Kuyper - Legacy

Legacy

Kuyper's political views and acts have influenced Dutch politics. Kuyper stood at the cradle of pillarization, the social expression of the anti-thesis in public life. His championing of parity treatment for faith-based organizations and institutions created the basis for the alliance between Protestants and Catholics that would dominate Dutch politics to the present day. One of the current governing parties of the Netherlands, the CDA, is still heavily influenced by Kuyper's thought. His greatest theological act, the founding of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was undone in 2005 with the creation of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands which united the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In North America, Kuyper's political and theological views have had a significant impact, especially in the Reformed community. He is considered the father of Dutch Neo-Calvinism and had considerable influence on the thought of philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd. Others that have been influenced by Kuyper include Francis Schaeffer, Cornelius Van Til, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Albert M. Wolters, Chuck Colson, James Skillen, R Tudur Jones, and Bobi Jones.

Institutions influenced by Kuyper include Cardus (formerly The Work Research Foundation), Calvin College, The Clapham Institute, Dordt College, Institute for Christian Studies, Redeemer University College, The Coalition for Christian Outreach, Covenant College, The Center for Public Justice, and the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, & Culture. In 2006, Reformed Bible College, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan was renamed in honor of Abraham Kuyper and is now Kuyper College.

As well as Kuyper's profound influence upon European Christian-Democrat politics up to the present, his political theology was also crucial in the history of South Africa. Scholars have noted Kuyper's involvement with South African politics, and his influence upon the founders of Apartheid. His legacy in South Africa is arguably even greater than within the Netherlands. There, his Christian-National conception, centred upon the identification of the Afrikaner Calvinist community as the kern der natie became a rallying position for the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk. As Christian-Nationalists, Kuyper's adherents in South Africa were instrumental in the building of Afrikaner cultural, political and economic institutions to restore Afrikaner fortunes following the Boer War. One key creation was the Afrikaner Broederbond, the anti-British and White Supremacist political secret society whose foundation was explicitly Christian-National. It was the Afrikaner Broederbond, in course of time, loyal to its specifically Kuyperian Christian-Nationalist ideology, which created the Afrikaner National Party, with its Apartheid plans. Throughout the Apartheid era, party and state officials swore oaths affirming the 'sovereignty and guidance of God in the destiny of countries and peoples' and to 'seek the development of South Africa's life along Christian-National lines.'

The question of whether it was good or bad for whites to mix with non-white races was one that Kuyper answered differently, at different times. Saul Dubow notes that Kuyper advocated "the commingling of blood" as "the physical basis for all higher development" in the Stone Lectures (1898), but refers to the Hottentots and Bantus as an "inferior race" in The South African Crisis (1900). Harinck argues that "Kuyper was not guided by the cultural racism of his day, but by his Calvinistic creed of human equality".

Kuyper's legacy includes a granddaughter, Johtje Vos, who is noted for having sheltered many Jews in her home in the Netherlands from the Nazis. After World War II she moved to New York. Conversely, Kuyper's son Professor H. H. Kuyper, a supporter of Afrikaner Nationalism and colour racism was a wartime Nazi collaborator, and his grandson joined the Waffen SS and died on the Russian front.