Kuiper, Abraham

Early years

Born in the family of the minister of the Netherlands Reformed Church, Jan Frederick Kuiper. Primary education received at home from his father. When Jan Frederick was transferred to a church post in Leiden, Abraham entered first into the Leiden gymnasium, and then in 1855 and into the University of Leiden . In 1857, he received his initial degree in literature, and a year later in philosophy; both with honors. Abraham also studied Arabic , Armenian, and physics . In 1862, he received his doctorate in theology, defended a thesis on the Theological and Historical Study of the Differences of Views of Jean Calvin and Jan Lacsky on Church Administration ( nederl. Disquisitio historico-theologica, exhibens Johannis Calvini et Johannis à Lasco de Ecclesia Sententiarum inter se compositionem ). In his study, Kuiper showed a clear sympathy for the views of the more liberal Lasky.

Religious life

In May 1862 he was allowed to carry out church service and in 1863 he became a servant of the Netherlands Reformed Church in the town of Besd ( niderl. Beesd ). From 1867 he was a preacher in Utrecht, and from 1870 in Amsterdam.

Around 1866, he began a correspondence with the leader of the Anti-Revolutionary Party, Grohn van Princeterer , who had a strong influence on his political and theological views.

In 1880, he founded the Amsterdam Free University , becoming its first rector. It was the first Protestant university in the Netherlands. The main task of the school was the preparation of preachers with orthodox Calvinistic views. As rector, he sought to ensure that liberals no longer dominate the academic world, who, he said, practiced non-Christian, so-called neutral science.

He adhered to the orthodox Protestant views, because he believed that the Netherlands Reformed Church that existed at that time with its modern, liberal doctrine and preaching did not bring people closer to God. In particular, he spoke out against family emancipation, considering it unnatural to raise his wife over her husband. This led to a church schism (1886). He was removed by the church council of Amsterdam because of his ideas and founded with a few dozen supporters the so-called “saddened church”, on the basis of which in 1892 the Reformed Church of the Netherlands was established. This denomination has its counterpart in the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

The Kuyper theological views were of great importance at that moment. The most significant work is considered the "Encyclopedia of Holy Theology" (1894). Together with Professor Dr. Hermann Bawink, he translated Calvinism from the 16th century into the era of the industrial revolution that had begun. Later this version became known as neokalvinizm. His ideas differed from the original Calvinism, especially with regard to grace , the doctrine of salvation and the doctrine of the bourgeois government. In his sermons, he ridiculed modernism in theology as a newfangled hobby based on a superficial view of reality. He argued that modernism had missed the reality of God, prayer, sin, and the church. He believed that modernism will ultimately prove to be as useless as “squeezed lemon peel”, while traditional religious truths will survive.

Considering the role of God in everyday life, he believed that he constantly influences the lives of believers, and daily events can show this influence. God constantly recreates the universe through acts of grace. God's actions are necessary for the continued existence of creation.

In 1898 , at the invitation of B. B. Warfield gave basic lectures at Princeton Seminary, which was his first widespread acquaintance with a North American audience. He also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Law. During his time in the United States, he attended several meetings of Dutch reformers in Michigan and Iowa and Presbyterian meetings in Ohio and New Jersey.

Political views and their implementation

In 1874, he was elected to the Second Chamber of the States General of the Netherlands, where he became close with the leaders of the Anti-Revolutionary Party. In 1877, he left parliament, but the following year he returned to politics, leading a petition against the new law on education, which made the position of religious schools even more unprofitable. In 1894 he was again elected to its composition.

At that time, there were no national political parties in the country at that time. Electoral associations of a liberal, conservative, Catholic or anti-revolutionary nature were represented in election districts. In 1876 he wrote Our Program, which initiated the creation of an anti-revolutionary party, and in 1879 it was he who founded the first national political party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), and its chairman until 1905 and then from 1907 until the end of his life. This party was based on Protestant Christian ideas that have been present in Dutch society since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The new party distanced itself from the name and program of the French Revolution, which emphasized popular sovereignty. For this reason, it was called anti-revolutionary. Supporters of the party were in favor of the monarchy as a defender of the territories conquered in the Dutch East Indies.

Rejecting state intervention in most of public life, he at the same time put forward the anti-liberal principle of “sovereignty in his circle”: which later became one of the ideological foundations of the policy of apartheid in South Africa. Rejecting the French interpretation of sovereignty, in which all rights were obtained from the state, he endowed them with "intermediate bodies" in society, such as schools and universities, the press, business and industry, art, and so on. He believed that each of these institutions is sovereign in its own sphere and needs support.

In 1889, he published the book “Manual Labor”, in which disgruntled workers viewed it as a threat to public public safety. He urged the workers to be content with little. At the same time, he also stood at the origins of the Christian trade union movement, in 1891 he delivered a speech at the opening of the congress of the Christian workers' organization Patrimonium. However, later his views became more reactionary, in 1903 he sharply spoke out against the port and railway strike, having achieved the adoption of prohibitive laws. He called the actions of workers political, revolutionary and anarchist action, saw in them "criminal agitation" and approved any pressure on the "reptiles". Part of the protesters were arrested, and the ban on strikes by government officials and railway workers was lifted only in 1980 .

His followers gave him the nickname “Abraham the Great” (“Abraham de Geweldige”), and his orientation to the lower classes (including on the issue of universal suffrage) gave him the nickname “the bell tower of ordinary people” (klokkeluider van de kleine luyden).

He successfully combined his parliamentary activity with journalism, from 1898 to 1901 he was the chairman of the Dutch circle of journalists, and then his honorary chairman.

As Prime Minister of the Netherlands

In the years 1901-1905 he served as prime minister and minister for the interior of the Netherlands. The Cabinet stopped the social policy initiated by its predecessor Nicholas Pearson , primarily because of the position of the leader of the Christian Historical Union (HIS) Alexander de Savornin Lohmann, whose support was necessary for the cabinet. By restricting trade unions by adopting anti-strike (so-called “strangling” laws), he at the same time opposed excessive liberalization of the economy. In colonial affairs, a major change occurred - the so-called Term “ethical policy” was introduced, which postulated the moral (or “ethical”) vocation of the Netherlands in relation to the inhabitants of the colonies. The purpose of the ethical policy was to form the colonial population in such a way that it could achieve political and economic independence.

In foreign policy, the prime minister, who became even more anti-British after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), was suspected of preparing an alliance with Germany. However, his aspirations were not implemented, including due to the strict neutrality of the Queen Wilhelmina .

Actively engaged in primary education, encouraged the creation of Christian schools. In addition to the newspaper De Standaard, he founded the weekly De Heraut. In the field of higher education, the possibilities for creating special departments were expanded, which gave impetus to the development of technical education and the reorganization of the Polytechnic School in Delft at the Technical University . Also improved the financial position of religious schools. He obtained the dissolution and re-election of the Senate in order to pass a law according to which diplomas of religious universities would be equated with diplomas of state universities.

Further career

After his defeat in the elections of 1905, he spent a year traveling by train, visiting the most inaccessible places in the Mediterranean. In 1907, he again wanted to be elected to the House of Representatives, but this was not possible due to opposition from the HSR, which led to a personal conflict with de Sawornin Lohmann. In 1908 he received the honorary title of state minister. In the same year he was elected to parliament, became chairman of the spelling reform committee and received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven .

In 1909 he was discredited by the so-called "Tape business". It was established that in 1903, on his initiative, the Amsterdam merchant Rudolf Lehmann received the royal award, and a year later he submitted 11,000 guilders to the party's payroll. A specially created parliamentary investigation committee found him innocent.

In 1912, for health reasons, he left the Chamber of Deputies, but the following year he became a member of the Senate from South Holland and remained in this status until the end of his life. In 1918, played a significant role in the formation of the first cabinet of Charles Rois de Berenbrauka .

His son Herman Huber Kuiper became a professor of theology and had a great influence on the Netherlands Reformed Church; his granddaughter, Yohtye Los, during the Second World War hid many Jews from the Nazis at home.

Honorary Doctor of the Delft University of Technology (1907).

A memorial plaque was opened on the house where he lived as Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers . In 2008 , despite ambiguous opinions in society, a monument in his honor was erected on Goodstin Square in Maslousse.

Princeton Theological Center was established center to them. Abraham Kuiper, where are also stored related documents. The Center awards an annual award named after him. Kuiper College is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan . It was founded in 1939 as the Institute for the Reformed Bible and was renamed in honor of Kuiper in 2006 .

His views had a significant impact on the formation of the Christian Democratic Appeal Party and on European Christian Democratic politics in general.

Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (1913).

He was married to Johanna Hendrik Skhay ( niderl. Johanna Hendrika Schaay , 1842-1899). From this marriage, Kuyper had eight children: five sons and three daughters.

• "Theological-historical dissertation of John Calvin and John Lasky" (1862)
• "Conservatism and Orthodoxy" (1870)
• "Calvinism, the origin and guarantee of our constitutional freedoms" (1874)
• "Our program" (the political program of the ADP) (1879)
• "The anti-revolutionary is also in your family" (1880)
• "Sovereignty in his circle" (1880)
• "Manual Labor" (1889)
• Maranatha (1891)
• "The social issue and the Christian religion" (1891)
• "Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology" (1893-1895)
• “Calvinism” (Calvinism lectures, six basic Kuiper lectures at Princeton in 1898)
• South African Crisis (1900)
• "General forgiveness" (1902-1905)
• "Parliamentary speech" (1908-1910)
• "Star lightning" (1915)
• "Anti-revolutionary policy" (1916-1917)
• "Women from the Scriptures" (1897)

Russian translations

• Abraham Kuiper. Christian worldview. Lectures on Calvinism = Lectures on Calvinism. - Shandal, 2002. - 240 p. - 3000 copies - ISBN 0-8028-1607-X , 5-93925-024-6.

• Video lecture about Abraham Kaiper .

• Vodovozov V.V. Kuiper, Abram // Encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extras). - SPb. , 1890-1907.