Abraham Kuyper in the Past, the Present, and the Future of the Korean Church: A Focus on the Presbyterian Church

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In recent decades, as interest in Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) has grown worldwide, the Korean church has gradually increased its attention to Kuyper’s Neo-Calvinism, as well as his Reformed theology. In previous studies on the relationship between Kuyper and the Korean church, a brief overview of the Korean church and its problems was presented, concluding that Kuyper’s specific theme might contribute to resolving those issues. In this paper, I examine the acceptance trends of Kuyper in the Korean church throughout Korean Protestant history as a whole in order to suggest a proper direction for future acceptance, particularly in regard to his Neo-Calvinism. Firstly, I outline the historical background to introducing and establishing of Dutch theology within the history of Korean Protestantism. Secondly, through analyzing most academic papers and translations on Kuyper since the first academic work in the 1960s, I present the characteristics of the trend of Kuyper’s acceptance in the Korean church.
By this analysis, I argue that when applying Kuyper’s specific themes to the Korean church or academic disciplines, we should consider his broader and more organically related themes together. In future acceptance of Kuyper’s Neo-Calvinism, the shared content found in both the Dutch Neo-Calvinism revival and the Korean church revival should serve as an evangelical foundation that should be maintained and enhanced. In addition, the future acceptance of Neo-Calvinism needs to refer more to Herman Bavinck in terms of principle, and Kuyper in terms of content, rather than following the incomplete traces of Neo-Calvinism.

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