Pro Rege: Living under Christ’s Kingship, Volume 2

by Abraham Kuyper

Publishers:

Lexham Press; Acton Institute

, 2017

Living under Christ’s Kingship

Abraham Kuyper firmly believed that Jesus Christ is King not just of Christians, but of the entire cosmos.

In Pro Rege, Kuyper examines how the authority of Jesus impacts all areas of life. For this Dutch theologian, politician, journalist, and educator, it was nonsense to distinguish between Christian life inside and outside the church. If Jesus is indeed King of creation, he should be honored as such; his authority must be advanced in all spheres, both sacred and secular. In this second volume, Kuyper continues his work of explaining the scope of Christ’s kingship by examining how Jesus’ rule functions in the regenerated human heart. He then begins to explore how Christ’s authority should manifest itself —beginning with the life of the church and the Christian family.

Praise for Pro Rege

As we gain access to a growing volume of the writings of Abraham Kuyper in English translation we are ever more able to consider his life and work as an intriguing case study in discipleship. In Pro Rege we see Kuyper trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in his place and time: the Netherlands of the late 19th and early 20th century. In retrospect some of his moves seem obviously misguided, others startlingly prescient. For me Kuyper's reflections raise one big question, and it is a question of practice: What does it mean to follow Jesus here, now?

—Gideon Strauss, Associate professor of worldview studies, Institute for Christian Studies; senior fellow, The Center for Public Justice

In the early years of the 21st century, full as they are of pluralization, secularization, and globalization, we feel certain that a biblically-born faith has never been more difficult to work out in the public life of the world. While our moment in history has its complex, even immense challenges, the great gift of Kuyper’s magisterial work is the profound way that he took on these same questions in his time and place. With historical and sociological insight, with psychological and philosophical attentiveness, reading the world as he read the Word, he set forth an exhaustively-imagined account of the sovereignty of God over all things in heaven and on earth. Theologically rich, biblically grounded, Kuyper was passionately committed to helping ordinary people in ordinary places understand the meaning of their faith for life, always speaking to “the real world in which most people live their daily lives.” Pro Rege is a masterpiece, and my hope is that people all over the world will become his students, entering into his wisdom about the perennial challenge of understanding the world and our place in it.

—Steven Garber, Principal, The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation & Culture

The English translation of the first volume of Kuyper's Pro Rege unveiled for us his mature thinking on the multiple dimensions of Christ's reign in the face of gifts and challenges of the modern world. It created great anticipation for the publication of the remaining translations and offers the church an insightful and challenging series of reflections that have relevance far beyond Kuyper's day.

—Vincent Bacote, Associate professor of theology and director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics, Wheaton College

The Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology

Lexham Press is pleased to announce the publication of a major series of new translations of Kuyper’s writings in public theology. Created in partnership with the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society and the Acton Institute, the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology will mark a historic moment in Kuyper studies, and we hope it will deepen and enrich the church’s interest and engagement in public theology.

 

Top Highlights

“Our civil life finds its origin in creation, but the origin of church life is located in grace” (Page 302)

“it is only when he succeeds in this that his family may be called a Christian family” (Page 334)

“The elderly among us will still remember how the essence of infant baptism was obscured by a long talk addressed to the parents about the rearing of their children, and how at the Lord’s Supper the minister’s moving, sentimental discourse seemed for many what it was all about. History demonstrates, however, that this abuse disappears again whenever faith makes its return. By now baptism and the Lord’s Supper have been restored to their former position of primacy, and the pastor’s stirring speeches have been replaced by the simple reading of a passage from the Word or a brief exhortation, so that the sacraments are once again beginning to shine in all their glory.” (Page 142)

“There is church life, but our civil life has an altogether different nature. Family and society, state, as well as art and science can all be counted as part of this wider sphere of civil life.” (Page 301)

“The Bible places even greater emphasis on the battle we must wage for Christ as our King than it does on our confession and witness, and on the cross that is ours to bear.” (Page 48)

Contents

• Editors’ Introduction by John Kok and Nelson D. Kloosterman
• Volume Introduction by Govert Buijs
• Series I: Christ’s Kingship and His Subjects
  • A People of His Own
  • The Bond of Love
  • Confessing Our King
  • Being Witnesses
  • Bearing Our Cross
  • Soldiers of Our King
  • Denying Ourselves for Our King
  • Always Ready!
  • Conformed to the Image of His Son
  • Pilgrims
  • The New Commandment
• Series II: Christ’s Kingship in His Church
  • The Mystical Body
  • The Visible Church
  • The Calling of the Disciples
  • The Training of the Apostles
  • The Holy Sacraments
  • Church Federation
  • Dwelling in His Church
  • Broken Unity
  • The Constitutive Significance of the Sacraments for the Church
  • The Church and the Holy Scriptures
  • The Disintegration of the Church
  • The Worldly Church

• A Unique People
• No King without a People
• Neighboring Churches
• Parish System
• The Shepherd’s Care
• Training for the Ministry
• Tempted to Blasphemy
• Private Initiative
• Philanthropy
• Summary
• Series III: Christ’s Kingship and the Family
  • The Family in Not a New Creation
  • Christian Family
  • Corruption of the Best
  • Christ as the Head of the Husband
  • The Husband as the Head of His Wife
  • Feminism I
  • Feminism II
  • Children
  • Authority
  • Servants
  • Contact with the Outside World
  • The Family Altar
  • The Family and the Church
  • Work in the Family
  • Poverty in the Family
  • The Care for the Body
  • Nurture
  • The Unity of the Family

Product Details

• Title: Pro Rege: Living under Christ’s Kingship: Volume 2
• Author: Abraham Kuyper
• Translator: Albert Gootjes
• Volume Editors: John Kok & Nelson D. Kloosterman
• Series Editors: Melvin Flikkema & Jordan J. Ballor
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Pages: 545
• Format: Logos Digital, Hardcover
• Trim Size: 7x10
• ISBN: 9781577996712

About Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905. He founded the Free University in Amsterdam and served as a professor of theology. At the invitation of B. B. Warfield, Kuyper traveled to the United States to deliver the Stone Lectures at Princeton and address Reformed congregations in Michigan and Iowa.

Kuyper studied at the University of Leiden, and received his doctorate there in 1863. He became a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1863, and consistently called for the separation of church and state. He also led a secession from the Dutch Reformed Church and united several disparate Reformed churches in the Netherlands.

Kuyper also led an active political life. He served as a member of Parliament in the Netherlands beginning in 1874 and served as prime minister from 1901–1905.

Abraham Kuyper was instrumental in the development of Neocalvinism, and is remembered for his articulation of common grace and for popularizing the notion of a Reformed worldview. He has influenced such notable figures as Francis Schaeffer, Cornelius Van Til, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Chuck Colson.

Some of Kuyper’s publications, which are available in Logos, include Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art, The Antithesis between Symbolism and Revelation, and Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology: Its Principles.