Politics of the Netherlands

June 11, 2015

The ‘Deeper Magic’ of Sphere Sovereignty

I was reading through Abraham Kuyper’s inaugural speech at the founding of the Free University in Amsterdam, in which he lays out his vision of “sphere sovereignty,” and this passage struck me as particularly noteworthy. Continue Reading...

April 01, 2015

Free-Market Federalism

“States and municipalities craft laws that reflect local cultures, and this proximity to the people has market consequences,” says James Bruce in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Let’s call it free-market federalism, the encouragement of local markets by permitting states and municipalities to frame, as much as possible, the laws by which the communities engage in commerce.” Continue Reading...

December 12, 2014

Hunter Baker on Kuyper and the Acton Institute

At The Gospel Coalition, Hunter Baker reviews Abraham Kuyper’s Scholarship: Two Convocations on University Life and highlights the significance of the Acton Institute: The Acton Institute does the kind of work that would have been almost unimaginable in a single organization two or three decades ago. Continue Reading...

June 03, 2014

Loving the Hunt: Kuyper on Scholarship and Stewardship

In “Scholastica II,” a convocation address delivered to Amsterdam’s Free University in 1900 (now translated under the title, Scholarship), Abraham Kuyper explores the ultimate goal of “genuine study,” asking, “Is it to seek or find?” Continue Reading...

May 20, 2014

Kuyper on Decentralization, the Family, and the Limits of State Authority

In Guidance for Christian Engagement in Government, a translation of Abraham Kuyper’s Our Program, Kuyper sets forth an outline for his Anti-Revolutionary Party. Founded by Kuyper in 1879, the party had the goal of offering a “broad alternative to the secular, rationalist worldview,” as translator Harry Van Dyke explains it. Continue Reading...

April 11, 2014

Now Available: ‘Scholarship’ by Abraham Kuyper

“What should be the goal of university study and the goal of living and working in the sacred domain of scholarship?” –Abraham Kuyper Christian’s Library Press has just released a new translation of Abraham Kuyper’s Scholastica I and II, two convocation addresses delivered to Vrije Universiteit (Free University) during his two years as rector (first in 1889, and then again in 1900). Continue Reading...

December 19, 2013

Now Available: Kuyper’s ‘Guidance for Christian Engagement in Government’

Christian’s Library Press has just released the first-ever English translation of Abraham Kuyper’s Our Program (Ons Program), under the title Guidance for Christian Engagement in Government. First published in 1879 with the goal of preparing citizens for participation in the general elections, Kuyper’s stated purpose was twofold, as summarized by translator and editor Harry Van Dyke: “to serve antirevolutionaries as a guide for promotional activities and to prepare them for the formal establishment of an Anti-Revolutionary Party.” Continue Reading...

July 16, 2013

The Roots of Enduring Cultural Change

Over at Christianity Today, Andy Crouch confronts modern society’s increasing skepticism toward institutional structures, arguing that without them, all of our striving toward cultural transformation is bound to falter: For cultural change to grow and persist, it has to be institutionalized, meaning it must become part of the fabric of human life through a set of learnable and repeatable patterns. Continue Reading...