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216 James D. Bratt It Cannot Have Been Easy to Write up the Life of a Man Who Was, in the Words of Marknoll,Atoneandthesametimea

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216 James D. Bratt It Cannot Have Been Easy to Write up the Life of a Man Who Was, in the Words of Marknoll,Atoneandthesametimea 216 book reviews James D. Bratt Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat, with a Foreword by Mark A. Noll (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 455 pp., US$30.00, ISBN 9780802869067. It cannot have been easy to write up the life of a man who was, in the words of Mark Noll, at one and the same time a “humble Christian, arrogant steamroller, sensitive theologian, populist stem-winder, wily politician, principled states- man.” Yet this American biography of one of Holland’s most noted churchmen and statesmen manages the job with remarkable success. Bratt divides the life of Kuyper into three phases: Foundations (1837–1877), Constructions (1877–1897), and Shadows (1898–1920). The first phase (chap. 1– 5, 106 pp.) covers the formative years that launched Kuyper first as a pastor and then as a politician. This phase ends with a chapter on the Brighton episode (Kuyper’s brush with a “second blessing” with the Holy Spirit). This chapter, with its wide-ranging background information, must rank among the most illu- minating portions of the book—and indeed of the Kuyper literature as a whole. It sheds new light on this pivotal juncture in Kuyper’s personal life as well as his public theology and the mode of operation he now adopted for him- self. (For this reason alone the Dutch may well want to see this book about “their” Kuyper translated into their language.) Kuyper’s new strategy meant that for the time being he declined all formal offices. Instead, he turned to writing with dogged patience in his daily and weekly newspapers, inform- ing, instructing and mobilizing the people he could count on to support his vision for a Christian engagement with the politics and culture of his coun- try. The next phase (chap. 6–12, 148 pp.) first deals with Kuyper as an irrepress- ible crusading activist who was deeply involved in all the details of not only organizing a grass-roots political party but also a university of the people and a confessional church denomination. These chapters are followed by an in-depth treatment of Kuyper as a theologian of the church and a philosopher—and critic—of culture. The description of these twenty years of “constructions” are outstanding in both their narrative recounting and their probing analyses and empathetic interpretations. The third phase (chap. 13–18, 122 pp.) takes the reader from the peaks of Stone Lecturer and Prime Minister down to the declining years marked by tensions and disappointments until the end came at age 83. It seemed impossible for the Grand Old Man to bequeath his leadership on so many fronts—especially in the press and political party—to a younger generation. Even so, the changing of the guard is traced step by step. James Bratt closes the story of this rich life with a few pages of ruminations about its legacy at home and abroad. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/15697312-00802009 book reviews 217 Inserted midway the volume are sixteen pages with a delightful selection of portraits and caricatures. The main text has only half a dozen footnotes, but ample documentation appears at the end in more than fifty pages of Notes (unfortunately without running heads). These notes indicate massive reading in both the primary and secondary sources; in addition to providing the source of citations they read like an annotated bibliography that is worth perusing carefully and they should prove highly useful for future research into aspects of Kuyper, his character, career and context. Kuyper could be a poseur, but Bratt does not indulge in a hermeneutic of suspicion. His aim is neither to praise nor to blame, but to understand. He helps us understand the deeply religious motivation at work in this life, without glossing over the follies of ambition, the blemishes of personality, and the contradictions in one who wrote too much for too long. Kuyper’s careless conduct in connection with the “decoration affair” receives no more than the half page it deserves (354–355). Similarly, the ins and outs—both in public and behind closed doors—of the handling of the railroad strike of 1903 are laid out in a forthright but sensitive and balanced way, including a welcome bit of revisionism (309–311). One obvious near-parallel—Bratt does not draw it—is President Reagan’s handling of the 1981 strike by air traffic controllers. A vital public service does not allow of work stoppages, yet workers’ grievances must be investigated, not ignored. A distinctive merit of this biography is that it places Kuyper squarely in his historical context, both nationally (also done by Kasteel, Koch et al.) and inter- nationally (rarely done, if at all). Richly textured prose deftly interweaves the life of Kuyper with the history of his time. Bratt has a keen eye for ideas, trends and movements that are contemporary to Kuyper’s, yet without implying that this synchrony necessarily points to direct influence or that it always condi- tioned or even contributed to Kuyper’s own position. When Kuyper reflects the critical realism of his time and anticipates the epistemological turn to the sub- ject, or when he defends a mass movement’s need of a charismatic leader or parallels the maternal feminism of his day, Bratt adds a “contextual qualifica- tion” that does justice to the man and the unique cast of his mind (214, 353, 361). Similarly, he discusses the many themes in Ons Program—Kuyper’s early full-length introduction to “anti-revolutionary politics”—in the light of late- nineteenth-century developments while also highlighting the special brand of Christian democracy that is developed in its pages (136–148). Another welcome feature is the inclusion of sometimes extensive sum- maries of Kuyper’s major works, most of which are not (yet) available in English. The overviews of Gemeene Gratie and Pro Rege capture the gist of these multi- volume works in short compass (197–204, 335–343). Bratt has also taken the Journal of Reformed Theology 8 (2014) 203–236.
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