Abraham Kuyper's vision of a plural society as a christian answer to secularization and intolerance

Abstract

The Dutch theologian, journalist and politician Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) started his career in a dominantly liberal political and ecclesial culture. He developed a political program that opposed the secular and intolerant development promoted by the reigning liberal party, but at the same time left room for that liberal view. From the 1890s on, Kuyper implemented a societal structure in the Netherlands that was non-secular and tolerant at the same time. His solution reversed the common idea that progress and secularization were inseparable, but at the same time generated new questions about the face of Calvinism as a civil religion and the limits of its tolerance.