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Do You Have to Be a Calvinist in Order to Be a Kuyperian? in Memoriam John H. Kok

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Do You Have to Be a Calvinist in Order to Be a Kuyperian? in Memoriam John H. Kok Volume 49 Number 3 Article 1 March 2021 Do You Have to be a Calvinist in Order to be a Kuyperian? In Memoriam John H. Kok Eduardo Echeverria Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Echeverria, Eduardo (2021) "Do You Have to be a Calvinist in Order to be a Kuyperian? In Memoriam John H. Kok," Pro Rege: Vol. 49: No. 3, 1 - 18. Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/vol49/iss3/1 This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Digital Collections @ Dordt. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pro Rege by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Do you have to be a Calvinist in order to be a Kuyperian? In Memoriam John H. Kok ment, not only of the common creedal heritage of faith shared by Reformed Christians and Catholic Christianity but also of their common spiritual ene- mies, such as atheism and pantheism. Kuyper wrote, Now, in this conflict [with theological liberal- ism and secularism] Rome is not an antago- nist, but stands on our side, inasmuch as she also recognizes and maintains the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the Cross as an atoning sac- rifice, the Scriptures as the Word of God, and the Ten Commandments as a divinely-imposed rule of life. Therefore, let me ask …[as] Romish theologians take up the sword to do valiant and by Eduardo Echeverria skillful battle against the same tendency that we ourselves mean to fight to the death, is it In the new book by Richard J. Mouw on not the part of wisdom to accept the valuable the neo-Calvinist doctrine of common grace, he help of their elucidation? … I for my part am asks the question that I pose in the title of this es- not ashamed to confess that on many points my say: “Do you have to be a Calvinist in order to be views have been clarified through my study of 4 a Kuyperian?”1 This question is raised in a section the Romish theologians. titled “An Ecumenical Spirit,” where Mouw gives us But there are also Wesyelan neo-Kuyperians, a sense of the ecumenical spirit of neo-Calvinism, such as Richard Middleton. Mouw cites an intro- for example in the works of Abraham Kuyper (1837- ductory remark that Middleton made when Mouw 1921) and other neo-Calvinists, such as Herman was a guest speaker at Robert Wesleyan University: Bavinck (1854-1921) 2 and Al Wolters.3 Kuyper “Like Rich Mouw I am a Kuyperian. But while he is himself wrote in his famous 1898 Princeton Stone a Calvinist Kuyperian, I’m a Wesleyan Kuyperian.”5 Lectures, Lectures on Calvinism, about his alliance Mouw alludes to “folks many of us know who wed with Roman Catholics. There is no false irenicism key neo-Calvinist themes to Lutheran and Catholic on Kuyper’s part. He gives a very articulate state- theological allegiances.” What themes? “[T]he su- preme kingship of Christ, the antithesis, common Dr. Eduardo J. Echeverria is Professor of Philosophy grace, sphere sovereignty.”6 Furthermore, Mouw and Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. cites Al Wolters, who captures what is philosophi- Pro Rege—March 2021 1 cally essential to the Kuyperian tradition,7 namely, expressed, but with the same meaning and the “the philosophical commitment to the constancy same judgment [eodem sensu eademque sententia], is of creation, and to creation as delivered by the cre- another thing.”12 ator, prior to the Fall, as the normative standard The subordinate clause, which I have cited to which creation is being redeemed and restored.”8 in its Latin original, is part of a larger passage Now, I am a “Roman Catholic Kuyperian” who is from the First Vatican Council’s Dogmatic not only deeply committed to the truth of Catholic Constitution on Faith and Reason, Dei Filius doctrines but also affirms Kuyperian themes as (1869-70), which is earlier invoked by Pope Pius listed above by Mouw. Mouw rightly explains that IX in the bull of 1854, Ineffabilis Deus, also cited Kuyperians with Catholic theological allegiances by Pope Leo XIII in his 1899 encyclical letter, have “likely done some serious theological work in Testem benevolentiae Nostrae. This formula in Dei exploring ways in which neo-Calvinist ideas can Filius is itself taken from the Commonitorium of be grounded in non-Calvinist confessional com- St. Vincent of Lérins (445 A.D), a Gallic monk mitments.”9 I agree with Mouw. I would like to and the chief theologian of the Abbey of Lérins: sketch briefly some “meta-Catholic” considerations “Therefore, let there be growth and abundant in which I justify how Kuyperian ideas could be progress in understanding, knowledge, and wis- grounded in Catholic confessional commitments. dom, in each and all, in individuals and in the I am a committed Catholic philosophical whole Church, at all times and in the progress theologian, with roots in the Evangelical and of ages, but only within the proper limits, i.e., Reformed traditions, and a member of the al- within the same dogma, the same meaning, the most twenty-five-year-old American ecumenical same judgment” [in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem initiative, Evangelicals and Catholics Together. My sensu eademque sententia].”13 commitment to ecumenical dialogue with both In this Vincentian light, Vatican II’s Decree traditions is evident from many of my writings.10 on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio (no. 17), As a Catholic scholar, I do philosophical theolo- provides a justification for legitimate differences gy within the normative tradition of confessional in the elaboration of revealed truth, and hence Catholicism, and thus in the light of Catholic for receptive ecumenism: teaching. Yet, all my works manifest an ecumeni- It is hardly surprising, then, if from time to time cal spirit; indeed, they are all works in receptive one tradition has come nearer to a full apprecia- ecumenism, and hence I am listening attentively tion of some aspects of a mystery of revelation to the writings of fellow Christian theologians than the other, or has expressed it to better ad- from other traditions of reflection and argument. vantage. In such cases, these various theological What is receptive ecumenism? The practice of expressions are to be considered often as mu- receptive ecumenism means, “Dialogue is not tually complementary rather than conflicting simply an exchange of ideas. In some way it is ….Thus they promote the right ordering of always an ‘exchange of gifts’ …. Dialogue does Christian life and, indeed, pave the way to a full not extend exclusively to matters of doctrine but vision of Christian truth.14 engages the whole person; it is also a dialogue of love.”11 More exactly, this practice presupposes I have in mind here, for example, Kuyper’s the distinction between propositional truths of three-volume work (1911-1912), Pro Rege: Living un- faith and their formulations in reflecting on the der Christ’s Kingship, where he shows that he has a sense in which a doctrine, already confirmed and fuller appreciation of that aspect of a mystery of rev- defined, is more fully known and deeply under- elation that complements rather than conflicts with stood by another Christian tradition. John XXIII Catholic theology. I turn now to discuss the theme drew this distinction in his opening address at of the Lordship of Christ in a Catholic context. the Second Vatican Council: “For the deposit of Following that discussion, I will consider the themes faith, the truths contained in our venerable doc- of common grace, the antithesis, the normative cre- trine, are one thing; the fashion in which they are ation order, and the purpose of common grace. 2 Pro Rege—March 2021 The Lordship of Christ just with respect to divine revelation, but within its In Pope Pius XI’s Encyclical Letter Quas Primas, own sphere. In Gilson’s own words, On the Kingship of Christ, December 11, 1925, he The great discovery, or rediscovery of Pascal, inserts into the Church’s sacred liturgy the special is to have understood that the Incarnation, by feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. profoundly changing the nature of man, has be- He reflects on the nature and meaning of Christ’s come the only means that there is for us to un- Lordship, essentially arguing that Christ is Lord of derstand man. Such a truth gives a new meaning not only spiritual reality (i.e., eternal salvation) but to our nature, to our birth, to our end …. Let us also temporal realities, indeed of all things created, apply these principles to the exercise of our in- including nature, society, culture, and human exis- telligence; we shall immediately see that that of tence. In sum, Pius explains, the Christian, as opposed to one which knows not Jesus Christ, knows itself to be fallen and If to Christ our Lord is restored, incapable con- given all power in heaven sequently of yielding its and on earth [Matt 28: The Kingship of Christ is, full return without grace, 18]; if all men, purchased then, sovereign over the and, in this sense, just as by his precious blood [1 the royalty of Christ domi- Cor 6:20], are by a new whole man, including nates the order of nature right subjected to his do- his intellect, …. and the order of society, so minion [Phil 2:11]; if this also it dominates the order power embraces all men, it of the intelligence.17 must be clear that not one of our faculties is ex- empt from his empire.
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