Calvinism: The Stone Lectures

by Abraham Kuyper, Uriesou Brito (Contributor)

“Abraham Kuyper believed that everything began with the Triune God, and everything--body, mind, soul, and strength--needed to be rooted in this commitment to the Triune God. Likewise, if Calvinism is to triumph in the religious realm, the political sphere, the science laboratory, the marketplace of ideas, and the arts, then it must be unashamedly Christian from its first thought to its last.” ~From Uriesou Brito’s Introduction Although Abraham Kuyper was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and a great educator, his true legacy is his exhortation to pietistic and passive Christians. He advocated for the submission of all things--life, art, and politics--to the Lord Jesus Christ. Kuyper reminded the Church that there is no square inch over which Christ does not cry, “Mine!” In this series of lectures given at Princeton Theological Seminary, he explains how Christianity, and particularly Calvinism, is a comprehensive worldview that explains how we should approach religion, politics, science, art, and the future of the modern world. “God created hand, head, and heart, the hand for the deed, the head for the world, the heart for mysticism. King in deed, prophet in profession, and priest in heart, shall man in his threefold office stand before God.” ~Abraham Kuyper

Genres: Theology, Classics

242 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022

About the author

Abraham Kuyper was a Dutch politician, journalist, statesman and theologian. He founded the Anti-Revolutionary Party and was prime minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905.

Reviews

[Jake Litwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of worldview churches need today. A must read.

[Micah Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I'm sure I only gleaned about 40% of the context of this book due to its density and my scattered reading of it. There's a lot here. And that makes it quite worth the read for whatever your purpose.

[Sean Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

After suspecting that I'd become some kind of crypto-Kuyperian, I thought it was time I checked. These lectures were stimulating to read, and certainly put some fire in my belly to connect all of life to the rule of Christ, even if they left me with a few questions.

Given the hearsay I'd received about Kuyper, I was very pleased to see that he had a high view for the preaching of the gospel and the importance of the church. Given his emphasis on a consistent Calvinist "world- and life-view", I was encouraged to see him acknowledge the genuine light to be found in non-Christian thinkers like Aristotle.

I wasn't convinced by his claim that civil government is an institution that assumes the fall, as though unfallen Adam and his children would not have developed magistrates and kings as they developed. This does give his view of the state a somewhat negative shade, compared to his views of things like the arts and sciences.

His work on common grace is very good, and allows him to "totalise" total depravity, without casting all of the works of unbelieving men into the outer darkness. However, it wasn't clear to me why Kuyper thinks the unregenerate scientist is more frustrated in his efforts than, say, the unregenerate painter or unregenerate prince.

On the eve of a bloody and tragic century, Kuyper foretold the malaise that awaits the West if it persists in shrugging its shoulders at Christianity and gives itself further to the modernist worldview inaugurated at the French Revolution: dictators and survival-of-the-fittest foreign policy! He insightfully pointed out that the only societies that have enjoyed a "resurrection" after a cultural decline are those that have been ready to welcome the gospel. That was a word of encouragement for our own dark times.

This is a good place to get an introduction to Kuyper's thought, in his own words and in a condensed form. Well worth a read, and I'll almost certainly come back to visit a few more times in the future.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good things to learn from in these pages, which is why I gave it so high a score. Outside of this, I am not a fan of Kuyper in these lectures. The more I read, the more I disliked because of the sheer inconsistencies and at times anti-biblical ideas proposed by Mr. Kuyper. I can see clearly why there are so many issues with the neo-calvinists and Kuyperians nowadays. If I was to judge Kuyperianism on this book alone, which for many years was the only thing the English west had of his, I would never adhere to Kuyperianism.

[Emma R. Pilcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a theological masterpiece. Even though it was penned in the 19th century, it remains so culturally relevant. I especially enjoyed the third lecture—Kuyper articulated the role of the civil magistrate incredibly well.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. It seems like I would disagree with his view of common grace, and a few other little things not worth mentioning.

[Nathan Shi · Rating 5 out of 5]

my brain is stimulated