A Free Church, a Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper’s American Public Theology

by John Bolt

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2001

Overview

This volume uses the thought of Abraham Kuyper as a model for American evangelicals engaged in today’s cultural debate. Offering a new interpretation of Kuyper’s public theology that emphasizes its rhetorical and poetic aspects, John Bolt builds a credible public theology that directly applies to Christian political activism.

In considering such key issues as poverty, wealth and power, theocracy and pluralism, civil religion, the culture wars, and political cooperation between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics, Bolt also compares Kuyper’s views with the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord Acton, Pope Leo XII, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Jonathan Edwards. Bolt shows that focusing on Kuyper’s rhetorical and mythopoetic perspective, rather than on his theological and philosophical ideas, provides contemporary evangelicals with a more meaningful and effective theology for the public square.

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Key Features

• Uses the thought of Abraham Kuyper as a model for American evangelicals
• Presents a credible public theology that applies to Christian political activism
• Focuses on Kuyper’s rhetorical and mythopoetic perspective

Contents

• “Let My People Go”: Abraham Kuyper’s Christian-Historical Political Imagination
• The Need for an Evangelical Public Theology in America
• Liberty’s European Pilgrims: Abraham Kuyper, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Lord John Acton
• America as God’s Kingdom: Abraham Kuyper and Jonathan Edwards
• The “Social Question” and the Social Gospel: Abraham Kuyper, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Leo XIII
• Liberty’s Stepchildren: Liberationists and Libertarians
• Tyranny by Another Name? Theocrats and Pluralists
• Ecumenical Jihad: The Surprising Evangelical–Catholic Culture War Cobelligerency
• Abraham Kuyper in America Today: Do Evangelicals Really Need a Public Theology?

Product Details

• Title: A Free Church, a Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper’s American Public Theology
• Author: John Bolt
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 527
• Christian Group: Reformed
• Resource Type: Monographs
• Topic: Historical Theology

About John Bolt

John Bolt has served as pastor of Christian Reformed churches in Pencticton and Kelowna, BC. He began his teaching career at Calvin College in the department of religion and theology then moved from there to teach at Redeemer College in Ancaster, Ontario. After seven years in Ontario, Bolt moved to Calvin Theological Seminary where he now teaches systematic theology.

Bolt’s goal is to communicate to students the vision of the Christian faith from a Reformed perspective. “By background, training, and conviction I am a Reformed theologian. What especially excites me about the Reformed tradition is its bigness, its grand kingdom vision of Christ’s universal lordship. This vision, which gives dignity and worth to human vocation and hope in the midst of an uncertain age, is what I want above all to communicate to my students. My vision for Calvin Theological Seminary is that it will increasingly become a center for training students from all over the world in the Reformed Christian faith. I believe this faith is the hope of the world.”

John is married to Ruth, and has three children, two granddaughters, and one grandson. He is author of The Christian Story and the Christian School, Stewards of the Word, and A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper’s American Public Theology. He is also the editor of the four-volume English edition of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics.