![]() | This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
If someone sees fit to revert the delete of the "Trivia" entry, please cite a verifiable and reputable source for it. -- David3565 6:33, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
Several Dutch politicians are redlinks in the article. It would be worthwhile searching the Dutch Wikipedia to see if any of these can be made into interwiki links. DFH 12:50, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
I have restored the see also link to common grace, because Kuyper's work on the subject was seminal to the development of the idea by later Calvinistic theologians in the 20th century. See (for example) McGoldrick chapter 12, Antithesis and common grace (p.126). DFH 18:57, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
An external link to " Kuyper resources" has been deleted thrice by User:Betacommand, who believes it to be spam (and who received considerable debate on similar automated deletions, cf. [1]), and by User:Nick, who said it is an "extraneous external link covering nothing not already in the article." Since this apparently controversial, I'll start a discussion here.
I have no connection whatsoever to the website in question, but I believe this link should stay because it provides a collection of links to primary and secondary sources and an extended bibliography that are not in the article (and probably shouldn't be). Thoughts? -- Flex ( talk| contribs) 15:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
What about the spelling "Kuÿper", would that be OK? -- NIC1138 ( talk) 21:42, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
Let's get over it people -- even a sympathetic Reformed/Calvinist and African American scholar like Vince Bacote openly refers to Kuyper as a racist. It is not "original research" or spurious in any way to see Kuyper's racism in the primary sources. It is not a consistent or elaborated race ideology; it is sometimes contradictory, ranging from a paternalistic view of even the most primitive africans (in Kuyper's view) benefiting and "developing" from mixture with whites to a straight-up racist view of "miscegenation" (any perceived interracial mixing) as a bad thing when it comes to the white Boers and black South Africans.
Here is the last edited state I find perfectly valid but User:StAnselm keeps reverting for the small changes at the end. Note this is after several uncontested paragraphs detailing Kuyper's central role in South African white nationalism and apartheid:
This ending simply corrects the previous ending which disassociates Kuyper from Nazi racism, which is not relevant and nowhere suggested. I've made that clearer now, while also indicating the more pertinent question of Kuyper's own type of racism is one of contradiction, or that it covers a range from paternalistic "soft" racism -- where he could approve whites mixing with black Africans ("Hottentotts"/Bushmen and Bantus) that he considered deeply inferior (as this benefits the blacks and thus everyone, in Kuyper's view) -- to outright rejection of this same idea. On this particular issue of interracial sex (marriage really was *not* the issue) greater context could be added by noting that widespread international criticism of the Boers at that time had a lot to say about rape and abuse that had produced a substantial "mixed-race" population. Stephen Crane wrote a piece about it that can be found in Wheaton's Christian Classics library online. Just search for "Hottentot" in the CCEL and you will find a great deal of material from Kuyper and others reflecting 19th century Christian (but not especially Christlike) thoughts about this group of people maligned as the lowest on the planet. 67.22.194.101 ( talk) 05:58, 21 July 2012 (UTC)
67.22.194.101 ( talk) 21:52, 23 July 2012 (UTC)
Also of note:
67.22.207.123 ( talk) 18:02, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
If you search online you will also come across contemporary race ideologists appropriating Kuyper and quite content to quote him as self-evidently in their camp. E.g. http://faithandheritage.com/2014/10/presentation-christianity-and-race/
References
Also well-represented in academic literature, this topic deserves inclusion so I offer the following notes in the hope that honest and fair-minded people will see a way to work it in without an edit war.
Kuyper openly opposed (especially violent) anti-semitism while still expressing a position that Jewish and non-Jewish people regarded as deeply anti-semitic in Kuyper's time and after. As with his remarks on other races and nations, he offers praise and makes compliments, but he also adds a lot of qualification, broad-brush criticism, and mitigating speech that fits in with a troubling tendency at that time to suggest Jews didn’t deserve persecution that they nevertheless brought upon themselves. This type of “anti-anti-semitism” is deeply paternalistic bigotry that cowardly condemns persecution while also rationalizing and thus enabling it. It is far from defending and standing with the victim.
Kuyper’s Anti-Semitism in the Context of Dutch Calvinist Theo-Political Ideology
Dutch Calvinist factions differed on their understanding of the Jews, but all were theo-political in their assumptions and reasoning. There was no idea of “conversion” as such in Calvinism, but the Jews were essential to eschatological beliefs. The end times approached as the gospel was preached to all people, so it had to be preached to all people, even if it was quite certain they would not convert or could not convert as in the case of the Jews. St. Paul spoke of a spiritual remnant of Israel that would finally repent in the end, but for now God had hardened their hearts. For this reason only the Afgescheidenen Calvinist faction who believed the end of history was near (or wanted to hasten it) were focused on missions to the Jews. Kuyper and the other faction, the Dolerenden, were focused instead on triumphing over unbelief in the political realm.
Since Kuyper’s faction was opposed to the secularization of society, they had a problem with the fact that all Dutch Jews from the orthodox to secular
Kuyper’s threat to take away Dutch Jews’ citizenship was not something he pursued later as prime minister, but leading up to that time he fought a political culture war against them.
In 1896 Kuyper changed the stance of his church on Jewish missions, making it a priority in order to combat Judaism. With a supersessionist theology now, the church was to be seen as the new Israel and the only one to be restored in the future. The Jewish mission was a “spiritual war” “to hit Judaism in the heart.” Converts were few but were regarded as no longer being Jews. The point was simply to assert Christian superiority and put Jews in their place, meanwhile Kuyper sought allies in the Catholics, formerly the main enemy of the ARP. Anti-semitism went up, anti-catholicism went down. The Messiasbode (Herald of the Messiah) newspaper of the Jewish Mission denounced Jews for blasphemy (rejecting Jesus) and warned of divine vengeance, specifically in the form of Hitler who would act as Assyria had in the Old Testament--as a scourge of God against Israel. Van Klinken says this led to or helped rationalize passive and supportive Dutch responses to the Nazis. Once the Nazis began rounding Jews up in thee occupation, van Klinken argues the Dutch Calvinists who resisted this tended to be the milleniallists who thought Hitler's "final solution" must be a Satanic plan to thwart God’s plan/Christian eschatology regarding the remnant of Israel.
Key Primary Sources
In Liberalisten en Joden / Liberals and Jews (a series of newspaper articles from 1878) Kuyper attacks Jews for subverting Christian Europe under the cover of liberalism. Kuyper compliments Jews for cultural traits and achievements he approves of, but he is critical of them for things he dislikes about them. He compared Reform Jews to modernist, liberal theologians he opposed in theology, calling them all apostates. He saw secular Jews as powerful but dangerous thinkers (e.g., Spinoza, Marx, Heine) -- dangerous not because they are Jewish but because as secularized Jews they absorbed radical aspects of European thought. Orthodox Jews he respected but saw as a problem to be solved with conversion and assimilation. Kuyper disliked what he claimed was an undue influence from Jews in journalism and finance. He was against the Russian pogroms and violent anti-semitism, but he claimed that Zionism and Jews serving as agents of the Russian government precipitated violent reactions. He suggested a solution to “the Jewish problem” in the establishment of a Jewish state, possibly in eastern Russia.
In Antirevolutionaire Staatkunde (1917) / Anti-Revolutionary Politics) Kuyper actually said anti-semitism did not exist in the Netherlands (as in Germany) because Calvinists loved the Old Testament more than Lutherans.
Secondary Sources
Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia Of Prejudice And Persecution, Volume 1 Richard S. Lev, ed. ABC-CLIO (May 24, 2005)
Gert J. van Klinken, ”Jewish Conversion as an Aim of the Reformed Churches” in Cultures of Conversions. Bremmer, Jan N, Wout Jac van Bekkum, and Arie L Molendijk, eds. Peeters Pub & Booksellers, 2006.
Louis Praamsma, Let Christ Be King: Reflections on the Life and Times of Abraham Kuyper (Ontario: Paideia Press, 1985) - This book from a neocalvinist press takes a very uncritical, hagiographical approach to Kuyper’s sources and “worldview” based in German romanticism and historicism, which it fully acknowledges and explains at the beginning without discussing anything problematic about these lines of thought. In discussion of Liberalism and the Jews Praamsma says Kuyper “exposed the undue influence of the Jews in the financial world and the press” as if he believes it to be a true and unproblematic statement.
67.22.194.101 ( talk) 07:26, 27 July 2012 (UTC)
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Abraham Kuyper/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
This article has a commendable amount of detail and is in general in pretty good shape. It might well be worth putting up as a Good Article candidate if a couple of improvements were made. It needs citations (one per paragraph is a good rule) and it needs a thorough copyedit. There are quite a few places where it lacks needed apostrophes or commas, has extra commas, or has small typos. MLilburne 08:11, 26 October 2006 (UTC) |
Last edited at 08:11, 26 October 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 06:31, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Abraham Kuyper. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{
Sourcecheck}}
).
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 22:26, 2 October 2016 (UTC)
Is there any evidence that his surname was originally "Kuijper"? When I looked at the Dutch wiki page on him, the only name I saw was "Kuyper" Academicoffee71 ( talk) 16:24, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
![]() | This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
If someone sees fit to revert the delete of the "Trivia" entry, please cite a verifiable and reputable source for it. -- David3565 6:33, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
Several Dutch politicians are redlinks in the article. It would be worthwhile searching the Dutch Wikipedia to see if any of these can be made into interwiki links. DFH 12:50, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
I have restored the see also link to common grace, because Kuyper's work on the subject was seminal to the development of the idea by later Calvinistic theologians in the 20th century. See (for example) McGoldrick chapter 12, Antithesis and common grace (p.126). DFH 18:57, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
An external link to " Kuyper resources" has been deleted thrice by User:Betacommand, who believes it to be spam (and who received considerable debate on similar automated deletions, cf. [1]), and by User:Nick, who said it is an "extraneous external link covering nothing not already in the article." Since this apparently controversial, I'll start a discussion here.
I have no connection whatsoever to the website in question, but I believe this link should stay because it provides a collection of links to primary and secondary sources and an extended bibliography that are not in the article (and probably shouldn't be). Thoughts? -- Flex ( talk| contribs) 15:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
What about the spelling "Kuÿper", would that be OK? -- NIC1138 ( talk) 21:42, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
Let's get over it people -- even a sympathetic Reformed/Calvinist and African American scholar like Vince Bacote openly refers to Kuyper as a racist. It is not "original research" or spurious in any way to see Kuyper's racism in the primary sources. It is not a consistent or elaborated race ideology; it is sometimes contradictory, ranging from a paternalistic view of even the most primitive africans (in Kuyper's view) benefiting and "developing" from mixture with whites to a straight-up racist view of "miscegenation" (any perceived interracial mixing) as a bad thing when it comes to the white Boers and black South Africans.
Here is the last edited state I find perfectly valid but User:StAnselm keeps reverting for the small changes at the end. Note this is after several uncontested paragraphs detailing Kuyper's central role in South African white nationalism and apartheid:
This ending simply corrects the previous ending which disassociates Kuyper from Nazi racism, which is not relevant and nowhere suggested. I've made that clearer now, while also indicating the more pertinent question of Kuyper's own type of racism is one of contradiction, or that it covers a range from paternalistic "soft" racism -- where he could approve whites mixing with black Africans ("Hottentotts"/Bushmen and Bantus) that he considered deeply inferior (as this benefits the blacks and thus everyone, in Kuyper's view) -- to outright rejection of this same idea. On this particular issue of interracial sex (marriage really was *not* the issue) greater context could be added by noting that widespread international criticism of the Boers at that time had a lot to say about rape and abuse that had produced a substantial "mixed-race" population. Stephen Crane wrote a piece about it that can be found in Wheaton's Christian Classics library online. Just search for "Hottentot" in the CCEL and you will find a great deal of material from Kuyper and others reflecting 19th century Christian (but not especially Christlike) thoughts about this group of people maligned as the lowest on the planet. 67.22.194.101 ( talk) 05:58, 21 July 2012 (UTC)
67.22.194.101 ( talk) 21:52, 23 July 2012 (UTC)
Also of note:
67.22.207.123 ( talk) 18:02, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
If you search online you will also come across contemporary race ideologists appropriating Kuyper and quite content to quote him as self-evidently in their camp. E.g. http://faithandheritage.com/2014/10/presentation-christianity-and-race/
References
Also well-represented in academic literature, this topic deserves inclusion so I offer the following notes in the hope that honest and fair-minded people will see a way to work it in without an edit war.
Kuyper openly opposed (especially violent) anti-semitism while still expressing a position that Jewish and non-Jewish people regarded as deeply anti-semitic in Kuyper's time and after. As with his remarks on other races and nations, he offers praise and makes compliments, but he also adds a lot of qualification, broad-brush criticism, and mitigating speech that fits in with a troubling tendency at that time to suggest Jews didn’t deserve persecution that they nevertheless brought upon themselves. This type of “anti-anti-semitism” is deeply paternalistic bigotry that cowardly condemns persecution while also rationalizing and thus enabling it. It is far from defending and standing with the victim.
Kuyper’s Anti-Semitism in the Context of Dutch Calvinist Theo-Political Ideology
Dutch Calvinist factions differed on their understanding of the Jews, but all were theo-political in their assumptions and reasoning. There was no idea of “conversion” as such in Calvinism, but the Jews were essential to eschatological beliefs. The end times approached as the gospel was preached to all people, so it had to be preached to all people, even if it was quite certain they would not convert or could not convert as in the case of the Jews. St. Paul spoke of a spiritual remnant of Israel that would finally repent in the end, but for now God had hardened their hearts. For this reason only the Afgescheidenen Calvinist faction who believed the end of history was near (or wanted to hasten it) were focused on missions to the Jews. Kuyper and the other faction, the Dolerenden, were focused instead on triumphing over unbelief in the political realm.
Since Kuyper’s faction was opposed to the secularization of society, they had a problem with the fact that all Dutch Jews from the orthodox to secular
Kuyper’s threat to take away Dutch Jews’ citizenship was not something he pursued later as prime minister, but leading up to that time he fought a political culture war against them.
In 1896 Kuyper changed the stance of his church on Jewish missions, making it a priority in order to combat Judaism. With a supersessionist theology now, the church was to be seen as the new Israel and the only one to be restored in the future. The Jewish mission was a “spiritual war” “to hit Judaism in the heart.” Converts were few but were regarded as no longer being Jews. The point was simply to assert Christian superiority and put Jews in their place, meanwhile Kuyper sought allies in the Catholics, formerly the main enemy of the ARP. Anti-semitism went up, anti-catholicism went down. The Messiasbode (Herald of the Messiah) newspaper of the Jewish Mission denounced Jews for blasphemy (rejecting Jesus) and warned of divine vengeance, specifically in the form of Hitler who would act as Assyria had in the Old Testament--as a scourge of God against Israel. Van Klinken says this led to or helped rationalize passive and supportive Dutch responses to the Nazis. Once the Nazis began rounding Jews up in thee occupation, van Klinken argues the Dutch Calvinists who resisted this tended to be the milleniallists who thought Hitler's "final solution" must be a Satanic plan to thwart God’s plan/Christian eschatology regarding the remnant of Israel.
Key Primary Sources
In Liberalisten en Joden / Liberals and Jews (a series of newspaper articles from 1878) Kuyper attacks Jews for subverting Christian Europe under the cover of liberalism. Kuyper compliments Jews for cultural traits and achievements he approves of, but he is critical of them for things he dislikes about them. He compared Reform Jews to modernist, liberal theologians he opposed in theology, calling them all apostates. He saw secular Jews as powerful but dangerous thinkers (e.g., Spinoza, Marx, Heine) -- dangerous not because they are Jewish but because as secularized Jews they absorbed radical aspects of European thought. Orthodox Jews he respected but saw as a problem to be solved with conversion and assimilation. Kuyper disliked what he claimed was an undue influence from Jews in journalism and finance. He was against the Russian pogroms and violent anti-semitism, but he claimed that Zionism and Jews serving as agents of the Russian government precipitated violent reactions. He suggested a solution to “the Jewish problem” in the establishment of a Jewish state, possibly in eastern Russia.
In Antirevolutionaire Staatkunde (1917) / Anti-Revolutionary Politics) Kuyper actually said anti-semitism did not exist in the Netherlands (as in Germany) because Calvinists loved the Old Testament more than Lutherans.
Secondary Sources
Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia Of Prejudice And Persecution, Volume 1 Richard S. Lev, ed. ABC-CLIO (May 24, 2005)
Gert J. van Klinken, ”Jewish Conversion as an Aim of the Reformed Churches” in Cultures of Conversions. Bremmer, Jan N, Wout Jac van Bekkum, and Arie L Molendijk, eds. Peeters Pub & Booksellers, 2006.
Louis Praamsma, Let Christ Be King: Reflections on the Life and Times of Abraham Kuyper (Ontario: Paideia Press, 1985) - This book from a neocalvinist press takes a very uncritical, hagiographical approach to Kuyper’s sources and “worldview” based in German romanticism and historicism, which it fully acknowledges and explains at the beginning without discussing anything problematic about these lines of thought. In discussion of Liberalism and the Jews Praamsma says Kuyper “exposed the undue influence of the Jews in the financial world and the press” as if he believes it to be a true and unproblematic statement.
67.22.194.101 ( talk) 07:26, 27 July 2012 (UTC)
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Abraham Kuyper/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
This article has a commendable amount of detail and is in general in pretty good shape. It might well be worth putting up as a Good Article candidate if a couple of improvements were made. It needs citations (one per paragraph is a good rule) and it needs a thorough copyedit. There are quite a few places where it lacks needed apostrophes or commas, has extra commas, or has small typos. MLilburne 08:11, 26 October 2006 (UTC) |
Last edited at 08:11, 26 October 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 06:31, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Abraham Kuyper. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{
Sourcecheck}}
).
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 22:26, 2 October 2016 (UTC)
Is there any evidence that his surname was originally "Kuijper"? When I looked at the Dutch wiki page on him, the only name I saw was "Kuyper" Academicoffee71 ( talk) 16:24, 14 September 2017 (UTC)