Abstract
Abraham Kuyper came to political prominence and, ultimately, became the prime minister of the Netherlands because of a protracted national dispute over the organization and funding of the nation’s educational system during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1857, the national public school system had mandated that schools “inculcate nonsectarian ‘Christian virtues’ in their pupils” (p. 17), and the backlash against this attempt at a neutral sort of moralism made allies of conservative Protestants and Catholics alike. At first, the Netherlands worked from a unitary school system with all private schools (called “free schools”) prohibited, but this arrangement gradually changed, first allowing free schools, then evolving through different structures of subsidy until all schools became fully publicly funded in 1917.
On Education is a collection of works, edited by Wendy Naylor and translated by Harry Van Dyke, that captures a wide range of Kuyper’s advocacy regarding the topic of education during his long involvement with the schoolstrijd (“school struggle”) in the Netherlands. The collection features newspaper articles published for the general public, addresses to Christian associations, speeches made in parliament, and more. Given the range of documents included in the collection, the specific rhetoric, argumentation, and emphasis of the various translated components varies quite widely. When Kuyper speaks to Christian audiences, he tends to emphasize doctrine, especially the idea of an antithesis between Christ and the world that demands a separate school environment for Christian youth. When he speaks to parliament, Kuyper tends to emphasize that free schools are saving the government costs associated with teaching students and that something is owed back out of a desire for equity and pluralism. When he speaks to the public broadly, these concepts merge into advocacy for a pluralistic educational system run under the motto of “free schools the norm, state schools a supplement” (p. 361).
I came to this volume hoping for a public theology of Christian education laid out by one of its foremost proponents, but, while aspects of that hope were met, public theology is not the best way to describe this book. Anyone looking for a quotable discourse on the value and character of Christian higher education will find a particular delight in the two convocation addresses in the section entitled “On Scholarship.” However, most other gems regarding a broader public theology of Christian education remain embedded in the particularities of their specific policy environment. As a thinker, Kuyper resisted efforts to divorce theory from practice, but these collected writings tend to bear out such a practical focus that the principles are hard to extract from their contextual application. Further, despite this historical embeddedness, the editors take a light hand in framing the context of the individual translated works in terms of a larger narrative. The contextual frame is a commendable choice for how it allows Kuyper’s voice to be front and center, but it does mean that someone coming to the volume without preexisting awareness of the historical context will often feel lost. While each translation includes some information about its immediate context, I found myself regularly searching online or flipping to the essays in the front and back to keep up with the broader historical narrative. Ultimately, while there is a public theology of education clearly animating Kuyper’s work, and the editors’ introductions and appendices are helpful in clarifying what that is, the volume is probably best thought of as a collection of primary sources. On Education, consequently, can serve as a foundation for historical and philosophical interpretation, rather than principally being a presentation of such interpretation.
However, for those who understand that this volume is a collection of primary sources, I can heartily recommend engaging with it as an edifying experience. I was struck again and again by the sense that much of the school struggle is instructive for Christians thinking about educational policy today. There is much truth to Kuyper’s argument that a certain alignment between church, home, and school is ideal for children, particularly their moral formation. Further, Kuyper’s advocacy serves as a worthy example of political power wielded in the interest of public justice and structural pluralism. While deeply religious leaders like Kuyper are usually caricatured as ideological tyrants, Kuyper fought for a system that would empower families and build communities of support for young people of many different dispositions and traditions. This book therefore presents the inner workings of what such a laudable advocacy might look like, and Christians would do well to learn from the example it provides.