Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) was a Dutch Reformed theologian, journalist, and politician who founded the Anti-Revolutionary Party and served as prime minister from 1901 to 1905.

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Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer: A Dutch statesman and historian whose political thought helped shape the nineteenth-century Dutch Protestant movement. His anti-revolutionary ideas supplied a political foundation Kuyper developed into a party.
Dutch Reformed Church: The principal Reformed Protestant church in the Netherlands until the nineteenth-century secession movements. Kuyper began his ministry within this church and later led a break from it.
Sphere sovereignty: Kuyper’s doctrine that distinct social spheres, such as family, church, and state, possess their own God-given authority. This principle explains why Kuyper resisted both state control of society and a single church governing all institutions.
Dutch school struggle: A nineteenth- and early twentieth-century conflict over equal public funding for religious and secular schools in the Netherlands. Kuyper made equal funding for religious schools a central political cause.
Neo-Calvinism: A modern Reformed movement that applies Calvinist theology to culture, politics, education, and social life. Kuyper became its leading architect by extending Reformed thought beyond church doctrine.
Herman Bavinck: A Dutch Reformed theologian known for his systematic theology and work in the Neo-Calvinist tradition. Bavinck developed theological themes that Kuyper also advanced, while offering a distinct scholarly voice.
Groninger Theological School: A nineteenth-century Dutch theological movement that emphasized ethical and historical approaches to Christianity. Its liberal theology shaped the religious environment Kuyper opposed early in his career.
Antithesis (Kuyperian theology): The Kuyperian distinction between Christian and non-Christian starting points in thought and public life. It grounded Kuyper’s case for independent Christian political and educational organizations.
Pacification of 1917: A Dutch political settlement that granted equal funding to public and religious schools and introduced universal male suffrage. The settlement fulfilled a central objective of Kuyper’s long campaign for educational equality.
Christian democracy: A political tradition that draws on Christian social teaching while participating in democratic government. Kuyper’s party-building became an influential model for organized Christian politics.