John Piper blogged today (originally published in World Magazine) about Calvinism’s impact upon the United States, quoting Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism throughout. Kuyper’s work, well the six lectures that have been bound, has been on my Amazon wish list for a while, but after reading the quotes it might just have to be purchased.
Here is one specific quote that Piper used, this time unedited.
Similarly in the rise of your university education, springing for the larger part from individual initiative; in the decentralized and autonomous character of your local governments; in your strict and yet not nomistic Sabbath-observance; in the esteem in which woman is held among you, without falling into the Parisian deification of her sex; in your sense for domesticity; in the closeness of your family ties; in your championship of free speech, and in your unlimited regard for freedom of conscience; in all this your Christian democracy is in direct opposition to the democracy of the French Revolution; and historically also it is demonstrable that you owe this to Calvinism and to Calvinism alone.
You can read the section it was taken from here.
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