Heslam, Peter S. 1963–

PERSONAL: Born June 12, 1963, in the Netherlands; British citizen; son of David S. (a chartered civil engineer), and Johanna (Groenendijk) Heslam; married Judith Schultink (a medical doctor), July 9, 1994; children: Samuel, Benjamin. Ethnicity: "Anglo-Saxon." Education: University of Hull, B.A. (with honors), 1989; Oxford University, D. Phil., 1993; Cambridge University, B.A. (with honors), 1996, M.A., 1999. Religion: Church of England.

ADDRESSES: Home—64a Glebe Rd., Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB1 7SZ, England.

CAREER: Commonwealth House, Oxford, England, deputy warden, 1990–92; ordained minister and curate of Church of England, 1996–99; Cambridge Theological Federation, Cambridge, England, director of studies, 1999–2000, tutor, 1999–. London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, director of capitalism project, 2000–04, associate lecturer in social and economic ethics, 2004–; Cambridge University, tutor at Ridley Hall, 2000–, director of transforming business project, 2005–.

AWARDS, HONORS: British Academy scholar, 1989; research scholar, Free University of Amsterdam, 1990, 1992, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 1990, and Netherlands Ministry of Education and Science, 1991.

WRITINGS:

Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1998.

Globalization: Unravelling the New Capitalism, Grove Books (Cambridge, England), 2002.

(Editor) Globalization and the Good, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2004.

Contributor to books. Contributor to scholarly journals, including Theology, Anvil, European Journal of Theology, and Themelios.

SIDELIGHTS: Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism is Peter S. Heslam's first book, based on his Oxford doctoral dissertation of 1993; its publication was timed to coincide with the centennial of Kuyper's famous Stone Lectures, given at Princeton University in 1898. In these lectures, which under the title Lectures on Calvinism have been reprinted numerous times, Kuyper argues that Christianity is not simply the subject of church, doctrine, and evangelism, but encompasses the whole of life; it is a worldview relevant to culture, society, politics, education, the arts, and so forth. Kuyper embodied much of this ideal in his own career, as journalist, university founder, professor, politician and prime minister of the Netherlands. Although a committed Reformed believer, he was remarkably successful in his efforts to cooperate with Roman Catholics in the political sphere and headed a Catholic-Reformed coalition cabinet. Kuyper was also an extremely prolific writer, with 223 publications in addition to his newspaper editorials.

Heslam chose the Stone Lectures as the focus of his analysis of Kuyper's work for a number of reasons; he states in the book that the lectures are a summary of Kuyper's thought that, because they were given to a foreign audience, required a broader and more comprehensible language. Heslam calls the lectures the "manifesto of Kuyperian Calvinism" and "the most complete, cogent, and visionary expression of Kuyperian thought." His book offers not only an analysis of the Stone Lectures, stated David W. Hall of the Kuyper Institute in the periodical Covenant Syndicate, but "a lively biography of Kuyper based on primary sources, along with pertinent discussions of religious and cultural factors at the time, and … the context of American evangelism and the Princeton tradition." Hall wrote approvingly of Heslam's book in Covenant Syndicate: "Such analysis of a Dutch Calvinist by a British Anglican [Heslam] must surely bring a smile to Kuyper in Abraham's bosom as a vindication of his belief in common grace. It also will become necessary material for discussions about the future of Calvinism…. [The book is a] contribution that will help unveil one of the most influential hidden hands of our time."

Heslam once told CA that his book is "a scholarly and critical analysis of Kuyper's ideas and it aims to place him firmly within the context of his times. It is written, however, from the conviction that his legacy has much to offer succeeding generations of Christian thinkers who seek to engage with socio-political and cultural issues from a biblically-informed standpoint.

"A century after the Stone Lectures were given, Kuyper's influence is growing in many parts of the world, not least in the author's own country, Great Britain. Having introduced Kuyper more widely in the English-speaking world, I am keen to develop some of the themes in Kuyper's work more fully, and thus to contribute to the contemporary debate on the relationship between gospel and present-day culture. This is what I have sought to do as director of the capitalism project at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, and I intend to continue this as director of the transforming business project at the faculty of divinity at Cambridge University."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Heslam, Peter S., Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1998.

ONLINE

Cambridge University Faculty of Divinity Web site, http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/ (November 12, 2005).

Covenant Syndicate Web site, http://capo.org/ (April 7, 1999), David W. Hall, review of Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism.