January 2026 

Re: The inspiring story of Abraham Kuyper

Excellent article by Roques and Bishop which should compel all Christians who are concerned about public life to delve more deeply into the writing and work of Kuyper who managed to radically alter the shape of the Netherlands into a pluralist nation that endeavoured to do justice for all. 
Anne Burghgraef

It's great that you are introducing your readers to Kuyper. He first inspired me as a teenager 70 years ago.
This essay really opens up for Christians what we can have as ambitions in the service of our King. And my experience is that such ambitions can be conceived early in life. Kuyper was almost unknown in UK when I discovered him but his stature has since grown globally. He's a man that ministers, home groups and youth fellowships should take to heart.
David Hanson


Thank you for that excellent article by Roques and Bishop. Perhaps you could consider having articles about the great theologian Dr. Herman Bavinck who was a collaborator with Kuyper.

Also very significant professors at the Free University of Amsterdam that Kuyper set up in 1880. Let me mention just three for starters. Dr. Herman Dooyeweerd who pioneered a new Christian systematic philosophy. "The Roots of Western Culture:Pagan,Christian  & Secular Options" Dr. Hans Rookmaaker who was Professor of Art History and a major influence on Francis Schaeffer. Key book "Modern art and the death of a Culture".

Dr.Bob Goudzwaard who was Professor of Economics and Social Philosophy, also served as a Dutch MP. "Hope for troubled Times". (All these excellent books have been translated into English).

It strikes me that so much of British Christianity has been throroughly colonised by American religious leaders , controversies and concerns and that we are woefully ignorant of wonderful resources a few miles away on our own continent!
Richard Russell
 

Re: Baptists, Christian nationalism, and religious freedom

So, are Christians allowed to get involved in politics – and thereby make use of the ‘levers of worldly power’ and the coercive power of the state – or not? While blaming ‘conservative’ Christians who seek to ‘fuse religion and politics’, the writer exhorts that, as Christians, we should call on the very same coercive power to defend everyone’s rights and freedoms.

Would these include, abortion, same sex marriage, borderless travel, polygamy, hate speech, bearing arms, practising a religion that calls for violent conquest, self-certifying gender, access to pornography, right to die, fgm? How would we decide, without ‘fusing’ our religion and our politics? But apparently ‘we should not be in the business of trying to force our convictions or moral values on others’.

We have to ask, what form should our Christian obligation to our political community (nation) take? The Anabaptist answer seems to contain some big self-contradictions.

Michael Thomas