Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian and minister president of the Netherlands (1901-1905), was the greatest and most controversial leader of the renaissance of Calvinism that occurred during the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Kuyper, delivering the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898, offered a clarion call to return to the life of faith, afforded by Calvinism, and the theology of John Calvin.  The growing influence of Modernism; the rise of atheistic or pagan world-views; and, the malaise of Calvinist theologians, preachers and congregants, were creating an environment conducive for cultural decline.  Kuyper, and others, believed cultural redemption would come, by God's grace, through a reclamation of the Calvinist world view.  The call was not for a repristinization of Reformed theology, but rather, for a return to our theological root, the Sovereignty of God, proclaimed and lived in the cultural context of the time.
 
While it would generate a healthy amount of discussion and demand an equal amount of contrite introspection, I believe the argument can be made that many of the great cultural accomplishments of Western Civilization can be attributed in some way to the living out of the theology of John Calvin.  In the same way, much of our cultural decline can be attributed to the widespread decline of a life of faith, which lives out the fundamental principals of the theology of John Calvin.  For whether we speak of politics, music, art, economics or religion, the belief that our lives, and all of creation, are held in the providential care of our Sovereign God, whose identity and love are revealed to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, and whose Spirit animates and sustains all living creatures, always surpasses any world view based upon the competing claims of the Modernists and post-Modernists, "There is no God."
 
Many of us remember the Protestant prohibitions against playing cards, going to the theater or dancing.  Growing up, in the 1960's and 70's, I would have laughed had anyone suggested we return to the days of Blue Laws.  As a Euchre player, I've been known to put even railroad workers to shame; going back to my debut, as Julenissen, in second grade, I've seen my share of stage lights; and, though I looked like a wounded duck, in my younger days, I even enjoyed dancing.  So, I've never been one to find the devil lurking in these activities - at least no more so than any other facet of life.
 
However, when I read Kuyper's explanations of Calvin's theology on these issues, in the light of what our culture has become since Kuyper's call to return to our Reformed roots, I am given reason to pause.  Card playing was banned, not because cards are inherently evil, but because, in playing cards, we are led to put our faith, not in God, but in fortune or luck.  Theater going was banned, not because there was something inherently evil in fiction or the dramatic imagination, but because, in going to the theater, patronage was being given to a lifestyle that often demanded the actors relinquish their personal morals for the sake of their art.  Dancing was banned, not because there was something inherently evil in the dance, on the contrary, David danced before our Lord.  Nevertheless, dancing could arouse impure thoughts and actions.
 
While I could never advocate the severe restrictions we often associate with our Calvinist heritage, as I consider the culture in which we live, with the ever expanding Power Ball Empire; the indecent liberties taken with violence and sexuality on stage and screen; and, and the erotic dancing at our own high school dances, I do wonder if we shouldn't pay more attention to the teachings of those who once called us to a higher way of faith and life.
 
See you in church!
 
Pastor Myers
revhaggis1@hotmail.com