Anti-Revolutionary Party

Was Abraham Kuyper a Christian Realist?

Abraham Kuyper unquestionably had his failures and his blind spots. But he also labored to find balanced and faithful Christian realist positions on international affairs. We would do well to imitate those principles today.

Abraham Kuyper Among the Nations
Abraham Kuyper among the Nations

We have an introductory, if provisional, picture of anti-Revolutionary foreign policy and Abraham Kuyper’s platform coming into the highest political office in the Netherlands in the early twentieth century. How did this platform fair? What “necessary adjustments” (as Kuyper called them) did he need to make between his Calvinistic international theory and the actual work of foreign policy?

Abraham Kuyper Overseas Manifesto
Abraham Kuyper’s Overseas Manifesto

While much has been made of Abraham Kuyper’s Calvinistic contributions to domestic political theory, very little (in English) has been said of his foreign policy.

Abraham Kuyper’s Christian Advice for Foreign Policy
Abraham Kuyper’s Christian Advice for Foreign Policy

For Kuyper, governance is an opportunity to plant Christian truth in another part of the world’s soil. It is about giving others a chance to flourish.