On the Church - eBook

A volume from the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology series, On the Church contains seven of Abraham Kuyper's essential essays and speeches on the church as it relates to its surrounding culture. A theologian, pastor, politician, and activist, Kuyper was greatly concerned about not only the state of the Dutch church in his time, but also about the church's role and influence within the modern world. These newly translated works illuminate Kuyper's conviction that Christians must take an active role in the world, a world upheld by God's common grace but standing in need of God's particular grace in Christ.

Kuyper's essays urge Christians to neither hide within the doors of their church buildings nor give in to the temptation to be active in earthly institutions alone, but rather remain "rooted and grounded" (Eph. 3:17)—both in essence and form. Such a church should be Reformed in its confessions; democratic rather than patrician; free instead of coerced; independent of the state; and all this in its doctrine, worship, and work of mercy. Within this anthology, one of the greatest theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries forwards a call to modern Christians to recapture the true call and mission of the church universal—to be a living and life-giving, yet organized and established church.

An introductory essay by Ad de Bruijne answers how Kuyper's doctrine of the church may be applied in the 21st century.