The Seven Lives of Abraham Kuyper
Digital Logos Edition
The greatest divisive force in Dutch history
Shortlisted for the triennial Boerhaave Biography Prize
A century ago, the world’s most famous Dutchman passed away. The only Netherlander besides Queen Wilhelmina to make the front page of The New York Times, Abraham Kuyper was a wunderkind described as possessing “ten heads and a hundred arms.”
Johan Snel’s biography portrays Kuyper’s seven colorful lives: mountaineer, globetrotter, orator, scholar, activist, journalist, and statesman. Drawing from fresh sources and containing surprising insights, The Seven Lives of Abraham Kuyper presents a kaleidoscope of a man whose versatility was surpassed only by his productivity—traveling half the world, writing over two hundred books and tens of thousands of articles, establishing a new Reformed denomination, and founding the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Anti-Revolutionary Party. Though Kuyper’s sworn enemies comprised almost the entire Dutch elite and the young queen, he had more admirers than detractors and was internationally lauded as a statesman who dined with kings and emperors.
Snel provides a riveting presentation of the greatest divisive force in Dutch history.
Praise for The Seven Lives of Abraham Kuyper
In this revealing book, the man ‘with ten heads and a hundred arms’ leads no less than seven colorful lives. Each of them – mountaineer, globetrotter, speaker, scholar, activist, journalist, statesman – is enough to fill a biography. But Kuyper led all these lives simultaneously. And even more: this biographical portrait reveals what we never knew about him before, in often fascinating stories.
—Jan Peter Balkenende, Minister of State and former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
This globally significant book provides a portrait of Kuyper based on a wealth of new knowledge about this social entrepreneur, public intellectual and enigmatic polymath.
—Peter Somers Heslam, Senior Research Associate, Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide; and Associate Fellow, Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge, UK.
One of the “best books of the year”
—de Volkskrant
Snel … miraculously understands the art of writing a compelling story, with an open ending, without any ‘nesting smell’. A tour de force.
—Journal of Dutch Church History
- Prologue, 1912
- Introduction: About a Self-Portrait
- Alpinist
- Traveler
- Public Speaker
- Scholar
- Activist
- Journalist
- Statesman
- The Old Kuyper
- Epilogue: A Centenarian
- Title: The Seven Lives of Abraham Kuyper
- Author: Johan Snel
- Translator: Harry Van Dyke
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2026
- Pages: 480
- Format: Logos Digital, Hardcover
- Trim Size: 6x9
- ISBN: 9781683599142
About Johan Snel
Johan Snel is principal lecturer and researcher at Christelijke Hogeschool Ede and a scholar of Kuyper.
About Harry Van Dyke
Harry Van Dyke is professor emeritus of history at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, and director of the Dooyeweerd Centre for Christian Philosophy.