Whilst common grace as a theological concept offers an answer to a genuine theological tension (outlined in part two), the motivating force in Abraham Kuyper’s development of the doctrine was practical: “Faith-based politics requires some common ground with people of fundamentally different convictions – at least to establish mutual intelligibility and respect for the rules of the game, and at most to build coalitions on issues of common interest” (Bratt : 2013, 198). But even if it was elicited by practical concerns, it was nevertheless a theological investigation. “He unfolded the concept in his theology column in De Heraut over a six-year period – from September 1895, soon after he had re-entered Parliament, until July 1901, when he was forming the cabinet.” (Bratt : 2013, 197-198) and the columns were published in the three volumes of De Gemeene Gratie (Common Grace) concurrently with his term as Prime Minister from 1901 to 1905. Kuyper has been most famous in the English speaking world for his Lectures on Calvinism delivered in English at Princeton in 1898. This set of six lectures present a confessional Calvinist Christian vision for the whole of life and are deeply informed by Kuyper’s concurrent writing of De Gemeene Gratie in Dutch. Although the concerns were brought to the fore by Kuyper’s re-engagement with national politics, the theological programme he developed in De Gemeene Gratie represents a formalising of principles which had informed his wider social programme: as a church reformer, education reformer, journalist for at least the two preceding decades. Others in his orbit had written in a similar vein, notably Herman Bavinck’s rectoral address to the Theological School at Kampen at the end of 1894 (Bavinck : 1989).
In setting out to develop what he wishes to be a coherent and complete statement of a doctrine which he sees latent in Calvin he starts by engaging with Institutes 2.3.3. which concerns the corrupt nature of man. He notes that “When in the footsteps of Calvin, the attention primarily of Reformed theologians was specially directed to this extremely important subject, they managed to work out its main features, but without devoting a separate chapter to it. The subject was treated mostly in connection with “the virtues of the heathen,” “civic righteousness,” “the natural knowledge of God,” and so on, but without ever arranging all the various elements belonging to this subject into one ordered, coherent discussion.” (Kuyper : 2015, 7).
REFERENCES
Bavinck, Herman. 1989. De algemeene genade, rede bij de overdracht van het rectoraat aan de theologische school te kampen op 6 december 1894 (kampen: Zalsman, 1894); ET: “Herman Bavinck’s ‘Common grace,’ ” trans. R. C. van leeuwen. Calvin Theological Journal 24 (1): 36-65.
Bratt, James D. 2013. Abraham kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat Eerdmans.
Kuyper, Abraham. 2015. Common Grace (Volume 1): God’s Gifts for a Fallen World (Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology) Lexham Press.