Groen van Prinsterer

Bruce Ashford reviews Van Prinsterer's Unbelief and Revolution:  How an Obscure Dutch Historian Helped Me Understand 2019

A new PhD on Van Prinsterer:

Schlebusch, J. (2018). Strategic narratives: Groen van Prinsterer as Nineteenth-Century Statesman Historian. [Groningen]: University of Groningen.

Through the application of Carr’s narrative approach to the study of Groen as simultaneously statesman and historian, for the first time a holistic picture of Groen as Anti-Revolutionary public figure emerges, casting new light on the political strategies behind his public engagement. This enables a fresh appreciation of Groen’s historical significance for constitutional democracy in the Netherlands

New version of Groen van Prinsterer's Unbelief and Revolution

Unbelief and Revolution
Full details here
Format: Print
$15.99
Overview
God’s word illumines the darkness of society.

Groen van Prinsterer’s Unbelief and Revolution is a foundational work addressing the inherent tension between religion and modernity. As a historian and politician, Groen was intimately familiar with the growing divide between secular culture and the church in his time. Rather than embrace this division, these lectures, originally published in 1847, argue for a renewed interaction between the two spheres. Groen’s work served as an inspiration for many contemporary theologians, and as a mentor to Abraham Kuyper, he had a profound impact on Kuyper’s famous public theology.

Harry Van Dyke, the original translator, reintroduces this vital contribution to our understanding of the relationship between religion and society.

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801-1876)

There has been a resurgence of interest in Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801-1876) of late.

A new book has recently been published - a translation of by Harman Boersema:
Smitskamp, H. 2018. Building a Nation on Rock or Sand: Groen Van Prinsterer for Today. Ontario: Guardian Books

Also is the recent biography
Gerrit J. Schutte 2016 Groen van Prinsterer: His Life and Work. Translated by Harry Van Dyke. Neerlandia, Alberta: Inheritance Puiblications.

There is a short YouTube trailier:




Also there is this:

Schlebusch, Jan Adriaan 2018. Strategic Narratives Groen van Prinsterer as Nineteenth-Century Statesman-Historian PhD thesis. University of Groningen.

Available online: https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/61642137/Complete_thesis.pdf

Groen van Prinsterer on politics

Groen van Prinsterer's approach to politics:

To engage in politics as a Christian meant for him ... not just to work from a personal inspiration based on the Bible, but to pursue a Christian politics, a Christian state, a Christian public school. For Groen, politics and government were not neutral, technical areas where Christians too, motivated by their personal beliefs, could be active. Politics, government, education were institutions that ought to fall entirely under the law of God.

From Gerrit J. Schutte Guillame van Prinsterer: His Life and Work (translated by Harry van Dyke), Publisher's imprint

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer - a time line

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801-1876) was a statesman, an aristocrat, a historian - he was the Royal Archivist - politician and journalist - he published De Nederlandsche Gedachten and Nederlandsche Gedachten.
He was extremely influential upon Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper took up Groen's mantle in the setting up of the Anti-Revolutionary Party as the first Dutch national political party
A recent important article by Harry van Dyke has described Groen as the godfather of Kuyper and Herman Bavinck (Calvin Theological Journal 47 (1) (2012)).

Many of Groen's works in Dutch and French are available here.

1797 Groen's parents Pieter Jacobus Groen van Prinsterer and Adrinana Hendrika Caan marry
1799 Birth of eldest sister Cornelia Adriana (aka Keetje)
1801 Birth
1805 Spends winter season in mansion on Korte Vijverberg
1806 Birth of youngest sister Maria Clazina
1808/9 attends private school run by the Hague chapter of the Society for the Common Utility
1813 Spends short time at a boarding school in Haarlem
1815 Hieronmymus School, Utrecht
1816 Saves girl from drowning
1817 Enrols at Leyden University to study both law and letters
1817 Poet Willem Bilderdijk comes to live in Leyden
1818 Attends Bilderdijk’s private seminar
1821 Sister Keetje marries Mari Hoffman
1822 Touched by the baptism of Da Costa
1823 Passes qualifying exams – decides to do two doctorates
1823 Defends two doctorates dissertations
1924 Barrister in The Hague
1826 General History of Netherlands invitation by the King issued
1827 Appointed to post of Secretary in King’s Cabinet
1828 Marries Elizabeth Maria Magdalena van der Hoop (b 1807) (21 May)
1829 Moves to small house on Haagse Voorhout, The Hague
1829 First issue of De Nederlandsche Gedachten published (122 issues in total published in its 3 year life)
1830 Belgium revolt
1832 Moves house to Plein Square, The Hague
1832 De Nederlandsche Gedachten ceases publication (July)
1832 Writes to Minister pointing out the inherent injustice of the Education Act.
1833 January mother dies
1833 January seriously ill
1833 July travels to Switzerland for convalescence – meets Merle d’Aubigne
1833 December discharged from role of Secretary to the King – but charged with supervision of family archives
1833 Becomes a Christian
1834 Secession (Afscheiding) movement begins
1835 March first volume of Archives ou correspondance inédite de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau published. He edited 13 volumes, covering the period 1552 to 1688
1837 Father dies
1837 Tract: Measures Against the Seceders Tested Against Constitutional Law
1838 Lives in mansion on Korte Vijverberg
1840 Elected to the Double Chamber of parliament
1841 First instalment of Handboek der Geschiedenis van het Vaderland [Handbook of the History of the Fatherland] published
1842 May wrote an open letter to the Synod with 6 others
1845 Begins to deliver the lectures that became Unbelief and Revolution to an invited audience in his home
1845 The Christian Friends begin to meet in Amsterdam
1846 Handbook completed: over 1100 numbered paragraphs
1848 Writes a series of pamphlets: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Explanation of the Slogan of the Revolution
1848 Essays on Constitutional Revision and National Concord
1849 January takes up seat in the lower house of parliament
1850 Begins editorship of daily De Nederlander and becomes co-owner
1850 Surrenders manorial rights in the village of Ursem
1853 Leyden history teacher, Robert Fruin, launches a written attack on Groen
1855 De Nederlander ceases publication
1855 Re-elected to a seat in Second Chamber
1855 Visits England and Scotland with wife
1857 Second Chamber passes the Primary Education Act (votes 47 to 13)
        Groen resigns his seat in protest by walking out of the chamber
1860 Devotes energy to Association for Christian National Primary Education
1862 Returns to Second Chamber
1862 December becomes ill
1864 Election year
        Begins correspondence with Abraham Kuyper
1865 Resigns seat in Second Chamber because of illness
1861 Publishes the French tract The Anti-Revolutionary and Confessional Party in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands.
1866 Groen’s friend Levinus Keuchenius. Keuchenius previously secretary-general of the Department of Colonial Affairs and a member of the Council of the Netherlands East Indies takes seat in Second Chamber
1867 Writes two brochures condemning Prussian Chancellor Otto van Bismark’s politics and the idolatry of nationalism
1869 He begins a new series of Nederlandsche Gedachten
1871 Elections – he  endorses only Kuyper, Van Otterloo and Baron van Wassenaer
        Resigns from the post of Royal Archivist
        Fourth edition of Handbook – distributed free to hundreds of school teachers
1872 Kuyper begins De Standaard. Groen had contributed 3000 guilders towards the set up.
1875 Publishes Maurice et Barnevelt
1876 Published a collection of letters related to the conflict with Van der Brugghen over the 1857 Education Bill
1876 19 May death. Buried in Ter Navolging cemetery.
1879 14 March Betsy, his wife, dies

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer's view of history

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, was a journalist, politician and historian.  Schutte in his biography of Groen has this to say about Groen's approach to history:

For Groen van Prinsterer, the study of history was a matter of great importance as well as practical usefulness. "In the past lies the present," as Bilderdijk had said, giving voice to a common notion of the time that was also warmly affirmed by Groen. The study of history is a means of getting to know one's own time; it is a school for everyone who wants to become familiar with the processes and structures of human affairs. It also helps one to gain insight into the power of evil and the limits to what man can do. But besides these practical lessons, the study of history in particular had religious value for Groen. History realizes God's plan with the world. He guides earthly events to their appointed end, and along the way He does not withhold trials and hardship from his children. He also punishes those who go their own way—for those who depart from God can expect griefs and sorrows. History, therefore, is the story of God's guidance of and God's involvement with humankind; it is the confirmation of the promises and threats which Revelation has attached to His covenant with man. To study history, therefore, is for Groen not just a pleasant pastime that can yield many interesting things. It is an essential work for a Christian, who should leave no means unused to learn to know God better. It stands written! It has come to pass! That is how Groen loved to summarize his Christian-historical world-view. Notice how Groen's aphorism puts Holy Scripture first, as God's indisputable proclamation of the truth. But God also reveals himself in what comes to pass in history, although on that score human knowledge is limited and imperfect, which is why the book of history will always have to be read while constantly testing it against the written Word. What has happened is not good just because it happened. That was the view, basically, of many of Groen's contemporaries, the conservatives of the so-called Historical School. They accepted the existing order as having been realized in the historical process under God's providential rule and therefore as good. Those conservatives forgot about evil and about testing history against fixed norms. Thus they were often uncritical admirers of the status quo and, by the same token, terribly afraid of the continuation of the historical process. The distinctiveness of Groen's position was that he wanted to apply the standards of God's law to the historical process—in which, after all, anti-godly, diabolical forces are active as well. 

In this way Groen in principle freed himself from many difficulties and took up a special place over against the conservative worshippers of the status quo as the product of a sacrosanct historical development. Groen would always be different. Neither conservatism nor progressivism appealed to him. While he fought a life-long battle against what passed for progress and renewal, on the other hand he shocked conservatives more than once by his surprisingly modern standpoints on all sorts of practical questions. That he took distance from a conservatistic wish to preserve everything as is, without change, is all the more striking because that attitude was widespread precisely among his Christian friends. But neither did he fall into the trap which, then and later, amounted to a belief in a progressive evolution of human society. Groen held that those who believed in progress might differ among themselves about the question whether economic developments alone determined the course of history or whether people of good will could exert some influence over it, nevertheless they too arrived at a misreading of historical reality. 

Given his view of history, it was inevitable that an engaged historian like Groen should want to share the results of his journey into the past with as many people as possible, precisely for the sake of the present. He wanted to share his findings not just with fellow professionals who were able to read the Archives, but also with ordinary people.

From Gerrit J. Schutte Guillaume van Prinsterer: His Life and Work (translated by Harry van Dyke), Publisher's imprint, 2005, pp. 41-42.

As well as editing Archives et Correspondance de la Maison d'Orange (12 vols., 1835-1845) Groen wrote an influential history book for teachers and school children: Handboek der Geschiedenis van het Vaderland. The first instalment was published in 1841 and was finally completed in 1846. It comprised of over 1100 numbered paragraphs and almost as many pages. The book is still in print.

Neo-Calvinism and the French Revolution Conference, Paris August 2012

Theme

The French Revolution was the scene of much intellectual and social upheaval. Its impact touched a wide range of subjects: the relationship of the church to the state, social relationships, science, literature, fashion, philosophy and theology. Although the French Revolution’s momentum was felt across Europe and North America, it met a particularly interesting response in the Netherlands, at that time the scene of a burgeoning neo- Calvinist movement. In that context, the likes of Groen van Prinsterer, Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck responded to the French Revolution’s ideals and influence in a variety of intellectual and practical ways.

This conference will focus on the historical and theological aspects of this neo-Calvinist response to the French Revolution.

Call for Papers

The conference organisers welcome proposals for short papers. Proposals (approximately 300 words) should be sent to jeglintontukampen.nl by May 4th. Conference papers will be in English.

Registration

The conference registration fee is €40. Conference places must be reserved by email (jeglintontukampen.nl) by May 30th.

Location and Accommodation

The conference will be held at:

The Library The American Church in Paris 65 quai d’Orsay 75007 Paris France

Participants are responsible for finding their own accommodation. The organisers suggest the Adveniat Youth Hostel (http://www.adveniat-paris.org/) as a well-priced, comfortable and convenient option.

For further details see here.

McKendree R. Langley on the Anti-Revolutionary Party

Here is a brief piece by McKendree Langley on the Anti-Revolutionary Party. The party that Abraham Kuyper helped to shape.

It is taken from Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics edited by Roy Palmer Domenico and  Mark Y. Hanley (Greenwood publishing 2006)

ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY PARTY (THE NETHERLANDS). The Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) in the Netherlands was a significant political movement among evangelical Reformed Protestants from 1827 to 1980. 

The worldview foundations for the party were laid by the parliamentarian Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer in his important book Unbelief and Revolution (1847). Based on a principled rejection of the secularist worldview of the French Revolution in its liberal and radical forms, Groen argued for a Christian worldview on Augustinian/Calvinist lines as the basis for all of life including politics. Groen believed that if democratic voting procedures were divorced from biblical moral values and the national heritage, the result would be the end of true constitutionalism, with a pragmatic secularism as the final norm. Around this ARP worldview Groen began to gather a national following, especially on the issue of full freedom for Christian schools. His slogan was "The Gospel versus the Revolution" (or the Bible's principles versus secular humanism). Theocracy was rejected in favor of constitutional democracy. 

The ARP's organizer was Dr. Abraham Kuyper. He popularized Groen's worldview and emancipatory reformism in about ten thousand editorials in De Standaard daily newspaper between 1872 and 1918. He also led more than a dozen national parliamentary campaigns during that period. For example, during the 1873 campaign he wrote, "The other parties campaign for parliamentary seats, more or less. We campaign for our principles!" Between 1872 and 1879, Kuyper organized the ARP around the program of principles, a central committee under his chairmanship, and scores of local voters' clubs. It was Europe's first nationally organized Christian Democratic party. The ARP's most basic principle was that state authority derives from divine institution, not popular consent. Kuyper deepened the ARP worldview with the concepts of sphere sovereignty; common grace; the ordinances of God for family, church, and state; and the Kingship of Christ over all of life. Kuyper adopted a principled pluralism and saw the complete equality of Christian schools with all others funded by a voucher system as a key ingredient of that pluralism. Parity was achieved in the constitutional reforms of 1917. At elections between 1937 and 1972, the ARP received over 200,000 votes on average and was a major governing party with 16 percent of the national vote.

After World War II, the ARP persisted in carrying on with its worldview in spite of secularist pressures to introduce only pragmatic parties. During 1945-1952 the party stayed out of the government in protest against the surrender of Indonesia. At the same time, the party endorsed European federalism, NATO, and a provisional welfare state. By 1968 the party leaders decided to merge with two sister parties (one Catholic) with moderate policies to bring greater stability to governing coalitions. The public debate between the Catholic "open party" concept of all people of good will and the AR "closed party" of self-confessed Christians grabbed headlines during 1973-1976. The open party won, with no official place for the ARP worldview. 

The formal end of the ARP came in 1980, when it merged with the Christian Democratic Appeal party. While the party could be credited for supporting social emancipation, educational pluralism, a benevolent colonial policy, and a responsible governing record, it also tolerated triumphalism, imperialism before 1949, and some poor judgments in crisis situations. 

Bibliography. Langley. M. R. "Emancipation and Apologetics." Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services, 1995. Langley, M. R. The Practice of Political Spirituality. Jordan Station, ON: Paideia Press, 1984.

McKendree R. Langley