A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology

Trinity Journal, Fall 2002 by Yoo, Chul Hee

John Bolt. A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001. 502 pp. $38.00,

At the beginning of a new millennium and among a plurality of voices in the public square, evangelicals are in desperate need of a voice that can equip them to engage an ever-increasing secular society. In light of the perceived socio-political setbacks of recent decades, some Christians are beginning to believe that evangelical involvement in politics has failed and they are abandoning or at least re-thinking the role of the church in American political life. John Bolt's A Free Church, A Holy Nation is a timely work that addresses this concern and gives a fresh perspective on political involvement in light of the life and works of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920). This volume is part of a collection of works on Kuyper published by Eedrmans that reflects a growing interest in the Dutch neo-Calvinist theologian, newspaper editor, poet, prime minister, and founder of the Free University. The author himself is a neo-Calvinist who is admittedly indebted to Kuyper's theology and political vision.

Bolt believes that evangelicals in America have often lacked a sophisticated political strategy to engage in the public forum. Kuyper serves as an attractive model for rectifying this lacuna for a couple of reasons: first, Kuyper's political activism was aimed at emancipating orthodox Calvinists who had been marginalized from the public life; second, Bolt believes the Dutchman is an exemplar who stands above partisanship. By contrast, Bolt argues that American evangelicals in their political involvement have been marginalized by secular society and have not been able to move beyond partisanship (p. xv). Kuyper is all the more appropriate as a guide for American evangelicals in that he can aid evangelicals to examine the critical issue of engagement from a distance. Kuyper is a qualified candidate, not only because he visited America in his day, but also because of his knowledge about and profound appreciation of "the American political experiment in ordered liberty" (p. xv). The author believes that there is a strong commonality between North American evangelicals and Kuyper, for they both love the American ideal of liberty. Hence, Bolt seeks "to provide a sketch of Abraham Kuyper's public theology and to explore its contemporary relevance, particularly but not exclusively, for politically involved American evangelical Christians" (p. 134).

This large volume is divided into three major sections. First, Bolt sets forth his thesis in a lengthy introduction; next, Abraham Kuyper's views are compared with the views of other leading historical figures such as Lord Acton, Alexis de Tocqueville, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Pope Leo XIII; finally, the book provides a systematic presentation of key ideas and themes in Kuyper's public theology. Bolt concludes his book by encouraging further reflection and challenging readers to appropriate Kuyper's socio-political vision. The appendices contain an essay by the author on the debate concerning neo-Calvinism as well as Kuyper's address to the Dutch community in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1898).

Bolt argues that traditional interpretations of Kuyper have correctly identified his enemy as Enlightenment modernism. But interpreters have focused too much on the Dutchman's theoretical discussions and have failed to see Kuyper as a man of letters, a rhetorician, and a poet. Kuyper was first and foremost a man of rhetoric. In his engagement with modernity, Kuyper recognized the significance of capturing the political imagination of his audience and the impact that persuasive rhetoric could have on society over time. Bolt points out that Kuyper was right when he used images of ideals in history to create a vision, for that is how a political vision is passed on from one generation to the next. Contrary to the notion that all one needs is correct political platforms and programs in order to transform society, Bolt contends that what people need is a vision that can govern and give meaning to technique-a political imagination that can provide the "passion" which in turn fuels the fire needed to sustain long-term political engagement. Bolt draws upon the examples of such figures as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Edmund Burke, and Alexis de Tocqueville to demonstrate that artistic imagination and poetic expression are what shape national identity; reason itself is incapable of guiding the masses to ground their lives in a great moral vision. Bolt believes that persuasive rhetoric is what moves people to strive after a moral vision that can bring about significant change. As evident in great historical change-agents from John Winthrop to John F. Kennedy, "the remembered word is the deed that lives on and continues to inspire and effect change" (p. 21). In similar fashion Kuyper was a master at using poetic imagination, and it was his rhetorical prowess that enabled him to capture the hearts and minds of the Dutch people.