On the Church

by Abraham Kuyper, Ad de Bruijne (Editor)

Overview

What is the relationship between the church and the state?

Dutch politician and Christian activist Abraham Kuyper was deeply invested in debates over the influence Christianity should have on his nation. As a pastor and theologian, he was just as concerned about the ailing Dutch church. In On the Church, the Acton Institute and the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society have partnered with Lexham Press to publish seven brand-new translations of Kuyper's most influential essays and speeches on the relationship between Christianity and the world.

Kuyper believed that Christians must neither hide from the world behind the walls of physical church buildings nor engage the world solely through earthly institutions. The introductory essay by Ad de Bruijne discusses how Kuyper's incisive view of the church still can—and must—apply today, just as it did at the turn of the 20th century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781577996750
Publisher:	Lexham Press
Publication date:	11/16/2016
Series:	Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	740,941
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a leading Dutch figure in education, politics, and theology. He was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, was appointed to Parliament, and served as prime minister. Kuyper also founded the Free University (VU) in Amsterdam, a political party, and a denomination, in addition to writing on a dizzying array of subjects.

Ad de Bruijne (Ph.D., Leiden University) is full professor of Christian ethics and spirituality at the Theological University Kampen, the Netherlands. His main field of research concerns public theology, where he tries to bring the neo-Calvinist tradition into dialogue with contemporary debates and proposals concerning the public calling of church and Christians in a post-Christendom context.

Andrew M. McGinnis (Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is a research fellow at the Junius Institute. He is the author of The Son of God Beyond the Flesh: A Historical and Theological Study of the extra Calvinisticum (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014) and the editor of Franciscus Junius' The Mosaic Polity (CLP Academic, 2015). He has written various articles and reviews and has assisted in the compilation of several academic bibliographies.

John Halsey Wood Jr. (Ph.D., Saint Louis University) is an independent scholar from Birmingham, Alabama. His book Going Dutch in the Modern Age: Abraham Kuyper's Struggle for a Free Church (Oxford, 2013) examines the development of Abraham Kuyper's free church ecclesiology.

Table of Contents

General Editors' Introduction vii

Editor's Introduction xi

Volume Introduction xxv

Abbreviations xxxviii

Commentatio 1

Rooted and Grounded 41

Tract on the Reformation of the Churches 75

Twofold Fatherland 281

Lord's Day 21 315

State and Church 373

Address on Missions 439

Bibliography 458

Appendix: Detailed Table of Contents 465

About Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) 469

About the Contributors 471

Subject/Author Index 472

Scripture Index 490

Editorial Reviews

"Many of Abraham Kuyper's insights have had a hand in guiding my ecclesiological reflection for decades. This new collection of Kuyper's essays on the church, introduced by two helpful essays that show his contemporary significance, will demonstrate his ongoing importance for today's ecclesiological discussion. Kuyper writes in a time when the church is being marginalized to the private sphere under the tidal wave of the hostile religious vision of Enlightenment modernity. He struggles to find a role for the comprehensive missional vocation of the church in the public square that embraces both the insights of Anabaptism (the church is a colony of the kingdom) and Christendom (the church has shared public responsibility for cultural development) in ways similar to Lesslie Newbigin. That is precisely what we need today."
—Michael W. Goheen, Director of Theological Education, MTC, Scholar-in-Residence, Surge Network

"Years ago as a young church planter struggling around in the dark to understand the church's proper relationship to the culture around it, I discovered Kuyper's brilliant insight that the church is simultaneously a living organism and an institution. This profound insight was like a flash of lightning illuminating the path forward. I instantly recognized it as a way of thinking about the church that would renew it and empower her members to impact and shape the culture around it. It was both inward, focused on the biblical health of the institution, and outward, giving Christians the vision to missionally engage the culture outside the walls of the church. His insight became a valuable guide shaping everything we did at the church. Years later, I am so thankful for this new volume, On The Church, where Kuyper's valuable insights are now available for a new generation of pastors and theologians and church members who desperately need a vibrant public theology to guide them in these parlous times. I can't recommend this volume highly enough."
—Jim Belcher, President, Providence Christian College

"Who was Abraham Kuyper and what did he believe? For those who want to go deeper than just a snapshot and a summary, the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology series provides depth and development in a very accessible format. Kuyper was not static as a person and the writings presented illumine a Kuyper who continually addressed the culture, context and church of his day. On the Church challenges us to engage the insights presented and the categories that are defined and refined by Kuyper. You may not always agree with Kuyper's articulations or his conclusions, but his ecclesiastical insights can still serve as a vital resource for the church today!"
—Jul Medenblik, President, Calvin Theological Seminary

"The writings of Abraham Kuyper are always stimulating, combining remarkable creativity and historical self-consciousness with solid biblical and confessional commitments. His reflections on the church are central to his work to renew Calvinism, coming as they do from a man who was not only a scholar, but also the son of a pastor and a one-time pastor himself. The writings in this volume continue to challenge us today as we see Kuyper seeking to understand and reform the church according to the Bible and in light of the modern, increasingly post-Christian world."
—W. Robert Godfrey, President, Westminster Seminary California

From the Publisher