Scholarship: Two Convocation Addresses on University Life

by Abraham Kuyper

Publisher:

Lexham Press

, 2015

Overview

In Scholarship, Dutch scholar and theologian Abraham Kuyper discusses the true focus of Christian education, explaining that scholarly study is a calling meant to help us better know the Creator. Kuyper originally delivered these two speeches as convocation addresses to the students at the Free University of Amsterdam, which he founded.

Contents

Top Highlights

“A scholar’s mission in life should be to serve and not to be served.” (source)

“I mean that you place yourself with all your academic hopes and dreams before the face of God in such a way that praying for your studies flows naturally from it and is not attached to it as an afterthought.” (source)

“And scholars, far from being able to do without that faith, must begin by being rich in that faith if they are ever to feel their heart stir with the holy impulse that drives them to engage in true scholarship.” (source)

“What should be the goal of university study and the goal of living and working in the sacred domain of scholarship?” (source)

“Scolastica dissolved into Politica. Worse, a desire to break down the faith instead of shoring it up became for many the principal motive for doing scholarship. At last the evil, narrow-minded selfishness arrived that sees no higher purpose in the academy than to assist its visitors as quickly as possible in preparing them for what is called a ‘position.’ The first stage caused the academy to forfeit its freedom, the second set it in opposition to God, and the third lowered it to the level of studying to pass the exams.” (source)

Product Details

• Title: Scholarship: Two Convocation Addresses on University Life
• Author: Abraham Kuyper
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Kuyper, Abraham, 1837-1920; Christian life › Conduct of life; Christian life › Reformed authors
• Resource ID: LLS:TEASELEXKUYPSCHOL
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T06:15:19Z

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.

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