Kuyper Conference 2023

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.

RSVP Here

Call for Papers