Kuyper Center Review (4 vols.)

Abraham Kuyper has long passed from the scene, but his influence still remains. Indeed, there is widespread and serious interest not only in Kuyper but also in Kuyperian themes among a new generation of thinkers.

The Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary was established in admiration of Kuyper, whose life as pastor, theologian, journalist, and politician remarkably exemplifies how confidence in the truth of a Christian conception of the world can be expressed in both theory and practice.

Many but not all of the chapters in this volume come from the Kuyper Conference of 2008, the theme of which was “Sphere Sovereignty and Civil Society.” Most of these essays thus have a broadly “political” character, some addressing contemporary issues, others of a more historical nature. Of special interest in this volume is a summary/translation of Kuyper’s 1907 essay “The Enigma of Islam,” never before published in English.

Contributors:

• John R. Bowlin
• James D. Bratt
• Jonathan Chaplin
• Michael J. DeMoor
• James J. S. Foster
• Gordon Graham
• George Harinck
• Oliver O’Donovan
• Rimmer de Vries
• John Halsey Wood Jr.

Abraham Kuyper—pastor, theologian, journalist, and politician—is highly regarded as exemplifying how confidence in the truth of a Christian worldview can be expressed in both theory and practice. Honoring the spirit of Kuyper’s legacy, The Kuyper Center Review publishes substantial essays that relate the tradition of Reformed theology to issues of public life.

The chapters in this second volume in the series, Revelation and Common Grace, were originally presented at the annual Kuyper Conferences held at the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2009 and 2010. The 2009 conference celebrated the centenary of Herman Bavinck’s Stone Lectures, and it brought theologians and philosophers into conversation on topics that Bavinck considered relevant to assessing the nature and status of revelation. The 2010 conference explored the concept of common grace—key to the thought of both Kuyper and Bavinck—and especially its potential for furthering interreligious dialogue and understanding among the Abrahamic faith traditions.

Contributors:

• Leora Batnitzky
• Robert Covolo
• Emily Dumler-Winckler
• James Eglinton
• Anver M. Emon
• Gordon Graham
• George Harinck
• Andrew M. Harmon
• Jeffrey S. Hocking
• Cambria Janae Kaltwasser
• Brian G. Mattson
• Jon Stanley
• Henk van den Belt
• Dirk van Keulen
• Jan Veenhof
• Cory Willson

Some religious traditions—such as Lutheran, Wesleyan, and Eastern Orthodox—have aesthetically rich resources on which to draw for the renewal of arts in everyday life. In contrast, Calvinism has generally been suspicious of the arts.

The essays in this volume attempt to explore new avenues of thought about Calvinism’s relation to the arts. Part historical, part theological, and part practical, they offer a wide-ranging exploration of neo-Calvinism’s relationship to the arts, both at a general level and in connection with specific art forms. Overall they suggest that the neo-Calvinism espoused by Abraham Kuyper can and should make more of the arts than the traditional view of Reformed Christianity might be thought to allow.

Contributors:

• Clifford B. Anderson
• John Barber
• James D. Bratt
• Michael Bräutigam
• Janet Danielson
• Neal DeRoo
• John De Soto
• James Eglinton
• Matthew Kaemingk
• Jennifer Wang
• William Baltmanis Whitney
• Albert M. Wolters

Kuyper was a principal force, both political and intellectual, behind the democratization of politics and public life that occurred in the Netherlands at the close of the nineteenth century. This volume reflects on that legacy, not only examining its theological roots and historical context but also assessing democracy’s prospects in our own day and considering the ways in which Reformed theology might provide resources for democratic criticism and renewal.