Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism 1

In his first lecture of his Stone Lectures (1898) Abraham Kuyper identifies three important relations:

                      

our relationships to God, humanity and the world. He also examines five life-systems and how they respond to these three conditions. The table below provides a summary of his observations.

It must be remembered that Kuyper is writing in the nineteenth century (hence his use of ‘man’) and from a distinctly Reformed Calvinist position – he is taking a polemical stance to make his point of the superiority of the Calvinistic worldview. If he was writing today his observations may be a little more nuanced.