The reception of aquinas in Kuyper’s Encyclopaedie der heilige Godgeleerdheid

James Eglinton*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter explores the reception of Thomas Aquinas in modern Dutch Reformed theology. It does so by focusing on Abraham Kuyper’s Encyclopaedie der heilige Godgeleerdheid (1894), one of that period’s most important, extensive, and subsequently neglected texts. As the architect of the neo-Calvinist movement-a resurgent form of Reformed theology that attempted to be recognizably orthodox and modern-Kuyper rose to a position of national influence, reimagining Dutch Reformed theology, establishing the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880, and serving as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 until 1905. This chapter charts the place of Aquinas in the Encyclopaedie-intended by Kuyper to be his magnum opus-noting the particular epistemological, historiographical, and theological commitments that led him to present neo-Calvinism as a paradigm shift of comparable significance in modernity to Aquinas’ achievements in the medieval period.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Oxford Handbook of the Reception of Aquinas
EditorsMatthew Levering, Marcus Plested
PublisherOxford University Press
Chapter28
Pages452-467
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9780191840906
ISBN (Print)9780198798026
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Mar 2021

Publication series

NameOxford Handbooks
PublisherOxford University Press

Keywords

  • Aquinas
  • Kuyper
  • modernity
  • neo-Calvinism
  • Reformed theology

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