“The theory of evolution imagines that it can do this now with respect to origins, but this is nothing less than self-deception, for it traces things back to the first atoms and the energy they contained, but of the origin of these atoms and energy it can tell us nothing. It thus shifts the question without answering it.”

I recently had the privilege of reviewing and endorsing a fine forthcoming Abraham Kuyper monograph from the Christian’s Library Press, Wisdom and Wonder: Common Grace in Science and Art.

In it one sees that both the independence and the createdness of science and art guarantee their integrity and liberty from dominance either by the state or by the guild—each flowers in “the fear of the Lord.”

All the signatures of vintage Kuyperianism—antithesis, palingenesis, non-neutrality, common grace, the Creator/Creature distinction, personhood, etc. are boldly stamped throughout these lucid and exciting essays from a voice as cutting-edge as tomorrow’s news.

I am pleased to commend this work that is based so squarely on the Kuyperian precept that all disciplines have God at their core—or as he puts it “all things have proceeded from the thinking of God”—for he is the Creator of science and art!

More particularly, it was interesting to see Kuyper’s opinion of Darwin and evolution in this 1905 work. Contrary to the Cultured Revisers among us, few of our reformed ancestors were soft on evolution. Note, when one claims that Calvin, Kuyper, Schaeffer and others were accommodationist on this point, it might just as easily be proven that they were accommodationist toward pole-dancers.

Throughout this piece, Kuyper (like Hodge) quickly realized the anti-Christian implications of the theory of evolution. He is, common grace views nothwithstanding, not a sympathizer of any form of evolutionary theory. A few statements from this recent work are overt.

Kuyper criticizes positivistic approaches to science as being incapable to tell us anything about the most important areas: “it cannot see past the end” if limited only to the empirical. He notes, “To the extent that science clings to the visible and the observable it cannot even entertain the question of the origin, coherence, and destiny of things.”

Then occurs his first blast against the monstrous regiment of scientism: “The theory of evolution imagines that it can do this now with respect to origins, but this is nothing less than self-deception, for it traces things back to the first atoms and the energy they contained, but of the origin of these atoms and energy it can tell us nothing. It thus shifts the question without answering it.” (67)

Specifically of Darwin, he classifies it (not effetely fearing to heap sarcasm on its head) this way: “The mighty rise of Darwinism is itself in no small part to be explained in terms of unreflective people imagining that here at least was sufficient answer to the first of these three questions.” (67)

A little later, Kuyper continues to oppose the evolutionary explanation of origins in these words: “But no sooner does the theory of evolution issue its claim that human beings were made according to the image of the animal, and even came from the animal itself, than Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Anabaptists, and Reformed all join hands with new vigor to defend the creation of human beings according to God’s image.” (81-82).

My how that 1905 consensus is superior to the widespread accommodationism today! Indeed, Kuyper thought that the “theory of evolution [might force] us once again” (82) back toward ecumenical unity on this biblical issue.

Finally, Kuyper noted—hardly advocating the formation of an organization to unite unbelieving biology and biblical scholars—that natural science’s “theory of evolution, as though all human life should have arisen automatically from cells and atoms apart from any higher ordination, leads directly to [Ed. wait for it, wait for it] atheism, destroys the created made by God’s almighty power, and denies that we were formed according to the image of God, and along with that, the highest value of our human being.” (95)

Kuyper concluded that such evolutionary theory—far from something that could be synthesized with our faith—“dominates every other discipline now, and aligns itself in principle polemically against every Christian confession.” (95)

One must ask, whether it is of the art or the science of the day: “What has Christ to do with Belial?”

On the final page of this fine work, there is even a reference to 6-day creation, as Kuyper says rebuts a critic (Ruskin) but nonetheless affirms that art follows God’s orginal pattern, calling us “to imitate God in the six days of creation.” (175)

Somehow, I doubt this is support for a Framework hypothesis, analogical days, the Temple Inauguration view, or who knows what flavor-of-the day will appear as the next protological contortion.

Perhaps a more careful reading of Kuyper, the mentor of Bavinck and many others, would propel us more toward classic creation; such might also put us closer to the title of this fine new work—in the column of wisdom and wonder.

David W. Hall is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as Senior Pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs, Georgia. He provided this review to The Aquila Report