Dutch theologian and politician, born on the 29th of October 1837 at Maassluis, and educated at the university of Leiden. He became Doctor of Divinity and pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Beesd in 1863, and in 1870 moved to Amsterdam, where he became in 1876 leader of the anti-Revolutionary party which aimed at the restoration of strictly Calvinistic doctrine in the guidance of State affairs. In 1879 he detailed fully the principles and wishes of his party in Ons Program (Our Programme). A few years later a Calvinistic university was formed through his instrumentality at Amsterdam, and he himself became professor of theology. Under his leadership a considerable section of the old Netherland Reformed Church seceded in 1886 and founded the strictly orthodox Calvinistic Reformed Church Community. Until 1894 he devoted himself to religious teaching, and subsequently to politics, literature and journalism, having founded the Standaard and the Heraut in 1872, and contributing to it a daily front-page column of notes on current politics and theology. From 1874–7 he had sat in the Second Chamber, but in the latter year a serious illness forced him to resign his seat. In 1894 he was returned to the Second Chamber. In 1895 he defended the workers’ right to strike, but in 1903, as head of the Government (1901–5), he crushed a railway strike by rushing a bill through Parliament making illegal a stoppage of work by those engaged in the public and semi-public services. This won him the enmity of the Dutch Socialists. As minister he conferred upon his Calvinistic university the Jus Promovendi. He deserves great credit for having converted the somewhat old-fashioned polytechnical school at Delft into a technical university which rivals the very best. During the South African War he took a prominent part in the attempts to get Holland to mediate between Great Britain and the Boers. In the World War he sided openly with Germany, but his influence had already greatly diminished. He was the author of numerous publications dealing mostly with religious subjects and held honorary degrees from various universities. A popular edition of his works appeared in 1896–8, and his parliamentary speeches were published in four volumes (1908–10). He also published a book describing the Dutch community in London in 1570–1. He died at The Hague on the 8th of November 1920.
See W. F. A. Winckel, Leven en Arbeid van Dr. Kuyper (1921); Dr. A. Kuyper, Gedenkboek (1921) and A. S. S. and J. H. Kuyper, De Levensavond van Dr. A. Kuyper (1921).
