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Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism. By Peter Heslam. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998. x + 300 pp. $20.00 paper.
Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) headed a major conservative renewal movement among his country's Protestants. Convinced that Christians needed to be active in all areas of life, Kuyper was a successful journalist, the creator of a political party, his country's prime minister, and the founder of the Free University of Amsterdam. Although he exerted his primary influence among Dutch and Dutch-speaking theologians, Kuyper's intellectual reach was, not limited to his countrymen. In the United States, partly through the influence of scholars connected to the Christian Reformed Church, Kuyper's theology made important contributions to American evangelical thought. His work was also read at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Like many fin de siecle European intellectuals, Kuyper made a speaking tour of the United States. The occasion for his 1898 journey was a dual invitation to deliver the prestigious Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary and to receive an honorary doctor of laws from Princeton University. These events provided Kuyper an opportunity to present his ideas personally to the students and faculty of one of America's premier Presbyterian institutions. Sensing the importance of his visit, Kuyper labored to make his presentations a useable introduction to his thought. He took as his thesis his conviction that Calvinism was a world-transforming faith that impacted politics, religion, philosophy, and art....