Hauerwas on Kuyper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BcZlxGt3xs

Since he was named by Time Magazine as America's Best Theologian in 2001, Stanley Hauerwas rightly raises some eyebrows. He's at his best when he's applying New Testament ethics and yet his theology is bankrupt. Sadly those sacralists and Right-wing adherents who oppose New Testament teaching can use Hauerwas' theological liberalism as a vehicle to discredit and dismiss what he says about ethics - even if it reflects apostolic teaching. This is why he's always frustrated me a bit. I have not found his books to be helpful and I never recommend them and yet he often makes decent standalone statements and has plenty to offer in the way of historical and cultural commentary.

Since I've been reading and writing about Abraham Kuyper as of late this interview clip caught my eye.

Hauerwas doesn't really say anything too profound, but notes that Kuyperianism failed in the Netherlands and its real home is in the Dutch communities of the American Mid-west. And yet, as the interviewer notes - Kuyperian ideas have become very important in the larger Evangelical community, even if they're not fully conversant on their context or origins.

If one could speak of an official Kuyperian doctrine it would not be to 'run the world' as Hauerwas suggests. On paper Kuyper's model was something different that allowed for the various spheres and pillars of society. And yet Kuyper also made universal claims and laboured to transform culture - ironically had his programme been successful it would have in many respects negated the very system he set up. It would seem that it was provisional at best and just plain confused at worst. And while Hauerwas doesn't quite elaborate on all this, I think he gets it in the way he pokes fun at the system's failures and its less than impressive record.

I think a larger discussion would require probing the idea of Christian Democracy, especially within Europe as that Centre-right political theory is in many ways the outworking of Catholic Social Teaching which is a near parallel to Kuyperianism. More could be said about how Kuyperianism has functioned in terms of American Right-wing politics. Often evoked in many respects the very model has come to be rejected. And yet key elements of Kuyper's model (and certainly his slogans) remain and have become a critical component within Evangelical orthodoxy - whatever that might happen to mean.