Kuyper’s Separation of Church and State
Kuyper was a Dutch thought leader at the outset of the 20th century, and an ardent Calvinist. Abraham Kuyper makes an interesting check point half way between Roger Williams and today. His thought heritage was Dutch and German, though he professed a great admiration for the American experiment in freedom. This post is a distillation of views of the separation of church and state of Abraham Kuyper as expressed in A Centennial Reader, James D. Bratt Editor, (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., February 13, 1998). Kuyper was, like Roger Williams, first a minister and then a politician.
Kuyper believed firmly in the family as the first and primary institution or sphere of sovereignty in society, an institution given to all mankind as a common grace. In an era before women’s suffrage he went so far as to recommend women that are heads of households (e.g. widows) should be able to vote, so that every family is represented (p. 14). He notes the Bible grants absolute authority to the head of the household in ruling the household.
Kuyper divides humans into two classes, those choosing to be subject to Revelation and the rest. The Revelation he is referring to is scripture as the word of God, and specifically faith in Christ as Lord. Authority is a delegated role from God. However, not all people recognize that authority. For those in denial as to God’s authority, Kuyper says their highest recognized authority is a state. God has delegated authority to the state in all places, as a common grace.
Kuyper claims a sphere of sovereignty with separate delegated authority from God for people of the Revelation — the church. For those not admitting there is Revelation, he claims the state will be their highest recognized authority on earth, and that as a common grace God has given sovereignty to all governments so that even these people are able to benefit from a degree of earthly justice. Kuyper would however, choose to limit the sphere of government authority to a bare minimum, and encourage as many other secondary spheres as can be organized. He was a promoter of spheres akin to the guilds of old, that united workers and managers toward the creation of excellence in a field of study or craft, and toward making that field competitive in a global market. Kuyper recognized institutions of higher learning as an example field deserving of a secondary sphere of sovereignty. He also promoted local governments to restrain the powers of a national government, seeking balance.
Wherever possible Kuyper promoted separate secondary spheres of sovereignty for people voluntarily subject to Revelation from their secular counterparts. That is because Revelation affects every sphere of life. For example the Bible recommends Christians not be unequally yoked in marraige such that there are families subject to Revelation, and other secular families. Similarly, he argued for Christian universities set apart from secular institutions. The most famous Kuyper quote of all is from an essay setting up a Christian University, “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existance over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: Mine!” (p. 488) Some Christians in our time use that quote to say that church and state should not be separated, that the law should be based on Biblical law.
That was not however Kuyper’s conclusion. Kuyper lived in a time of massive secularization and wrote extensively on how people of the Revelation must relate to the larger society. In fact, Kuyper claimed that Calvin himself laid the seeds for separation of church and state, though Calvin himself may not have recognized the term. Kuyper notes, “Finally as to separation of church and state: he [Calvin] certainly linked those closely in Geneva, but it should not be forgotten that in Poland as well in Hungary and in France he established free churches that had no tie with state whatsoever.” (p. 306) Calvin also laid the seed for freedom of conscience when he advocated for tolerance for differences between people voluntarily subject to Revelation noting there is none on earth to fully qualified to judge. He declared, “for there is none whose mind is not darkened by some cloud of ignorance.” It was under this guise that house churches deviating from state practices were first tolerated in the Dutch Republic and later in England’s “Act of Toleration”. However, Kuyper notes it is America where the seeds of Calvinism reach their logical conclusion of “freedom for all forms of worship and each individual conscience” (p. 305).
If church and state are to be separated, Kuyper asks how then are they to relate to each other when there are people voluntarily subject to Revelation in the land? Roger Williams was mired in the practical consideration of making the civil state strong enough to compel order and never got further than refusing to sanction any church, or any language about church in state documents. Kuyper wants a church and state separate, but in frequent correspondence.
Kuyper recognizes two distinct ways God operates on earth.
1) Common Grace: Like the rain, gifts from God to all peoples of all and no faith. Kuyper counts the sovereignty of government as a common grace. He counts the wisdom in Proverbs 8 as common grace. Even if a society has no Christians, it can be rich in common grace.
2) Special Grace: the grace of salvation and the way people thrive when they live according to his Word. Special grace is for the “little flock” of Luke 12:32 and is described in Psalm 2.
Kuyper notes that a Christian lives in a society of common grace and the sphere of special grace and must move back and forth striving in life not for a personal separation but rather a consistency along with knowing the appropriate distinctions.
In addition, Christians should be working to organize two conduits between common and special grace spheres of activity in their lives:
A) City on a Hill: Kuyper argues that it is sin to think that the heavenly ideal of unity in an earthly city will ever be fully realized on earth. Nor can we just hold fast to the old ways of our forefathers. We must instead “first seek to have for yourself the life [of Revelation] your fathers had and then hold fast to what you have. Then articulate that life in your own language as they did in theirs. Struggle as they did to pump that life into the arteries of the life of the church and society. Then not being a dead form but a living fellowship will unite you with them, faith will be a power in your own life and your building project will reach complete success.” (p. 74) As people of Revelation bound by a common confession — not just a circle of friends — thrive in this way, they will be a beacon of light to the whole of society as in Matthew 5:14–16.
B) Leaven for our culture: In Matthew 13:33 Jesus makes the analogy that his followers live in a society with other people as yeast lives in bread dough. “Christianity remains a leaven that leaves nothing unaffected by it’s continuing ferment.” p. 72 The goals of the church via the influence of her people acting as citizens in the larger society must include
1) a freedom to be/act according to conscience. For this reason Christians must oppose any laws that would compel them to act in ways prohibited or against values revealed in scripture.
2) opposition to pagan laws using civil means. Christian citizens should be striving to see God’s revealed order reflected in their civil world to the degree they have authority (e.g. a vote is a form of authority).
3) and a presentation of nobler ideas whose acceptance will be based on persuasion, not compulsion. (p. 197)
For all his admiration of the American experiment, Kuyper did not think like an American. While he claimed the mode of government most consistent with Calvinism is a republic, he did not advocate for democracy in a civil state/nation. His focus for democracy was instead in the congregational church where all believers have equal status as redeemed sinners before God. His primary check on state power was the secondary powers of local governments, or other secondary powers duly delegated as spheres of sovereignty recognized by that government. Kuyper claimed that Calvin recognized no right of an individual operating alone to civil disobedience inside any sphere. However, during the Boer wars when he experienced injustice of the English in South Africa, he advocated mightily for forming organizations for organized disobedience — organizations that were in no sense secondary but were directly in opposition to the powers that sought to rule.
Order the book Rekindled, the story of how Roger Williams first instituted a practical separation of church and state at the link below:
