Was Kuyper soft on Catholics?

[RamistThomist]

I remember reading in Chuck Colson's book he mentioned Kuyper urged rapproachment with Rome. Is this true? If so, how far can we press this?

 

[MW]

It's been a while since I read anything about Kuyper, but I'm fairly sure his common grace idea of working with Romanists was confined solely to social and political issues and had no ecclesiastical bearing.

 

[Guido's Brother]

It's been a while since I read anything about Kuyper, but I'm fairly sure his common grace idea of working with Romanists was confined solely to social and political issues and had no ecclesiastical bearing.

Yes, that's right. This "rapprochement" happened when Kuyper was involved with the politics of the Netherlands. It was a social/political thing. The Anti-revolutionary Party and the Catholic party formed a coalition.

Vandenberg writes in his biography:

"Through the years, Kuyper, when he deemed it in order, did not hesitate to point out the errors of Roman Catholicism. You will find these 'pointings-out' throughout his writings. Once a minister of the gospel, now a professor of theology and editor of the religious weekly De Heraut, Kuyper naturally felt that comment, evaluation and criticism of Catholicism easily fell within his province. In addition, in 1872, the tercentenary year of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, Kuyper issued a reprint brochure on that massacre. For sheer power of graphic, dramatic, startling recital of deeds of blood and horror and inhumanity, it is a piece that Kuyper alone could have written. All this -- and there was more -- did not exactly 'win friends and influence people' among the Catholics. It is no wonder that the Catholic leaders found it difficult to persuade their followers of the necessity of joint action with the Antirevolutionaries." (p.149)

Vandenberg writes more, but you get the idea.

 

[Poimen]

Bradford:

Was that "The Body" by Colson and Ellen Vaughn?