Pro Rege: Living under Christ’s Kingship, Volume 3

by Abraham Kuyper

Publishers:

Lexham Press; Acton Institute

, 2019

Living under Christ’s Kingship

Abraham Kuyper believed that Jesus is King of all creation, making it absurd to distinguish between Christian life inside and outside the church. In previous volumes of Pro Rege, Kuyper examined Christ’s universal kingship and its implications for the life of the church and the family; in this third volume, he extends his analysis of Christ’s kingship and rule to areas of society not encompassed by the family and the church—specifically, culture and the arts, civil society, and government.

Praise for Pro Rege

As we gain access to a growing volume of the writings of Abraham Kuyper in English translation we are ever more able to consider his life and work as an intriguing case study in discipleship. In Pro Rege we see Kuyper trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in his place and time: the Netherlands of the late 19th and early 20th century. In retrospect some of his moves seem obviously misguided, others startlingly prescient. For me Kuyper's reflections raise one big question, and it is a question of practice: What does it mean to follow Jesus here, now?

—Gideon Strauss, Associate professor of worldview studies, Institute for Christian Studies; senior fellow, The Center for Public Justice

In the early years of the 21st century, full as they are of pluralization, secularization, and globalization, we feel certain that a biblically-born faith has never been more difficult to work out in the public life of the world. While our moment in history has its complex, even immense challenges, the great gift of Kuyper’s magisterial work is the profound way that he took on these same questions in his time and place. With historical and sociological insight, with psychological and philosophical attentiveness, reading the world as he read the Word, he set forth an exhaustively-imagined account of the sovereignty of God over all things in heaven and on earth. Theologically rich, biblically grounded, Kuyper was passionately committed to helping ordinary people in ordinary places understand the meaning of their faith for life, always speaking to “the real world in which most people live their daily lives.” Pro Rege is a masterpiece, and my hope is that people all over the world will become his students, entering into his wisdom about the perennial challenge of understanding the world and our place in it.

—Steven Garber, Principal, The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation & Culture

The English translation of the first volume of Kuyper's Pro Rege unveiled for us his mature thinking on the multiple dimensions of Christ's reign in the face of gifts and challenges of the modern world. It created great anticipation for the publication of the remaining translations and offers the church an insightful and challenging series of reflections that have relevance far beyond Kuyper's day.

—Vincent Bacote, Associate professor of theology and director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics, Wheaton College

The Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology

Lexham Press is pleased to announce the publication of a major series of new translations of Kuyper’s writings in public theology. Created in partnership with the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society and the Acton Institute, the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology will mark a historic moment in Kuyper studies, and we hope it will deepen and enrich the church’s interest and engagement in public theology.

 

Contents

• Editors’ Introduction
• Volume Introduction by Rimmer de Vries and Jordan J. Ballor
• Series IV: Christ’s Kingship and His Society
  • An Independent Sphere
  • From Creation
  • Twofold Demand
  • Family and Society
  • Fear and Danger
  • The Expansion of Life
  • The Expansion of the Terrain
  • Society and the Individual
  • Custom and Habit
  • Gifted Leaders
  • The Power of the Word
  • Money
  • Play
  • The Woman
  • Private Initiative
  • The Government
  • The Christian Church
  • Christian Schools
  • Christian Organizations
  • Public Opinion
  • Good and Evil Spirits
  • The Final Victory
• Series V: Christ’s Kingship in the State
  • The Confusion of Speech
  • The Division Into States
  • The Unity of the Human Race
  • The Course of History

• The Rulers
• The Law
• Political Parties
• Colonial Possessions
• Internationalism
• The Relationship between the States
• The Christian Land
• Series VI: Christ’s Kingship and Knowledge
  • Our Human Knowledge
  • Jesus’ Knowledge
  • Science as a Power
  • Reflection
  • The Truth
  • Thinking God’s Thoughts after Him
  • The Secret Things of God
  • The Secret Things of God (2)
  • The Secret Things of God (3)
  • The Freeing of the Mind
  • Magesty
• Series VII: The Kingship of Christ and Art
  • A Gift of God
  • The Ideal of the Practical
  • The Beautiful
  • The Mystery of Beauty
  • Our Awareness of Beauty
  • Beauty and Sin
  • The Origin of Beauty
  • Beauty in Christ
  • The Sublime and Worship
  • Art and Religion
• Conclusion

Product Details

• Title: Pro Rege: Living under Christ’s Kingship: Volume 3
• Author: Abraham Kuyper
• Translator: Albert Gootjes
• Volume Editors: John Kok with Nelson D. Kloosterman
• Series Editors: Melvin Flikkema & Jordan J. Ballor
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 576
• Format: Logos Digital, Hardcover
• Trim Size: 7x10
• ISBN: 9781577996729

About Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905. He founded the Free University in Amsterdam and served as a professor of theology. At the invitation of B. B. Warfield, Kuyper traveled to the United States to deliver the Stone Lectures at Princeton and address Reformed congregations in Michigan and Iowa.

Kuyper studied at the University of Leiden, and received his doctorate there in 1863. He became a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1863, and consistently called for the separation of church and state. He also led a secession from the Dutch Reformed Church and united several disparate Reformed churches in the Netherlands.

Kuyper also led an active political life. He served as a member of Parliament in the Netherlands beginning in 1874 and served as prime minister from 1901–1905.

Abraham Kuyper was instrumental in the development of Neocalvinism, and is remembered for his articulation of common grace and for popularizing the notion of a Reformed worldview. He has influenced such notable figures as Francis Schaeffer, Cornelius Van Til, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Chuck Colson.

Some of Kuyper’s publications, which are available in Logos, include Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art, The Antithesis between Symbolism and Revelation, and Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology: Its Principles.