Rich Mouw Speaks Out About Tim Keller, Kuyper, and Princeton

Rich Mouw Speaks Out About Tim Keller, Kuyper, and Princeton March 27, 2017

princetonsemMany have followed the recent un-offering of the Kuyper Prize by Princeton Seminary to Tim Keller. I’ve spoken up here and for the Center for Public Theology at Midwestern Seminary.

Rich Mouw, former President of Fuller Theological Seminary, just added his own weighty voice to the matter. Mouw won the Kuyper Prize in days past, and has written extensively about Kuyper and his influence, and lends a statesmanlike presence to this whole shameful affair. As stated in his Christianity Today piece, Mouw clearly views the un-offering as lamentable:

An important question for many of us now is: What happens next? What will this mean for the future? Several of us who have received the Kuyper Prize in the past have gone on record as holding to the traditional view of sexuality and marriage. Is there a new litmus test? Would folks like us automatically be ruled out as being too much like Keller on at least one key issue?

The Kuyperian movement, once confined primarily to pockets of Dutch Calvinism in North America and the Netherlands, is growing internationally. Serious work on Kuyper’s thought is happening, for example, in mainland China. And the strengthened sense of a global movement has been stimulated in part in recent years by the Kuyper events at Princeton Seminary. For this we can be grateful.

Even if this—the 20th year for the annual gathering—is the last, it has been a good run. My own Kuyperian PhD students have actively participated in the conferences, presenting papers and forming networks of peers. The folks at the seminary have been gracious hosts. And even if the welcome mat is now being pulled away from the likes of us, we can thank the Lord—and Princeton—for something that was very good while it lasted.

Read the whole thing.

Mouw would disagree with me on some matters of theology, but he is–like Stan Gundry and others–a gracious and wise man. I once got to host him while working for the Henry Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and thoroughly enjoyed the time with him. I appreciate this word from him very much, and I am thankful that CT ran it.

Mouw is quite right that the “welcome mat is now being pulled away” from any who affirm complementarity in terms of roles and/or sexuality. How sad this is, and how wrong. Kuyper himself could not receive his own prize. Let us hope and pray for better days ahead.

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(Image: Princeton Seminary via Wikimedia Commons)


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