A Free Church a Holy Nation

A Free Church a Holy Nation
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A Free Church, a Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology

Description of A Free Church a Holy Nation:

This volume uses the thought of Abraham Kuyper as a model for American evangelicals engaged in today’s cultural debate. Offering a new interpretation of Kuyper’s public theology that emphasizes its rhetorical and poetic aspects, John Bolt builds a credible public theology that directly applies to Christian political activism. In considering such key issues as poverty, wealth and power, theocracy and pluralism, civil religion, the culture wars, and political cooperation between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics, Bolt also compares Kuyper’s views with the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord Acton, Pope Leo XII, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Jonathan Edwards. Bolt shows that focusing on Kuyper’s rhetorical and mythopoetic perspective, rather than on his theological and philosophical ideas, provides contemporary evangelicals with a more meaningful and effective theology for the public square.

Information on A Free Church a Holy Nation from the publisher:

This volume uses the thought of Abraham Kuyper as a model for American evangelicals engaged in today’s cultural debate. Offering a new interpretation of Kuyper’s public theology that emphasizes its rhetorical and poetic aspects, John Bolt builds a credible public theology that directly applies to Christian political activism. In considering such key issues as poverty, wealth and power, theocracy and pluralism, civil religion, the culture wars, and political cooperation between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics, Bolt also compares Kuyper’s views with the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord Acton, Pope Leo XII, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Jonathan Edwards. Bolt shows that focusing on Kuyper’s rhetorical and mythopoetic perspective, rather than on his theological and philosophical ideas, provides contemporary evangelicals with a more meaningful and effective theology for the public square.

Description of John Bolt, author of A Free Church a Holy Nation:

A Free Church, a Holy Nation develops the thought of the great Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper into a charter for North Americcan evangelicals engaged in today's cultural battles. Though Kuyper's example has been referred to frequently in recent years by evangelical leaders like Charles Colson, this work by John Bolt is the first comprehensive statement of Kuyper's public theology directly applied to contemporary Christian political activism in the United States. In addition to considering such key issues as poverty, wealth and power, theocracy and pluralism, civil religion, the culture wars, and political cooperation between evangelicals and Roman Catholics, Bolt also draws extended comparisons between Kuyper's views and the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord John Acton, Pope Leo XIII, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Jonathan Edwards. A distinctive feature of this study is its focus on the rhetorical, peotic character of Kuyper's public theology and practice as a political leader. Bolt shows how focusing on Kuyper's rhetorical and mythopoetic perspectiv, rather than on his theological and philosophical ideas, provides contemporary evangelicals with a more credible and effective theology for the public square.