Download This PaperThe Biography and Biology of Liberty: Abraham Kuyper and the American Experiment
Luis Lugo, ed., Religion, Pluralism, and Public Life: Abraham Kuyper's Legacy for the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000), 243-262.
18 Pages Posted: 7 Aug 2011 Last revised: 14 Jan 2020
Date Written: 2000
Abstract
This Article reviews the theory of rights and liberties developed by Dutch theologian, philosopher, and statesman Abraham Kuyper at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing generously on the Calvinist tradition, Kuyper distinguished religious, ecclesiastical, associational, and political liberties, which he grounded in his signature theories of the created order, social pluralism, covenant doctrine, and sphere sovereignty. The Article then compares Kuyper’s theory of liberty with one historical Calvinist community in Puritan New England.
Keywords: Abraham Kuyper, John Calvin, Puritan
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John Witte (Contact Author)
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