Pro Rege (Volume 1): Living Under Christ the King

by Abraham Kuyper, John H. Kok (Editor)

Overview

How do Christians bridge the divide between our lives inside and outside the church?

Abraham Kuyper believed that a healthy view of Jesus' kingship was essential to closing that gap. In this first volume of Pro Rege, Kuyper discusses how Satan's kingdom opposes, undermines, and obscures Christ's kingship. He then lays out the kingship of Christ according to Scripture. From his vantage point at the dawn of the 20th century, Kuyper explains the scope of Christ's dominion over all of life in his own culture—yet does so in a way that also strikingly impacts the 21st-century reader.

This new translation of Pro Rege, created in partnership with the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society and the Acton Institute, is part of a major series of new translations of Kuyper's most important writings. The Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology marks a historic moment in Kuyper studies, aimed at deepening and enriching the church's development of public theology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781577996545
Publisher:	Lexham Press
Publication date:	07/13/2016
Series:	Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a leading Dutch figure in education, politics, and theology. He was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, was appointed to Parliament, and served as prime minister. Kuyper also founded the Free University (VU) in Amsterdam, a political party, and a denomination, in addition to writing on a dizzying array of subjects.

John H. Kok (Ph.D., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is professor of philosophy emeritus at Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA, and managing director of Dordt College Press. He also served as dean for research and scholarship and director of the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service until his retirement in 2014. He is author, editor, and translator of numerous works, including studies of and works by D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, one of the originators of Reformational philosophy, as well as his mentor, Calvin Seerveld.

Table of Contents

General Editors Introduction vii

Editors' Introduction xi

Volume Introduction xiv

Abbreviations xxix

Foreword xxxii

Series I The Darkening of Christ's Kingship 1

I.1 Christ and Muhammad 3

I.2 Darkening among Christian Nations 13

I.3 Darkening in the Church 21

I.4 The General Apostasy 29

I.5 Humanity Is Great 38

I.6 The Religious Sense Diminished 46

I.7 Distracted Thinking 55

I.8 The Great World Cities 65

I.9 The Queen of the World 74

I.10 The Power of Money 83

I.11 The Dominion of Art 91

Series II The Undermining of Christ's Kingship 101

II.1 By the Grace of God 103

II.2 Humanity's Dominion over Nature 112

II.3 Paradise No Longer 120

II.4 Miracles 129

II.5 The Miracles of Christ 137

II.6 The Power Given to Us 145

II.7 The Increase in Our Power 154

II.8 More Shrewd in Dealing with Their Own Generation 163

II.9 The World of the Spirits 172

II.10 The Influence of the Spirit World 181

II.11 Christ and Satan 189

II.12 The Wisdom of the World 197

II.13 Science in Christian Countries 205

II.14 Universalism 214

II.15 Spiritual Unity 222

II.16 The Course of the Centuries 229

Series III The Kingship of Christ according to Scripture 237

III.1 The Notion of King 239

III.2 Dominion 247

III.3 Derived Authority 255

III.4 No Spiritualization 264

III.5 Universally Human 273

III.6 The Second Adam 282

III.7 Both Head and King 290

III.8 The Curse on Capernaum 299

III.9 The Spirits Subjected to Him 308

III.10 King as Mediator 317

III.11 The Messiah 325

III.12 King of Israel 334

III.13 John the Baptist 343

III.14 Triumph of the Higher Order 352

III.15 Connection with Life 361

III.16 A Temporary Situation 370

III.17 The Existing Order Maintained 379

III.18 The Salvation of the World 387

III.19 Preparation, Establishment, Development, and Consummation 396

III.20 The Return of the King 405

III.21 The Revelation on Patmos 414

III.22 The Two Kingdoms 423

III.23 Mystical and Instrumental 432

III.24 The Ubermensch 440

III.25 Knowledge and Authority 448

III.26 Divine Capacity 456

III.27 The Holy Spirit 464

III.28 Summary 473

Bibliography 481

About Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) 483

About the Contributors 485

Subject/Author Index 487

Scripture Index 503

Editorial Reviews

In an era when Christ's kingship has taken a back seat to his priestly and prophetic ministries, Abraham Kuyper's Pro Rege restores it to its rightful place. Kuyper provides a powerful biblical theology of Christ's kingly ministry, and applies that kingship across the whole range of society and culture, including art, science, politics, education, commerce, and family.
—Bruce Ashford, provost, dean of the faculty, and professor of theology and culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

As we gain access to a growing volume of the writings of Abraham Kuyper in English translation we are ever more able to consider his life and work as an intriguing case study in discipleship. In Pro Rege we see Kuyper trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in his place and time: the Netherlands of the late 19th and early 20th century. In retrospect some of his moves seem obviously misguided, others startlingly prescient. For me Kuyper's reflections raise one big question, and it is a question of practice: What does it mean to follow Jesus here, now?
—Gideon Strauss, PhD, associate professor of worldview studies, Institute for Christian Studies (Toronto); senior fellow, The Center for Public Justice (Washington, D.C.)

This English translation of Kuyper's Pro Rege unveils for us his mature thinking on the multiple dimensions of Christ's reign in the face of gifts and challenges of the modern world. The first volume creates great anticipation for the publication of the remaining translations and offers the church an insightful and challenging series of reflections that have relevance far beyond Kuyper's day.
—Vincent Bacote, associate professor of theology, director of Center for Applied Christian Ethics

"'Every square inch of the whole of reality.' Looking back on my undergraduate experience, there was one belief that caught me, took all of me, and over the years formed me; Abraham Kuyper's famous words captured that conviction, his passion becoming mine. The heart of this new English translation of Pro Rege is that same vision, viz. that Christ is King over the entire life of the world. But that is a contentious, difficult belief in any age, in every age. In the early years of the 21st century, full as they are of pluralization, secularization, and globalization, we feel certain that a biblically-born faith has never been more difficult to work out in the public life of the world. While our moment in history has its complex, even immense challenges, the great gift of Kuyper's magisterial work is the profound way that he took on these same questions in his time and place. With historical and sociological insight, with psychological and philosophical attentiveness, reading the world as he read the Word, he set forth an exhaustively-imagined account of the sovereignty of God over all things in heaven and on earth. Theologically rich, biblically grounded, Kuyper was passionately committed to helping ordinary people in ordinary places understand the meaning of their faith for life, always speaking to "the real world in which most people live their daily lives." Pro Rege is a masterpiece, and my hope is that people all over the world will become his students, entering into his wisdom about the perennial challenge of understanding the world and our place in it.
—Steven Garber, Principal, The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation & Culture; author of Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good

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