1907.21

Preface.

In: Wetenschappelijke bijdragen tot bevestiging der Oudtestamentische geschiedenis. Van Prof. G.F. Wright. Vertaald door C. Oranje. Met een voorrede van Dr. A. Kuyper.

Rotterdam, D.A. Daamen 1907 (Leiden, J.J. Groen en Zoon), pp. V–X.

Preface to the translation of G. Frederick Wright’s Scientific Confirmations of Old Testament History (Oberlin, Ohio, 1906). In 1904 Wright delivered the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary. These lectures were not immediately published; the author delayed publication in order to verify his findings during a long journey throughout the Middle East. He subsequently published this broadly elaborated version of the original lectures.

In the preface Kuyper explains why he did not see the good of apologetics in his younger days, when he considered the clarification and strengthening of the church’s confessional character to be far more significant. He concedes, however, that it may subsequently be necessary to engage in apologetics. According to Kuyper, Wright demonstrates what apologetics can entail above and beyond the interpretation of the church’s confession.

The book was published in ten installments between August and November 1907. Kuyper’s preface appeared in the final installment. Kuyper had asked Rev. C. Oranje (1870–1907; editor of Haagsche Stemmen. Christelijk weekblad voor Nederland), who had been accorded emeritus status at the early age of thirty-five for health reasons, to translate Wright’s book. Oranje finished the work but died on October 26, 1907—a few weeks before his translation appeared in print.