handenarbeid (1889; Manual Labour)
• Maranatha (1891)
• Het sociale vraagstuk en de Christelijke Religie (The Social Question and the Christian Religion; 1891)
• Encyclopaedie der Heilige Godgeleerdheid (Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology; 1893–1895)
• Calvinisme (Lectures on Calvinism; six Stone lectures Kuyper held at Princeton in 1898)
• The South African Crisis (1900)
• De Gemene Gratie (Common Grace; 1902–1905)
• Parlementaire Redevoeringen (parliamentary speeches; 1908–1910)
• Starrentritsen (1915)
• Antirevolutionaire Staatkunde (Anti-revolutionary politics; 1916–1917)
• Vrouwen uit de Heilige schrift (Women from the Holy scripture; 1897)

See also

Conclusions of Utrecht

References

Sources

• Media related to Abraham Kuyper at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Abraham Kuyper at Wikiquote
• Works by Abraham Kuyper at Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Works by Abraham Kuyper at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Abraham Kuyper at Internet Archive
• Digital Library of Abraham Kuyper
• Digital Bibliography of Abraham Kuyper
• Digital Archive of Abraham Kuyper
• You Should Know Abraham Kuyper (Article from The Laymens Lounge, 27 February 2020.
• You Should Know Neo-Calvinism, 11 February 2021. by Steve Bishop
• Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and ‘The Conclusions of Utrecht 1905’ , by J. Mark Beach, 2008