Dr. Leighton Flowers, Director of Evangelism and Apologetics for Texas Baptists, compares and contrasts #Calvinism, #Arminianism, & #Provisionism during a recent interview on @SlaveckMoraru‘s podcast.
Nathaniel Sutanto and Cory Brock define what the “neo” actually means. They argue the “neo” does not mean abandoning Calvin. Nor does it mean inventing a new theology. Instead, it means retrieving classical Reformed orthodoxy while speaking to the questions of the modern age.
They summarize Kuyper like this:
Calvinism is a world- and life-system rooted in God’s sovereignty that develops a complete understanding of theology, church, politics, science, morality, art, and society from one central religious principle.
That’s much stronger than simply saying “a worldview.”
They identify the theological center near the end of chapter two and summarize Neo-Calvinism’s central theological commitments:
- God’s absolute sovereignty
- humanity as God’s image
- radical sin
- common grace
- engagement in every sphere of life
- the kingdom of God as renewal
They explicitly say these themes define Neo-Calvinism.
The term Neo-Calvinism has been used in two related but distinct ways, making it important to understand how a particular author is using the label. Historically, Neo-Calvinism refers to the Dutch Reformed movement that emerged in the late nineteenth century under Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. Seeking to recover historic Reformed orthodoxy while addressing the challenges of modernism, secularization, and liberal theology, they presented Calvinism as far more than a system of soteriology. Rather, it became a comprehensive Christian worldview in which Christ’s lordship extends over every sphere of life—including the church, family, education, politics, science, business, and the arts.
Historically, Neo-Calvinism denotes the Kuyperian tradition that rearticulated historic Reformed orthodoxy for the modern world, emphasizing a comprehensive Christian worldview. New Calvinism is a contemporary movement influenced by many of these theological and cultural convictions, yet distinguished by its stronger emphasis on the doctrines of grace, evangelical renewal, and Reformed soteriology rather than Kuyper’s broader philosophical and institutional vision.
The movement’s defining themes include God’s absolute sovereignty, sphere sovereignty, common grace, the cultural mandate, humanity as God’s image bearers, and the conviction that redemption renews creation rather than abandons it. As Kuyper famously declared, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!'” Modern scholarship likewise emphasizes that the “neo” in Neo-Calvinism does not signify a departure from Calvin or the invention of a new theology, but rather the retrieval and rearticulation of historic Reformed orthodoxy for the intellectual and cultural challenges of the modern age.
Consequently, Calvinism became what Kuyper described as a comprehensive “world-and-life system” rooted in God’s sovereignty and extending to every area of human existence.
In recent years, however, the term has also been used more broadly in popular evangelical literature to describe the early twenty-first-century resurgence of Calvinism commonly known as New Calvinism. This movement is associated with figures such as John Piper, Al Mohler, John MacArthur, Mark Driscoll, Mark Dever, Matt Chandler, C. J. Mahaney, and others.
AUSTIN FISCHER3
Austin Fischer [above videos] acknowledges this distinction, noting that while “Neo-Calvinism proper” refers to Kuyper’s Dutch movement, he uses the term for the modern revival of high federal Calvinism—a usage influenced by Time magazine’s 2009 feature on the “New Calvinism” and Collin Hansen’s Young, Restless, Reformed. William W. Klein similarly refers to the rise of the “New Calvinists” or “neo-Calvinism” in the introduction to the revised edition of The New Chosen People.
Although these leaders are more accurately described as New Calvinists than historic Neo-Calvinists, they share important Kuyperian emphases, particularly God’s comprehensive sovereignty, a God-centered worldview, and the conviction that Christ’s lordship extends beyond the church into every sphere of life. Their movement, however, is generally more revivalistic, conference-driven, and focused on the doctrines of grace, expository preaching, and evangelical renewal than on Kuyper’s broader philosophical, educational, and institutional program.
For that reason, readers should not assume every reference to Neo-Calvinism carries the same meaning. Some authors reserve the term exclusively for the Kuyper-Bavinck tradition, while others employ it more broadly as a synonym for New Calvinism. Recognizing this distinction helps avoid confusion when reading contemporary Reformed literature. For those wishing to explore the subject further, Cory C. Brock and N. Gray Sutanto’s Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction and The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism, edited by Bruce Gordon and Carl R. Trueman, provide excellent scholarly treatments of the historic movement, while Austin Fischer’s Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed and William W. Klein’s The New Chosen People illustrate the broader, contemporary usage of the term.
