Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) dominated the religious and political life of the Netherlands for nearly half a century, and his ideas continue to inspire an international school of thought. This book by Peter Heslam discusses Kuyper's ideas in their context by providing a historical commentary on the book in which they receive their most significant expression, Lectures on Calvinism - a series of six lectures that Kuyper delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898. Heslam begins by reviewing Kuyper's importance to the history of ideas and explaining why Lectures on Calvinism is still of special interest. In the main body of the book Heslam provides a probing analysis of each of the six lectures in turn. Central to Heslam's analysis is a discussion of the motivation of Kuyper's thought: why did he maintain the standpoints he did, and what did he hope to achieve by doing so? In answering this question, Heslam explores Kuyper's position relative to others of his time and in connection with the events of his own career.
Published in the centennial year of Abraham Kuyper's famous Stone Lectures, this volume offers a valuable study of Kuyper's thought and the abiding worldview that is his legacy.