This study seeks to explore the origin and formation of the so called “Hungarian traditional” theology within the Reformed Church of Hungary from the 1840s till the 1860s. The research paper also throws light on how the new orthodoxy movement of Debrecen grew out of this trend from the 1870s which had an enormous impact on the Protestant theological landscape of Hungary, the largest Protestant community in Central Europe. Hungarian new orthodoxy precedes both the orthodoxy developed by Kuyper and (...) the Barthian neoortodoxy which is a much later theological trend. It also points out that Western European Protestant theological trends did have a great impact on the Hungarian theological context. This work aims to demonstrate how the doctrinal views of Hungarian traditional theology were developed through the works and life of selected influential leaders like Imre Révész senior, Lajos Filó, József Heiszler while debating with liberal theology. Reference will be made to the foreign impact of conservative theologies represented by evangelical, Pietist and mediating theologies of Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Britain. The doctrinal debates appeared in contemporary journals. Analysing the texts, it is possible to delineate what the stance of traditional theology was about: inspiration of the Scripture, the uniqueness of Revelation, the doctrine of original sin, the necessity of atonement, deity of Jesus Christ, the confession of Trinity, faith in the last judgement and Christ’s second return and the reality of miracles. (shrink)

For a Better Worldliness is not only a statement of Abraham Kuyper's and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological concept and historical practice of discipleship. It is also--and perhaps more importantly--a call to engage in the fullness of the Christian life here and now. While this book goes to great efforts to establish sound historical and theological insights specifically in regards to Kuyper and Bonhoeffer, there is a strong underlying current that these particular insights deeply matter to the life of (...) discipleship in the world today. History shows us that discipleship is not a singular journey; because of Jesus Christ it is not a description of one set path with one set of guidelines. A disciple can be a prime minister who unabashedly and successfully campaigned on his Calvinistic principles, just as he can be a participant in a coup d'état launched against a tyrant, leading to the disciple's own imprisonment and death. Jesus Christ calls--whether to the height of political office, or to the dank prison cell, or (more likely for us) to somewhere in between. - Back cover. (shrink)

Even the critics of Dutch Reformed theologian, politician, and publicist Abraham Kuyper acknowledge his great power of oratory. This essay examines the nature of Kuyper's rhetoric in a mythopoetic perspective that sees its inspiration in a romantic understanding of artistic inspiration and vivid representations of reality. Long-term editor of De Standaard, Kuyper's stalwart defence of Calvinism against Modernism drew from the struggles of Dutch history and from his personal history to espouse strong views that are couched (...) in military as well as organic metaphors. His mastery of the psychology of mass communication enabled Kuyper to accomplish many, though not all, of his political goals. (shrink)

The Indonesian Constitution guarantees the freedom of Indonesian citizens to worship according to their religion. In reality, however, the Indonesian government had issued regulations that restrict the building of worship places, which is one way of expressing religious freedom. These regulations, being trapped in the discourse of the politicisation of religion and the religionisation of politics, are contradictory to the aspirations of the founding fathers as expressed in the Indonesian Constitution. This article seeks to deal with this problem by conducting (...) a critical and reflective study on religion–state relations, particularly on the concept of sphere sovereignty proposed by Abraham Kuyper. This study employed the content analysis method. The study demonstrates that this concept, when applied to the Indonesian situation, would prove helpful in restoring normative leadership to Indonesian politics and would enable it to align itself with the values of the Indonesian Constitution. The study also recommends a number of practical strategies in protecting religious freedom and rights in Indonesia, especially with regard to the restrictions on building worship places.Contribution: The study of the concept of Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty can be helpful in restoring normative leadership to Indonesian politics and would enable it to align itself with the values of the Indonesian Constitution and allow religion to fulfil its responsibility towards the state and the state towards religion, without being trapped in the discourse of the politicisation of religion and the religionisation of politics. (shrink)

It was in the days when European society was in the throes of expanding industrial capitalism that Abraham Kuyper formulated his basic ideas about the pitfalls of the free enterprise system and the need for a structural make-over of society. Already two decades before his mature address of 1891 on the social question, he urged the church to concern herself seriously with the plight of the working classes. In 1874 he railed against “fictitious trade” and mere “paper assets.” (...) In an extensive commentary on his political party’s program he repeated his fundamental objection to the “fictitious expansion of capital”, calling for legislation to curb such excesses and to create a better balance in incomes between the different classes making up society. He argued for equity and justice rather than charity and philanthropy, and for wages and salaries proportional to effort, skill and education. Yet while the gap between rich and poor cried out to heaven, the first step toward solving the social question, according to the youthful Kuyper, was not to focus on the poor but to provide employment opportunities so that the able and willing working man could earn a living wage. He proposed raising import duties and protective tariffs, replacing taxes on necessaries with taxes on luxuries, abolishing government-run lotteries, and lifting the ban on organizing trade-unions. To achieve these reforms, it was essential that the lower classes be given greater representation in parliament and that selfish greed make way for neighbourly love and mutual solidarity. (shrink)

After the challenges of the Enlightenment from philosophers such as David Hume, contemporary philosophers of religion tend to think that proof is not possible and that at best humans have arguments for the probability or plausibility of belief in God. But, Christianity maintains that humans should know God. This book explores attempts to respond to the Enlightenment challenges by thinkers at Princeton Theological like Benjamin Warfield. It considers Warfield's view of reason and knowledge of God, his debate with Abraham (...) Kuyper, and the attempt to reconcile differences between these two by Cornelius Van Til. It also considers Reformed Epistemology, which has become popular in recent decades and is credited for a renewed interest in Christian philosophy. (shrink)

As a result of the online publication of my article ‘The Mystical Dooyeweerd’ in Ars Disputandi, vol. 3 , I have obtained significant additional information. This information establishes that Abraham Kuyper had extensive knowledge of Franz von Baader’s writings, and that he greatly appreciated Baader’s ideas. The information is presented in this discussion note.

One hundred twenty years ago, to be more precise on 9 November 1891, Abraham Kuyper opened the first social congress in the Netherlands He did so with an outstanding lecture on the relationship between the so-called social question and the christian religion. He began the lecture however with a remarkable complaint : One of the pitiful fruits of state monopoly, which continues to increase in this country’s universities, is that we have not yet even produced academic specialists. None (...) of us at this Congress stands out as an expert in economics. If I look around me now, that seems to be a little bit different from what I see today. But I doubt whether that in itself is a guarantee of greater wisdom amongst us. Let us not be too hasty. Let us wait and see. (shrink)

A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus on the most identifiable and urgent problems, right? Actually, it doesn't. In his classic essay "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge," Abraham Flexner, the founding director of the (...) Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the man who helped bring Albert Einstein to the United States, describes a great paradox of scientific research. The search for answers to deep questions, motivated solely by curiosity and without concern for applications, often leads not only to the greatest scientific discoveries but also to the most revolutionary technological breakthroughs. In short, no quantum mechanics, no computer chips. This brief book includes Flexner's timeless 1939 essay alongside a new companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the Institute's current director, in which he shows that Flexner's defense of the value of "the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge" may be even more relevant today than it was in the early twentieth century. Dijkgraaf describes how basic research has led to major transformations in the past century and explains why it is an essential precondition of innovation and the first step in social and cultural change. He makes the case that society can achieve deeper understanding and practical progress today and tomorrow only by truly valuing and substantially funding the curiosity-driven "pursuit of useless knowledge" in both the sciences and the humanities. (shrink)

De alledaagse leefwereld. Dingen die we zien en horen. De hedendaagse mens wordt opgeslokt door de consumptiecultuur van de markteconomie en verkeert haast permanent in een virtuele werkelijkheid. Individualisme. De liefdesrelatie als meest basale vorm van gemeenschap is hierdoor op de helling gekomen. Welke therapeutische perspectieven kunnen we verbinden aan de gestelde diagnose? We zijn aangewezen op een mentaliteitsverandering, die wordt bepaald door het ‘morele kapitaal’ waarmee een gemeenschap kan voortbestaan. De auteur opereert binnen de traditie die Montaigne en Kierkegaard (...) introduceren en waaiert voortdurend uit door geregeld zijn rol als dienende gastheer voor die van zoekende filosoof te verruilen. Hij laat tijdslijnen door elkaar lopen. Toch is sprake van intrinsieke ordening: ideeënimprovisaties worden weerspiegeld in een afwisseling tussen levende herinneringen en abstracte argumenten. Zo krijgt de alledaagsheid een filosofische lading. Kleine verhalen en anekdotes zijn nodig om grote verhalen een persoonlijk karakter te geven. Aldus ontstaat een collage, waarin niets is gelogen, maar alles is verzonnen. Een waargebeurde, fictieve levensgeschiedenis op grond van herinneringen, een portret waarin verslag wordt gedaan van een gedreven zoektocht naar zinvolheid. De lezer is genoodzaakt zich te laten meevoeren over hoofd- en zijwegen, bemodderde bospaden, drassige velden, gevaarlijke bochten, grillige slingerpaden, solide bruggen en wankele bruggetjes. (shrink)

Studies in the Eighteenth Century Background of Hume's Empiricism was first published in 1930. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. A scholarly review of the influence of contemporary science and thought on the various phases of Hume's philosophy. The chapter headings are as follows: I. Introduction. II. Interpretations of Newtonian Science in the Eighteenth Century. III. Reverberations of the New Science in (...) Philosophy. IV. Hume's Empiricism in Relation to Contemporary Science and Philosophy. V. Empiricism in Morals. VI. Empiricism in Politics. VII. Hume's Historical Writing. Bibliography. (shrink)

De traditionele causaliteitsleer - een hoofdstuk der filosofie, - kent slechts oorzaken en gevolgen. Dit boek rekent daar mee af en voert in wetenschap de begrippen middel en doel in. Een zaak van logica. De auteur is van zeer goeden huize en de kwaliteit straalt ook van dit manuscript af. Schrijver weet waar hij het over heeft Ik acht de probleemstelling oorspronkelijk en, belangrijker nog, ook zeer relevant. Het boek kan zeer goed gebruikt worden voor onderwijsdoeleinden. Het kan ook richting (...) geven aan nieuw onderzoek. R. van Woudenberg, hoogleraar theoretische filosofie, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Het manuscript is boeiend doordat het duidelijk maakt hoezeer een strikt causale benadering (zoals in de natuurwetenschappen gebruikelijk is) ontoereikend is wanneer er sprake is van menselijk handelen. Bedoelde oorzaken en beoogde gevolgen blijven oorzaak en gevolg. G. Nienhuis, hoogleraar natuurkunde, Universiteit Leiden Dit boek is serieus en zeer origineel. Het is van belang dat het wordt uitgebracht en - vooral ook - dat het wordt gelezen. A.C. Hemerijck, decaan Faculteit der sociale wetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Table of Contents Inleiding Hoofdstuk 1. Wetenschap in vogelvlucht Hoofdstuk 2. Juiste vragen en goede antwoorden Hoofdstuk 3. Weten waardoor en weten waarvoor Hoofdstuk 4. Versta onder een doel niet een begeren Hoofdstuk 5.. Van causalisme naar finalisme Hoofdstuk 6. Verklaren, voorspellen, ontwerpen Hoofdstuk 7. Vanwaar dat odium op het doelbegrip? Hoofdstuk 8. Alle analyse is empirisch Hoofdstuk 9. Wetenschap en het onbewuste Hoofdstuk 10. Mimesis als breed verschijnsel Hoofdstuk 11, Ministerie ontwikkelt beleidsanalyse Hoofdstuk 12. Opvoeding als voorbeeld Hoofdstuk 13 Toepassingen per discipline Uitleiding Index Personen en Zaken About the Author Gijs Kuijpers is emeritus hoogleraar politicologie aan de Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam. (shrink)

Why should we decolonise knowledge? One popular rationale is that colonialism has set up a single perspective as epistemically authoritative over many equally legitimate ones, and this is a form of...

Abraham Fraunce’s The Shepherds’ Logic (c. 1585) is one of the first English adaptations of Petrus Ramus’s Dialecticae libri duo (1556). Preserved in a manuscript also containing two shorter essays on Ramist dialectic, the work was later modified and enlarged for publication as The Lawyers’ Logic (1588). But Fraunce’s substantial and almost exclusive use of Edmund Spenser’s The Shepherds’ Calendar (1579) as the source for practical examples makes the manuscript treatise a unique document revealing the influence of the Ramist (...) reform of the arts of discourse on the new literary elite led by Philip Sidney and Gabriel Harvey. This is the first published critical edition of Fraunce’s early treatise and the two companion essays. It presents the texts in modernized spelling, traces their sources and contexts, and draws out their literary and philosophical implications. It also includes relevant excerpts from The Lawyers’ Logic, such as Fraunce’s quantitative-verse translation of Virgil’s Second Eclogue and its Ramist analysis, and a full catalogue of the quotations from Spenser’s Calendar. As a whole, this edition sees Fraunce’s pastoral logic as a first-hand testimony showing how scholarly training in the Renaissance arts of discourse enlightened the composition and interpretation of poetic texts. (shrink)

An exploration of the theories, histories, practices, and contradictions of liberalism today. What does it mean to be a liberal in neoliberal times? This collection of short essays attempts to show how liberals and the wider concept of liberalism remain relevant in what many perceive to be a highly illiberal age. Liberalism in the broader sense revolves around tolerance, progress, humanitarianism, objectivity, reason, democracy, and human rights. Liberalism's emphasis on individual rights opened a theoretical pathway to neoliberalism, through private property, (...) a classically minimal liberal state, and the efficiency of “free markets.” In practice, neoliberalism is associated less with the economic deregulation championed by its advocates than the re-regulation of the economy to protect financial capital. Liberalism in Neoliberal Times engages with the theories, histories, practices, and contradictions of liberalism, viewing it in relation to four central areas of public life: human rights, ethnicity and gender, education, and the media. The contributors explore the transformations in as well as the transformative aspects of liberalism and highlight both its liberating and limiting capacities. The book contends that liberalism—in all its forms—continues to underpin specific institutions such as the university, the free press, the courts, and, of course, parliamentary democracy. Liberal ideas are regularly mobilized in areas such as counterterrorism, minority rights, privacy, and the pursuit of knowledge. This book contends that while we may not agree on much, we can certainly agree that an understanding of liberalism and its emancipatory capacity is simply too important to be left to the liberals Contributors Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel, Patrick Ainley, Abdullahi An-Na'im, Michael Bailey, Haim Bresheeth, Başak Çalı, David Chandler, William Davies, Costas Douzinas, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman, Roberto Gargarella, Priyamvada Gopal, Jonathan Hardy, John Holmwood, Ratna Kapur, Gholam Khiabany, Ray Kiely, Monika Krause, Deepa Kumar, Arun Kundnani, Colin Leys, Howard Littler, Kathleen Lynch, Robert W. McChesney, Nivedita Menon, Toby Miller, Kate Nash, Joan Pedro-Carañana, Julian Petley, Anne Phillips, Jonathan Rosenhead, Annabelle Sreberny, John Steel, Michael Wayne, Milly Williamson. (shrink)

Foundations of Set Theory discusses the reconstruction undergone by set theory in the hands of Brouwer, Russell, and Zermelo. Only in the axiomatic foundations, however, have there been such extensive, almost revolutionary, developments. This book tries to avoid a detailed discussion of those topics which would have required heavy technical machinery, while describing the major results obtained in their treatment if these results could be stated in relatively non-technical terms. This book comprises five chapters and begins with a discussion of (...) the antinomies that led to the reconstruction of set theory as it was known before. It then moves to the axiomatic foundations of set theory, including a discussion of the basic notions of equality and extensionality and axioms of comprehension and infinity. The next chapters discuss type-theoretical approaches, including the ideal calculus, the theory of types, and Quine's mathematical logic and new foundations; intuitionistic conceptions of mathematics and its constructive character; and metamathematical and semantical approaches, such as the Hilbert program. This book will be of interest to mathematicians, logicians, and statisticians. (shrink)

Contemporary pain literature increasingly acknowledges the need of a multidimensional approach to pain, which accounts for its complex biological, psychological and social components. This is reflected in the recently revised definition of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and some contemporary philosophical positions. This paper addresses the need to offer a theoretical approach that integrates the biopsychosocial and qualitative multidimensionality of pain by developing the “social grounding view of pain”. My focus is on seeking a multidimensional philosophical (...) approach that accounts not only for its complex biological and psychological aspects but also and specifically does justice to its social dimension. I draw from some of the most recent multidimensional theoretical and methodological approaches that attempt to account for the social component of pain, including enactivism and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), to propose the advancement of the social grounding view, which has a particular focus on socially shared linguistic concepts in relation to the meaning and modulation of pain. More specifically, the social grounding view is based on the argument that the meaning of the experience of pain is determined in part by socially shareable linguistic concepts habitually associated with pain. I test this view against empirical cases drawn from pain neuroscience education (PNE) and try to demonstrate how the modification of the linguistic concepts of pain could be used effectively to modulate its experience. (shrink)

In this volume, a distinguished philosopher and moral rights theorist examines important changes that have occurred in our thinking about rights since first mention of them was made in early modern times. His inquiry is framed by an opening question and a concluding response. The question is whether the Greeks had any conception of a moral right. Some argue that they did not, on the ground that they had no word for a right. Others claim that they did, since they (...) employed certain locutions, the equivalents of which in our language are tied to some notion of a moral right. Professor Melden reviews in detail some of the most important historical conceptions of rights and examines serious questions raised by the fact that there have been striking changes in our thinking about rights. His discussion elucidates the place of moral rights in the broader network of moral concepts, along with the role they should play in our moral lives. Among the fundamental issues raised and discussed are those concerning the ways in which we are to understand various sorts of rights, the relation of special moral rights to our basic human rights, the now familiar claim that there are animal rights, the nature of moral progress, and the dream of a moral science. (shrink)