19 June 2014

Abraham Kuyper: "Theologian of Culture"

An insightful comparison by James Bratt of contemporaries Abraham Kuyper and William James (who shared much in a variety of ways):
Only four years younger than Kuyper, like him having Calvinist forebears and a vexed relationship with his father, James too passed through deep philosophical anxiety ... before experiencing a virtual conversion. In his, James decided to assert free will as the first act of free will. ... Both [Kuyper and James] reserved  their greatest contempt for the deterministic monism of Herbert Spencer. Kuyper disliked it because it was a system without God; James, because it was a system.  Kuyper craved certainty under a gracious Lord; James welcomed uncertainty so as to make room for human freedom. Kuyper recognized a plurality of worldviews; James, a pluralistic universe.

No comments:

Post a Comment