In Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction, Cory Brock and Gray Sutanto provide a clear, well-organised and extremely helpful introduction to key elements in the theology of the first generation of Dutch neo-Calvinists: Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. In this definitive study, the authors state that their aim is ‘to present what Kuyper and Bavinck themselves offered as the distinctive marks of their own theological work’ (p. 7).
Brock and Sutanto argue that, for Kuyper and Bavinck, ‘neo-Calvinism’ is not only rooted in Calvinism's holistic or full-orbed view of Christianity (in contrast to Catholicism, Lutheranism and secularism), but also offers a ‘holistic model’ that relates theology to modern science and learning. Brock and Sutanto make clear that Kuyper and Bavinck do not simply regurgitate Calvin's theology, but creatively and critically retrieve key ideas from Calvin. In short, Kuyper and Bavinck base their theology on what they see as the essence of traditional orthodox Christianity even as they address modern concerns. Kuyper and Bavinck advocate a catholicity of the church that confesses Christ as Lord while also recognising that the universal faith must express itself ‘in diverse ways in each place and generation’ (pp. 68–9).
In the area of theological prolegomena, Kuyper and Bavinck combine a classic Reformed affirmation of general revelation with ‘a romantic emphasis on the affective dimensions of revelation's reception’, so that the reception of general revelation is ‘an unconscious, affective, and felt knowledge’ (pp. 72–3). Thus, they see general revelation as producing ‘an affective and implanted knowledge of God quite independently of the exercise of creaturely reason’ that can then be reflected upon by reason (p. 96). In an especially insightful chapter on Scripture, Brock and Sutanto argue that Kuyper and Bavinck offer an ‘organic’ account of Scripture that recognises both the ‘divine origins’ and the human authorship of Scripture, as well as the value of Scripture and theology within the modern university (p. 99). One important function of Scripture within neo-Calvinism is to form ‘a system or a worldview through which one interprets the deliverances of the exact sciences and places them into their proper places within the organism of knowledge’ (p. 100). Scripture shows that all things the sciences investigate derive from and depend on Christ.
Brock and Sutanto highlight the neo-Calvinist themes of creation, fall and re-creation. For Kuyper and Bavinck, ‘the goal of re-creation is the end of creation yet by different means…. Re-creation's end is creation's original end: that God would make his dwelling place with humankind, Immanuel, God with us’ (pp. 134, 184). At its heart, neo-Calvinism sees ‘God's action of re-creation as the essence of Christianity and the meaning of world history’ (p. 135). Both Kuyper and Bavinck see humanity's fall as rooted in rejection of God rather than in an ontological deficit in humanity, for they see humans as created by God for God's glory as the climax of creation. Christ as the second Adam is the agent of regeneration who rescues fallen humanity from their individualistic separation from ‘the organism of humanity’ and makes the regenerated ‘fully human’ (pp. 209–10). Brock and Sutanto expend considerable effort defending neo-Calvinism against Hans Boersma's criticism that the neo-Calvinist emphasis on the renewal of creation undermines the beatific ‘vision of God in the face of Christ’ in eternal life (pp. 168 ff.).
The neo-Calvinist themes of common grace and the church–world relation occupy one-fourth of the book. Kuyper and Bavinck see ‘God's common grace [as] God's general favor that sustains the creation order despite sin’, whereas ‘God's special grace restores, renews, and recreates creation order as the kingdom of God’ (p. 213). God's special grace builds on God's common or sustaining grace towards fallen creatures. In common grace, God shows patience and love towards the cosmos. Even the incarnation of Christ is an ‘affirmation of creation’ and therefore ‘a common grace to all humanity’ (pp. 231–32). After an analysis of differences between Kuyper and Bavinck on the church (and especially how the church is an ‘organism’), Brock and Sutanto argue that despite their differences both Kuyper and Bavinck see the meaning of history as the kingdom of God, with the church occupying a sphere in life alongside family, state and culture. The church's task is to be a leaven and an agent of renewal in the world.
Among the many strengths of this book are its emphasis that Kuyper and Bavinck retrieved traditional Calvinism by engaging the modernity of their time and showing that the genuine catholicity of the church means that Christianity ‘can reshape any philosophy or culture it encounters’ (p. 292). The volume could have been enhanced if it had placed Kuyper and Bavinck alongside other theological movements of their day (in addition to Catholicism) and also considered more concerns or weaknesses in this first generation of neo-Calvinism. For example, was the racism against sub-Saharan Africans that one sees in Kuyper and some of his followers (e.g. in South Africa) an aberration or an integral part of his vision of Christianity?
