Abstract
This thesis is an exploration of Abraham Kuyper’s doctrine of common grace, with a focus on how this doctrine may be retrieved and put to use by contemporary Christians working in the UK public square. My particular aim is to foster enhanced cooperation and collaboration in the realm of academic and practical public theology that transcends theological and disciplinary divides.The project employs interactions and reflections from working practical theology practitioners on their own approaches to public theology. They are resourced by the fruits of the academic field of public theology, and it is this academic discourse that I am seeking resource through this thesis. These conversations with the practitioners are brought into critical dialog with Kuyper to evaluate the ways his ideas might be fruitfully received into our contemporary context.
This investigation converges with a broad and increasing resurgence of interest in Kuyper’s life and work over recent decades, in which a number of significant biographical and critical works have been published. This has been intensified by the recent publication of the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology from which the new translations of the three volume work ‘Common Grace’ come.
The thesis falls into two major parts, the first outlining my approach, followed by the context and content of Common Grace. I seek to trace its doctrinal origins and practical impact and to offer a thorough summary of its scriptural basis, a reduced version of which was serially supplied to my participants (see Appendix 1,) to invent the flow of Kuyper’s thinking within them.
The second part of the thesis is the live test of common grace and is organised around three sets of discussions, formed of common threads identified in interviews with my participants and under the headings ‘Brokenness’, ‘Talents’ and ‘Dependence’, pertaining to the three directions of shalom to be attended to in public theology – God-ward, neighbour-ward, creation-ward. At the end of this section I synthesise these findings to give my own account of common grace for today, with a view to offering common grace as a resource for collaboration and cooperation for public theology in the UK and offering trajectories for reception suggested by the exchange between Kuyper and the participants.
| Date of Award | 1 Aug 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Daniel DeHanas (Supervisor) & affiliated academic (Supervisor) |