Kuyper Common Grace Translation Project

Kuyper Common Grace Translation

Summary

There is a trend among evangelicals to engage in social reform without first developing a coherent social philosophy to guide the agenda. To bridge this gap, Acton Institute and Kuyper College are partnering together to translate Abraham Kuyper's seminal three-volume work on common grace (De gemeene gratie). Common Grace was chosen because it holds great potential to build intellectual capacity within evangelicalism and because a sound grasp of this doctrine is what is missing in evangelical cultural engagement. Common Grace is the capstone of Kuyper's constructive public theology and the best available platform to draw evangelicals back to first principles and to orient their social thought.

Press Release

Common Grace Translation Project Welcomes New Partners

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (February 22, 2012)--The Common Grace Translation Project welcomes four new institutional partners that have signed on to support the work of translating, publishing, and promoting this seminal work of the Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper.

Calvin College, Fuller Theological Seminary, Mid-America Reformed Seminary, and the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service at Dordt College have partnered with the project leaders at Kuyper College and the Acton Institute to bring this foundational text back into contemporary theological and cultural discussion.

Kuyper’s three-volume work, Common Grace (De gemeene gratie) appeared from 1901-05, during his tenure as prime minister in the Netherlands. These volumes are based on a series of newspaper editorials intended to equip common citizens and laypersons with the tools they needed to effectively enter public life. “If the believer’s God is at work in this world,” wrote Kuyper, “then in this world the believer’s hand must take hold of the plow, and the name of the Lord must be glorified in that activity as well.”

The doctrine of common grace is, as Kuyper put it, “the root conviction for all Reformed people,” and pointing to the dynamics of broader evangelical cultural engagement, Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, said that “Kuyper’s writings on common grace are much needed ‘for a time such as this.’”

The translation project plans to publish a complete translation of Abraham Kuyper's three-volume work on common grace, totaling over 1,700 pages. Volume one of Common Grace is scheduled to appear in fall 2012. The first selection from the broader translation project appeared last fall under the title, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art.

About the Author: Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) is a significant figure in the history of the Netherlands and modern Protestant theology. A prolific intellectual, he founded a political party and a university, and served as the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901-1905. His enduring passion was to develop a theology for the general public, particularly through his extensive elaboration of the doctrine of common grace.

About the publisher: Founded in 1979 by Gerard Berghoef and Lester DeKoster, Christian's Library Press has been committed to publishing influential texts on church leadership, the vocation of work, and stewardship for more than 30 years. For more information about Christian’s Library Press, visit www.clpress.com.

Christian's Library Press is an imprint of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty. The Acton Institute is a nonprofit, ecumenical think tank working internationally to "promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles." For more on the Acton Institute, please visit www.acton.org.