Abstract
The relationship between creational ordinances and cultural formations (as seen by A. Kuyper). The central statement of this article is that Abraham Kuyper does not make a clear enough distinction between divine normative creational ordinances on the one side, and human cultural structures on the other. Kuyper defines this relationship in a semi-deterministic (organistic) way. The reason for this semi-deterministic approach can be found in Kuyper’s neo-Platonic logos-speculation and his Romantic-Idealistic use of the organism metaphor. Such a semi-deterministic approach can easily lead to cultural conservatism (for example political conservatism). The proposed answer to Kuyper’s problematic approach implies the following:
• Cultural activities should always be seen as free formative action and should not be regarded in a semi-deterministic way.
• Cultural activities should always be seen as being partially the result o f the brokenness o f man. Consequently, our knowledge o f divine ordinances as reflected in these activities will always be provisional.
• Cultural activities should always be seen against the background of the divine facilitating structure o f the creational ordinances.
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