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Acton and Kuyper on politics
Acton and Kuyper on politics
Jan 1, 2026 10:21 AM

"In the French revolution a civil liberty for every Christian to agree with the unbelieving majority; in Calvinism, a liberty of conscience, which enables every man to serve God according to his own conviction and the dictates of his own heart."

—Abraham Kuyper, "Calvinism and Politics," Stone Lectures on Calvinism, 1898.

"What the French took from the Americans was their theory of revolution, not their theory of government—their cutting, not their sewing."

—Lord Acton

"The French Revolution ignores God. It opposes God. It refuses to recognize a deeper ground of political life than that which is found in nature, that is, in this instance, in man himself."

—Abraham Kuyper, "Calvinism and Politics," Stone Lectures on Calvinism, 1898.

mon vice of democracy is disregard for morality."

—Lord Acton

"Therefore in opposition both to the atheistic popular-sovereignty of the Encyclopedians, and the pantheistic state-sovereignty of German philosophers, the Calvinist maintains the Sovereignty of God, as the source of all authority among men."

—Abraham Kuyper, "Calvinism and Politics," Stone Lectures on Calvinism, 1898.

"Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism."

—Lord Acton

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