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鈥淲e live presently under a waning moon鈥�

From the Introduction

Nicolaus Martin Steffens is a fine illustration of the discontinuous aspect of the Reformed tradition. He stood in this tradition like Melchizedek, with no Reformed teachers at whose feet he could sit as preceptors and with no disciples, Reformed people who related their Reformed identity to him. He was a theologian who had no master he could rely on or refer to, who himself did not write books and who hardly left any papers as a legacy.

He was a wanderer who decided to join the ministry while working among the Jews in Istanbul, a German who was a stranger among the Dutch in Michigan. But when he was in the Holland colony in West Michigan, he dominated church life there for about fifteen years.鈥� [I]n years of transition within the Reformed community in the West, he took the lead and pointed out a way to the future.

In order to introduce this historical figure and his impact on the Reformed in western Michigan and beyond in the years of transition from 1878 to 1895, I would like to discuss four aspects of Steffens鈥� life: (1) I will give his biography up to his Michigan years, and then I will elaborate on some issues he had to deal with in his two decades in Michigan as a (2) churchman, (3) a professor, and (4) a journalist. The focus will be on the way he functioned as a leader with his community. I will pay special attention to Steffens鈥� relationship to the most impressive renewal in Reformed theology of his days, Neo-Calvinism.

As an appendix to this history, this book contains in English translation the collection of letters and postcards Steffens wrote to Abraham Kuyper. These documents offer Steffens鈥� intimate view on American and Dutch issues in a more personal tone. Their content is intertwined closely with the history described in this book.