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Groen van Prinsterer – henceforth GvP - (1801-1876) in his
book “Vrijheid, Gelijkheid, Broederschap” (1848), which has
now been translated into English by Jan Adriaan Schlebusch
under the title of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - A Refutation of
Liberalism” [RefCon Press, 2022] and thus benefiting a wider
readership, is nothing short of a frontal and often a scathing
attack on the anthropocentric and thus anti-theistic mindset
of the French Revolution with its deep taproots in the
Enlightenment concept of the autonomy of human reason.
The book is littered with historical allusions to countries and
events too numerous to mention that point to the “the
destructive nature of the Revolutionary ideas” [p. 104],
invariably climaxing in political “despotism”[p. 123]. “Has the
new doctrine lived up to its promises” [p. 77]? The answer
always is a resounding ‘No’!
The three slogans mentioned in the title of the book are
carefully analysed one by one and utterly repudiated, each in
turn, for being completely unbiblical in their reinterpretation along the lines of the
contemporary utopian mindset that is entirely detached from real life – but still alive!
Says GvP, “Liberty, equality, and fraternity…I would argue that, by their nature, these doctrines
make improvements impossible. They don’t mitigate abuses but worsen them. And the very
cause of the gravest abuses is inherent to them”[p. 73]. GvP maintains that “it is evident to all
that these doctrines are utterly destructive to all peace and safety” [p. 70]. Nevertheless, the
author tells us that he is “not an unconditional supporter of preserving the past”[ p.33] and goes
on to say that “I do not oppose the remediation of the system, but I am convinced that the
radical remedies proposed to us today are equivalent to death itself” [p. 108].
GvP argues for the possibility of creating a better world, without losing sight of the world to
come. Where atheism has always failed - “every promise not only ends in disappointment but
ends up delivering the opposite of that which was promised in the political program” [p. 86] -,
Christians have often succeeded, such as William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Fry and Thomas
Chalmers, in their respective spheres.
In the words of another Dutch author, H. Bavinck, GvP insists that “the common foundation of all
rights and duties lies in the sovereignty of God” [Reformed Ethics, in loc.]. A. Kuyper, under the
influence of GvP, argues more rigorously for the kingship of Jesus Christ over every sphere of
human existence! In contrast to and irreconcilably antithetical to French revolutionary thinking, it
is “from the Bible, the Christian learns his duties, calculates his prospects, and appreciates his
privileges”[p. 135].
One detects stronger echoes of GvP’s thinking notably in Abraham Kuyper’s more fully
developed Calvinistic perspective on the creation ordinances and the historical outworking in
human history as seen in the Kuyper’s emphasis on the sovereignty of God over every sphere of
human existence, including the ‘public square’, to use an anachronistic term. GvP’s Calvinism is
not confined to the ecclesiastical sphere, and the reader is encouraged to study culture
theologically rather than anthropologically.
Overall, GvP’s chief axiom (which, of course, is not original but Augustinian in essence) can best
be summed up in his own words: “All of history, politics, and society is the battleground between
faith and unbelief - a battle in which the Christian is called to engage with a confidence in the
inevitability of Christ’s victory over the seed of the serpent” [p .123].
The 20
th
century in particular, of course, bears greater and more eloquent testimony to GvP’s farsightedness to the failure of socialism! The post-modern mindset needs to hear GvP afresh – but
only for starters, whetting one’s appetite for more! Much more needs to be said than has been
said and can be said and must be said as we are witnessing the rapid decline of Western
civilisation. GvP’s book offers a challenging and vigorous alternative to an effeminate culture of
small-minded, pessimistic Nothingarians that is hell-bent on seeking yet again ‘to edge God out
of His universe onto a Cross’ (D. Bonhoeffer)!
There are certainly better works one could recommend on critiquing the French Revolution in
more detail, but if God is not God of all and over all, then He is not God at all. This lies at the
heart of GVP’s book. From that angle, there is no better and easily accessible introduction known
to the reviewer.