The Dutch polymath Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) has the distinction of having not only thought about politics from a theological perspective, but actually also having served as a theologian in politics, first in the Dutch parliament and then later as prime minister of the Netherlands. Kuyper was also one of the most prolific authors of his time, in part due to his public calling not only as a pastor and politician but also as an editor and educator. This essay will introduce some of the main contours of and sources for Kuyper’s political thought, with suggestions for deeper and more expansive engagement.
Kuyper’s Introduction to Politics
Kuyper’s earliest engagement with civil politics (as opposed to church politics, with which he was also deeply enmeshed) came about as part of a larger “antirevolutionary” and “Christian historical” social movement in the Netherlands. There was a Dutch “revival” in the nineteenth century that catalyzed not only a renewed piety and focus on orthodox doctrine but also an invigorated social engagement. The point of departure for this movement was initially the so-called “schools question,” which had to do with the treatment of parochial educational institutions in the Dutch system. Throughout his political career Kuyper helped lead the effort for parity of funding as well as status for private educational initiatives, whether from Christian (including Reformed as well as Roman Catholic) perspectives or other religions and worldviews (including Jewish as well as secular liberal). But what began with a focus on education soon became a comprehensive program of Reformed and Calvinist politics.
In his commentary and exposition of the Anti-Revolutionary Party platform, Kuyper identified the distinctiveness of this Reformed politics, including an emphasis on the sovereignty of God and the corresponding delegation of authority as expressed in diverse institutions or “spheres” of society.[1] The name of the movement was a reference primarily to the French Revolution of the previous century and its aftermath, particularly as manifest in a humanistic, modernistic, and secularist ideology. He wrote,
1. Abraham Kuyper, Our Program: A Christian Political Manifesto, ed. Jordan J. Ballor, Melvin Flikkema, and Harry Van Dyke, Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015).
What we combat, on principle and without compromise, is the attempt to totally change how a person thinks and how he lives, to change his head and his heart, his home and his country—to create a state of affairs the very opposite of what has always been believed, cherished, and confessed, and so to lead us to a complete emancipation from the sovereign claims of Almighty God.[2]
2. Abraham Kuyper, Our Program, pt. 1, sec. “I. Our Name.”
The clash of worldviews would be a consistent theme of Kuyper’s theological and social thought, although he viewed politics as a realm where there might be common ground, if not reconciliation, between competing comprehensive claims.
Theologically, Kuyper frames the “state” as a manifestation of God’s common grace. There would have been political order in some sense without humankind’s fall into sin, but the reality of human sinfulness required divine intervention. One form of such divine action takes the form of God’s special grace, culminating in Christ’s special saving and atoning work. But another form of divine grace in the face of sin is what Kuyper calls “common grace,” God’s preserving and restraining activity that keeps sin’s consequences from running unchecked throughout human history and society. Such divine grace also allows for some positive cultural and technological development even in the face of privation, frailty, and corruption. Civil government is a particular expression of God’s common grace because of its unique responsibility to promote public justice, order, and, in the words of the apostle Paul, to be “God’s servant for your good” (Rom. 13:4). Just as the church made up of God’s people is an institution formed by God’s special, saving grace, the civil authorities manifest God’s gifts of justice given to all people.
Sphere Sovereignty
But one of Kuyper’s distinctive doctrines concerning political and social life comes to the fore in his articulation of the way in which God’s sovereignty is expressed through a diversity of social institutions and plural structures of authority. The civil government has a special role as uniquely tasked with promoting legal justice and the rule of law. But other institutions or spheres have their own unique character and authority as well. These include the familiar orders of Christian social thought like the family and the church as well as those that are not as often considered as having an independent or autonomous character, such as art and education. “Just as we speak of a moral world, a world of science, a world of business, an art world,” Kuyper observes, “so we speak still more properly of a sphere of morality, a family sphere, a sphere of socioeconomic life, each having its own domain. And because each forms a distinct domain, each sphere has its own sovereign within the bounds of that domain.”[3]
3. Abraham Kuyper, On Charity and Justice, ed. Matthew J. Tuininga, introduction by John Witte Jr., Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022).
In this way the doctrine of “sphere sovereignty” as it is commonly known is most definitely a theory of limited government. It is also, however, a more robust and comprehensive vision of social pluriformity and diversity as well. Government has a remedial role to intervene when there are conflicts between spheres and corruption within them, subject to certain principles and limits. For this reason Kuyper can describe the state as the “sphere of spheres.” But as a consistent Calvinist Kuyper also recognizes the stark possibilities for abuse and corruption within each human and within any human institution. And with greater power comes greater danger. Thus Kuyper can also warn against the state’s potential tyranny: “Neither the life of science nor of art, nor of agriculture, nor of industry, nor of commerce, nor of navigation, nor of the family, nor of human relationship may be coerced to suit itself to the grace of the government. The State may never become an octopus, which stifles the whole of life.”[4]
4. Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism: Six Lectures Delivered at Princeton University, 1898, Under the Auspices of the L. P. Stone Foundation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931).
And just as the civil state can tyrannize other institutions, it is possible for there to be disorder and there are ways in which the church, for instance, might overstep its institutional boundaries and authority, or businesses might improperly dominate other spheres. So one consequence of Kuyper’s convictions regarding common grace and sphere sovereignty is a political and social vision that emphasizes and even promotes social pluriformity.
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not call out: ‘Mine!’”[5] Kuyper’s most famous quotation has the corollary that God’s sovereignty comes to expression in different ways in different spheres, however. As Kuyper contends, “But here is the glorious principle of liberty! This absolute sovereignty of the sinless Messiah at the same time directly denies and disputes all absolute sovereignty on earth among sinful men. The life of humankind is divided into distinct spheres, each with its own sovereignty.”[6]
5. Abraham Kuyper, “Sphere Sovereignty,” in Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 488.
6. Abraham Kuyper, “Sphere Sovereignty,” in Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 466.
And because of God’s restraining and preserving work through common grace, non-Christians can also exercise authority and promote flourishing in diverse ways. Kuyper’s political vision is one that is at once fully and comprehensively committed to the absolute lordship of Christ over all things even as that lordship does not equate to the domination of the church over the state. Out of thoroughly Reformed convictions about God’s ultimate sovereignty Kuyper articulates a political vision that promotes religious liberty, social pluriformity, and the priority of faithful Christian discipleship in all areas of life. “A free church in a free state” is one of Kuyper’s famous mottos, and that dynamic vision captures the purpose of his robust and engaging political thought.
