Abraham Kuyper and the Instrumental Use of Biblical Israel

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the Israelology of the prolific Dutch pastor, politician, and prime minister Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920), the architect of the nineteenth-century Neo-Calvinist movement. His thought still reverberates in Neo-Calvinist circles in North America, Europe, and beyond, providing inspiration to those seeking to articulate how contemporary churches can be both authentically confessional and also socially and politically engaged. Less known about Kuyper is his anti-Judaism and supersessionism: he regarded biblical Israel as instrumental to Christian theology, a pawn that God used and then discarded for the sake of more significant purposes.