Some neo-Calvinists or neo-Kuyperians have stressed “all of life as worship” which, they say, is an outworking of Kuyper’s “every square inch” dictum. They say you can worship God while fishing, “twittering,” eating an almond pastry, or sitting in the pew at church.
John Bolt isn’t so sure that this is a logical outworking of Kuyper’s thought. He writes as much in an essay found in the back of Kuyper’s Our Worship (p. 321-329). In this essay, “All of Life is Worship? Abraham Kuyper and the Neo-Kuyperians,” Bolt takes issue “with the tendency to blur the distinction between Christian vocation and the corporate liturgical activity of God’s people by way of a promiscuous use of the word ‘worship.’ While I understand and appreciate the motivation behind such usage, I judge it to be a confusing error that has had a baneful effect on the Reformed Christian community. Furthermore, I believe Father Abraham [Kuyper] himself would emphatically disapprove” (p. 322).
Bolt continues by noting that while many neo-Calvinists have written volumes on social, cultural, and political matters, none of them have written on corporate worship as Kuyper himself did. Bolt also goes on to develop a case (an excellent one in my view) for restricting the use of the word “worship” to the public, corporate gathering of God’s people (p. 324).
Here are a few of the principles he sets forth and explains. “1) The important Reformed emphasis on Christian vocation in all spheres of life should not be used to undermine or diminish the central importance of corporate worship of God’s people on the Lord’s Day. 2) Christian worship is distinguished from the daily life of service to God by the liturgy of God’s called-out and assembled people in which they practice a storied communion with God that loosens their ties with and involvement in the world’s counterstories.” He does list two more, but you’ll have to get the book to read them.
As a pastor, I often hear what Bolt is reacting to (from neo-Kuyperians and others): “I can worship just as well in my car as I can at church.” Of course, you have to cut out a wee bit of the Apostle’s Creed if you want to say that (I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints). Furthermore, as Bolt well explains, the proper definition of worship implies a called out gathering of people. I think Bolt’s point here is right on. Two thumbs up.
shane lems
sunnyside wa
Kuyper would disapprove of anyone who diminished the role of the Church in favor of a ‘life of worship’, because as Calvin beautifully points out in his commentary on Rom 12:1-2, it’s impossible to worship by means of Christian vocation apart from having Christ’s righteousness imputed via the means entrusted to the Church.
Bolt’s principles are critical to guard against the error of de-emphasizing corporate worship in favor of various types of ‘life’ worship, but this is not the only error that confounding this distinction will produce.
The antithesis of the existential Christian who feels he can worship just as effectively in his car is the person we’ve all met who participates in proper corporate worship but then leaves his religion in the pew. Kuyper would disapprove of this error as well. I think Kuyper would instruct that Bolt’s 2 principles need to be read in reverse as well:
1) The central importance of corporate worship should not undermine or diminish the emphasis on Christian vocation in all spheres of life.
2) Corporate worship (as Bolt so ably defines it) should result in a daily life of service to God.
Three Cheers for John Bolt. He is a man of whom the CRC is not worthy. At good ol’ RBC (now Kuyper College) I got more than a belly full of that ‘all of life is worship’ crap. Father Abraham’s book needs to be made a textbook there. More in the CRC need to read that book.
This is some of the stuff that DVD was starting to touch on back at WSCAL; namely that when it comes to the approach to Christ and culture, the gap between the Protestant Scholastics, Kuyper, and the Neo-Calvinists is the largest between Kuyper and the Neo-Calvinists rather than between Kuyper and the Protestant Scholastics. When I’ve read some of his English writings (especially on Common grace and politics) trying to see how he stands indebted to Protestant 2K thought, I’m struck that DVD really seems to be onto something.
Interesting quote, Shane!
Hi Guys,
As a good neo-Calvinist myself, let me say that I get irritated anytime someone says “all of life is worship.” That is not the neo-Calvinist mantra! Our rallying cry is “all of life is religious” (an important distinction!). I find that the “all-of-life-is-worship” crew are generally not neo-Calvinists but rather some strange strain of evangelicalism which wants to appropriate Kuyper and the neo-Calvinist tradition for its own ends (or the phrase can be a pleasant disguise for anyone wanting to give up the practice of their piety–something which can afflict certain strains within the neo-Calvinist camp).
As to Andrew’s point: keep in mind that there are different “flavors” of Kuyper which different people have gravitated towards. Some aspects of Kuyper are probably closer to Protestant Scholasticism than others. However, there are fundamental philosophical differences between the two in terms of philosophical starting points.
Also, as a sad side note: Kuyper himself later in life stopped attending church because he didn’t find it stimulating.
This essay should be required reading in Senior Seminar as a counterpoint to one of the articles we read by John Frame.
Great post.
The “all of life is worship” is being shouted loudly by the Sydney Anglicans and many folk in the General Presbyterian Church in Australia have absorbed it. Sadly they blow this trumpet based on a vague understanding of neo-calvinism and supposed superior understanding of redemption history.
Thanks for posting!
Surely Rom. 12:1-2 teaches that all of life is worship? However that does not mean “I can worship just as well in my car as I can at church” because the content of worship differs between them, i.e. what we do in church on the Lord’s day is categorically different from what you can do in your car not least because it is centred around the preached word and the sacraments. In the BCP’s post-communion prayer we say the following which links well the idea that through the stated worship service we are nourished to live a life of worshipful service: