Abraham Kuyper

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A revised and updated version of
Abraham Kuyper: An Annotated Bibliography 1857-2010 by Tjitze Kuipers (2011)

You can buy a printed edition of this book on the site of the publisher.

1899

1899.18
Band aan het woord. Antwoord op de vraag Hoe is eene universiteit aan het woord van God te binden? Voorgedragen op de meeting gehouden te Middelburg op 28 Juni 1899.
Amsterdam/Pretoria, Boekhandel voorheen Höveker & Wormser [1899]. 40 pp., 23cm.—ƒ0.40.
Run: 2,000.
Published: June 1899.
See also: 1987.02.
The title (1,089 copies) was put up for auction and acquired by J.H. Kok, Kampen, on December 12, 1907.
RKB 146.
ET: Bound to the word. Answer to the question, How is a university to be bound to the word of God? Delivered at the meeting held at Middelburg on July 28, 1899.

Speech delivered at the annual meeting of the members of the Association for Higher Education on Reformed Principles. The issue at stake was the foundation of the Vrije Universiteit. The speech was in fact a follow-up to 1897.08, with a broader and more scholarly composition.

In the beginning of the speech, Kuyper stipulates that the “word of God” is intentionally not spelled with a capital “W” because there is a word of God in the created order and with the created order. In his opinion the controversy about foundations does not have to do with the authority of Scripture, but with respect for God and how God has revealed himself to us (in the Scripture) and how he continues to reveal himself to us (in nature).

After having answered the question of how our whole life may be bound to God’s word, he deals with the dilemma that he also treated in, among other places, 1895.22—namely, the question of the foundation of the Vrije Universiteit. Is the Bible (the “general Scriptural formula”) a reliable basis or are the Reformed principles such as they were laid down in 1619 by the Synod of Dordt in the three forms of unity the right foundation? Kuyper expressly champions the latter (in agreement with Article 2 of the association’s statutes).

The speech brought A.F. de Savornin Lohman once again into written discussion with Kuyper. The meeting was attended by the Rev. W. Kolfhaus from Radevormwald, Germany and the Rev. J.H. De Vries from Princeton, New Jersey—both authorized translators of Kuyper’s writings (see 1892.05 and 1897.09). The printed form of the speech was available the next day.

Rev. Conrad R. Veenstra (1898–1969) translated this speech into English. Dordt College (Sioux Center, Iowa) owns an undated typescript copy of this translation, titled “Bound to the Word: The answer to the question, How is a university bound by the Word of God? Delivered at the meeting held at Middelburg June 28, 1899” (dropdown title with the name of the translator, 15 pp., typescript on one side only, 28cm.). Most likely the translation has never been printed. Veenstra was a Christian Reformed pastor in Wisconsin, Michigan, California, and Iowa, respectively. He died in Sioux City, Iowa.