Document: Frank Vanden Berg, Abraham Kuyper (Jordan Station, ON.: Paideia Press, 1978).

Excerpt: The story of Dr. Abraham Kuyper’s life and work takes us across the sea to historic Holland, for Holland was his country. There he was born in 1837. There he spent his long and active life. There he died in 1920. And all Holland is his grave. Nehemiah 4:18 reads, in part: “And the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded.” So, but in a figurative sense, did Kuyper. Primarily and essentially a builder in the major areas of religion and the church, of education and the university, of politics and government, he had to fight it out on every front. Dr. Kuyper was indeed a controversial figure; in Holland he was at once the most devotedly loved and most violently hated man of his day. Yet, out of the monumental labors and bitter conflicts of fifty years he emerged a national figure of commanding stature.

The story of Dr. Kuyper’s far-flung career constitutes a saga in the history of modern Holland. Notably significant, too, is the fact that his work lives on. When Kuyper died in 1920 at the age of 83, able co-workers and successors carried his life work forward without a break. Even today, many years after his death, the spirit of Kuyper still hovers over the cities and the fields of Holland. This biography has a single purpose: to introduce Dr. Abraham Kuyper to the general reader. Its chapters are intended to give a factual and interpretive account of the days of Kuyper’s years.

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Abraham Kuyper – F. Vanden Berg.pdf