I am in the process of reading through the first volume of Abraham Kuyper’s Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World. About halfway through the introductory materials, I had the thought that I ought to review this book for Schaeffer’s Ghost. About two paragraphs into Kuyper’s prologue, I had the thought that I ought to write a review of those two paragraphs. What’s probably a realistic (if not quite golden) mean between a line-by-line commentary and a single review of eighteen hundred pages worth of material is my loose plan to read through and publicly comment on (on this site) what I’m reading in Kuyper.
The plan is that every Tuesday I’ll tap out a few words summarizing/commenting on what I’ve read during the previous week. You are all welcome to read along/comment along/respond with me.* I don’t have a set schedule, but in an ideal world I’ll be reading five chapters a week over the course of roughly fifteen weeks, give or take. This isn’t intended to be either a sprint or a marathon, it’s just a leisurely stroll through a book that has been unavailable in English until very, very recently.
If you’re new to Kuyper, let me recommend that instead of tackling a project like this, you read one of the following:
- Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat by James Bratt
- Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, by James Bratt (ed)
- Lectures on Calvinism, by Abraham Kuyper
- Rooted & Grounded: The Church as Organism and Institution, by Abraham Kuyper
- Wisdom and Wonder, by Abraham Kuyper
- Our Worship, by Abraham Kuyper
If you’re not new to Kuyper and do want to read along (or if you’re the bold-charge-ahead type), I’ll be using the Lexham Press version of the book. I think this might be the only one available in English, but don’t quote me on that.
In any case, I hope those of you who read along will enjoy it. And those of you who don’t, well, please do dig into Kuyper elsewhere. He really is worthwhile.
*And no, I will be neither disappointed nor surprised if I’m flying solo here–I’m under no illusions about how many people read this blog. In fact, I know that on average it is .00000005% of the population of the planet earth.
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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