Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was the greatest and most controversial figure in the Calvinist renaissance that took place at the conclusion of the nineteenth century and the opening of the twentieth in The Netherlands. He established a Christian newspaper, was elected member of parliament in 1874 and was instrumental in the organization of a Christian political party. In 1880 he helped to found the Free University of Amsterdam and regularly served as a professor of theology there. In 1886 he took the leading role in forming what subsequently became the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, and in 1901 he became Minister-President of The Netherlands.
Kuyper visited Princeton in 1898 and delivered the Stone Lectures that year, his famous Lectures on Calvinism. Kuyper's worldview, as presented in his hundreds of articles, pamphlets, and books, profoundly affected the development of Reformed theology especially in The Netherlands, the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Korea.
Paper proposals are invited on any aspect of Kuyper's conception of Calvinism, but will be especially welcome if they explicitly address the idea of civil society as a set of sovereign spheres that together constitute a crucial counterbalance to both radical individualism and political statism. Four sub-themes of particular interest are these:
- Education as a sovereign sphere
- Economics as a sovereign sphere
- Neo-Calvinism, art, and culture
- Individuals, faith communities, and the state
Papers selected for inclusion in these sub-themes will run concurrently. In addition, each block of concurrent sessions will include a session reserved for a graduate student paper. Instructions on the form and deadline for paper proposals, including papers by graduate students, may be found at the conference website.
