Redeemer University is delighted to host the 2023 Kuyper Conference on the Redeemer University campus in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). The general theme for the conference and plenary sessions is: “Kuyper and Kintsugi: Public Theology for Repair, Reconciliation, and Restoration.”
This conference is part of a multi-year series of events underwritten by Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary that promote a broad exploration, engagement, and development of the legacy of the Dutch Reformed theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) and the tradition he helped form (commonly known as “neocalvinism”) for theology and public life today across the globe. At this meeting we will focus particularly on the relevance of Kuyper’s thinking, and neocalvinism generally, for repair, repentance, and reconciliation amidst past wrongs and injustice.
Putting Kuyper in dialogue with the art of kintsugi is a special challenge. Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery (often with precious metals), aims to take what is shattered and make it whole again; not to imagine a repristination of the object, but an even more beautiful restoration of wholeness. Not unlike the work of grace—common or special—in our culture and societies, in Kintsugi, the breakage and repair are not accidental and disguised, but intrinsic and glorious to the art.
Available: In Person
Tuesday evening plenary: John Stackhouse
Wednesday morning plenary: Haejin Shim Fujimura
Wednesday evening keynote: Makoto Fujimura
Thursday morning plenary: Vincent Bacote
Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose work has been featured in galleries and museums around the world, including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library, and the Tikotin Museum in Israel. His books include Refractions, Culture Care, Silence and Beauty, and Art+Faith: A Theology of Making. In addition to receiving the 2023 Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life, Fujimura has also received the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 “Religion and the Arts” award and he served as a Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2009. He has received notable recognition as a speaker, with one address selected by NPR as among the 200 “Best Commencement Addresses Ever” and by CNN as one of the top 16 “Greatest commencement speeches of all time.”
Can’t make it to the full conference?
Join us for the Wednesday evening keynote with Makoto Fujimura where he will be awarded the Kuyper Prize by Calvin University and Calvin Seminary.