Sovereignty of God and Religious Tolerance

A Kuyperian Perspective

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220702.029How to use a DOI?

Keywords

abraham kuyper; historical theology; interreligious dialogue; neo-calvinism; religious pluralism

Abstract

Abraham Kuyper is well-known for his assertion on equal freedom for people of all worldviews or religions. This article argues that Kuyper has successfully reconciled these seemingly contradicting notions by developing a concept of civil liberty from a Calvinistic tradition. Attempting to apply a Kuyperian perspective of tolerance to our present time, this article uses a historical theology approach to explore the possibilities of engaging in interreligious dialogues that could lead to mutual faith-enrichments. Started with presenting the hesitation of religious scholars to develop a concept of religious pluralism due to the understanding that one should be a relativist to embrace religious pluralism; then, this article progresses to how Kuyper develop a tolerant Christian theological reflection on religious pluralism. The research shows how believing the absolute sovereignty of God does not necessarily lead to religious intolerance but could be the true root of religious tolerance. Research Contribution: This research seeks to present a theological reflection that might lead to developing faith-enriching interreligious dialogues. Using the perspective of the Dutch statesman-theologian Abraham Kuyper, this research attempts to show how faith in God’s absolute sovereignty could be compatible with fostering tolerance towards other religions or worldviews.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - David Kristanto
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/07/07
TI  - Sovereignty of God and Religious Tolerance
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Theology, Humanities, and Christian Education (ICONTHCE 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 124
EP  - 127
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220702.029
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220702.029
ID  - Kristanto2022
ER  -