Protestant Theology and Modernity in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands. By Arie L. Molendijk

Abstract

Molendijk’s fine monograph covers the negotiation between theology and modernity in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century, as exemplified in a select number of representative thinkers like, among others, Isaac da Costa, Allard Pierson, Abraham Kuyper, and Abraham Kuenen. Other than Kuyper, the other figures have not received due attention in the Anglophone world. The running thread of Molendijk’s thesis is that, whether these theologians were embracing or critiquing modernity, they re-articulated theology in ways that not only incorporated but also propelled particular modern institutional and intellectual expressions forward. This thesis is advanced in the first three chapters by showing that Da Costa and Pierson, who in many ways opposed one another (the former was a devout Christian convert and an important representative of the Réveil; the latter progressed toward agnosticism and rejected the need for supernatural revelation), articulated their ideas with distinctly modern idiom. Both appealed to the necessity of individually appropriating one’s beliefs, both displayed a keen awareness of worldviews, and both were in agreement that Christianity or religion as such was incompatible with the spirit of modernity.