Neo-Calvinism in the context of "Christian democracy"

⭐ In the context of Christian democracy, Neo-Calvinism is considered…

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⭐ Core Definition: Neo-Calvinism

Neo-Calvinism is a Calvinist theological movement that was initiated in the late-19th century in the Netherlands. It was originally developed by theologians like Abraham Kuyper, a former Dutch prime minister, and Herman Bavinck who insisted on holding fast to historic Calvinistic thinking, but with a willingness to actively engage in every new context offered by a modern and pluralistic society. In this regard, Kuyper famously stated:

While Neo-Calvinism originated in the Netherlands, it later found prominence in the United States, initially through Dutch immigrant theologians like Geerhardus Vos and Cornelius Van Til in the 20th century. It has since gained wider appeal in the United States and other countries, such as the United Kingdom and China.

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👉 Neo-Calvinism in the context of Christian democracy

Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.

Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well as the Neo-Calvinist tradition within Christianity; it later gained ground with Lutherans and Pentecostals, among other denominational traditions of Christianity in various parts of the world. During the nineteenth century, its principal concerns were to reconcile Catholicism with democracy, to answer the "social question" surrounding capitalism and the working class, and to resolve the tensions between church and state. In the twentieth century, Christian democrats led postwar Western and Southern Europe in building modern welfare states and constructing the European Union. Furthermore, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, Christian democracy has gained support in Eastern Europe among former communist states suffering from corruption and stagnation.

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Neo-Calvinism in the context of Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper (/ˈkaɪpər/ KY-pər; Dutch: [ˈaːbraːɦɑm ˈkœypər]; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist pastor and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upon its foundation became the second largest Reformed denomination in the country behind the state-supported Dutch Reformed Church.

In addition, he founded the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and a newspaper. In religious affairs, he sought to adapt the Dutch Reformed Church to challenges posed by the loss of state financial aid and by increasing religious pluralism in the wake of splits that the church had undergone in the 19th century, rising Dutch nationalism, and the Arminian religious revivals of his day which denied predestination. He vigorously denounced modernism in theology as a fad that would pass away. In politics, he dominated the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) from its founding in 1879 to his death in 1920. He promoted pillarisation, the social expression of the anti-thesis in public life, whereby Protestant, Catholic and secular elements each had their own independent schools, universities and social organisations.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Christian democracy ← Christian democratic ← Christian democrat ← Abraham Kuyper ← Christian democrats
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Calvinism → Netherlands → Theology → Abraham Kuyper → Herman Bavinck → Geerhardus Vos → Cornelius Van Til →