J. de Bruijn (1999), 'Abraham Kuyper as a romantic', in C. van der Kooi and J. de Bruijn (eds) Kuyper Reconsidered:Aspects of his Life and Work, VU Studies on Protestant History Amsterdam VU Press, ch.3.

This paper looks at two other Dutch men, Multatuli and Van Eeden, and compares Kuyper to them. He maintains that Kuyper was a romantic. However, he doesn't fully define what he means by Kuyper as a romantic. For de Bruijn being a romantic seems to imply an inner conflict, a melancholia and hypocondia as well as a poetic streak.

"So radical was Kuyper's view of Christian conversion in all areas of life, that it is
really impossible to follow him meaningfully without coming into a direct contact with
the “principalities and powers.” Reformed pastor and scholar, Gerard van Moorsel,
has observed, We do not even dream of calling this too much abused neo-Calvinistic
divine, philosopher, journalist and statesman (18371920) a gnostic or semi-gnostic, but
this does not alter the fact that, here, the τιμωρίαι-δυνάμεις[timoriai-dunameis]-scheme
is palpably present or rather: has to be present as a result of a prima regeneratio carried
à outrance" (Gerard van Moorsel: The Mysteries of Hermes Trismegistus  A Phenomenologic
Study in the Process of Spiritualisation in the Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius,
(Utrecht: Drukkerij en Zoon, 1955), pp.112-113 n50).

Yet only a handful of pages later, Kuyper seems to qualify his thesis somewhat:

If palingenesis [TP: regeneration] operated immediately from the centrum of our inner life to the outermost circumference of our being and consciousness, the antithesis between the science which lives by it and that which denies it, would be at once absolute in every subject. But such is not the case. [NOTE kuyper33]

Van Ruler sees a trace of Gnosticism here. [NOTE vanruler44] S.U. Zuidema (1906-75), who devotes 54 pages to untangling Kuyper's complex thoughts concerning common grace, also admits to a "gnostic remnant" in Kuyper. Zuidema's essay offers a robust defense against Van Ruler's criticism of Kuyper, and so Zuidema insists that the Gnostic tendency does not get the upper hand.

"Comparative Study of Kuyperian Palingenesis: the Transcendent and Human Ego in Japanese Thought," in Kuyper Reconsidered: Aspects of His Life and Work, ed. Cornelis van der Kooi and Jan de Bruijn (Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 1999).

Chi as a figure of Christ

In Christian poetry, chiasmus takes on added meaning since Chi is the first element of Chi Rho, the first letters of "Christ" in Greek, and since the "X" that characterizes chiasmus stands for the cross on which Christ was crucified. Thus, Christian poets have utilized chiasmus in very specific places to direct attention to an added layer of meaning. A good example is found early on in John Milton's Paradise Lost, in a passage where the Son of God tells his father that untempered justice without mercy is an unlikely course of action in his predicted punishment for Man's fall: "That be from thee farr, / That farr be from thee" (Bk.3, 153-54).^[3]

A	B	B	A
be from thee	farr	farr	be from thee

The Son of God's future role as Christ is prefigured as it were by the utilization of the cruciform chiasmus (be—far/far—be); Christ's crucifixion will be the beginning of God's mercy tempering his justice. Earlier in the same passage chiasmus was already used in the description of the Son of God's appearance: "In his face / Divine compassion visibly appeerd, / Love without end, and without measure Grace" (140-42).^[3][4]

A	B	B	A
Love	without end	without measure	Grace

[edit] As a synonym for antimetabole

This section may contain excessive, poor or irrelevant examples. You can improve the article by adding more descriptive text. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (October 2009)

These examples are often quoted by modern commentators to demonstrate chiasmus, although they are defined as antimetabole in the classical sense.

• "Who sheds the blood of a man, by a man shall his blood be shed..." Genesis 9:6

  In the original Hebrew the above phrase is exactly six words long, in the form (A B C C B A)

• Fecerunt itaque ciuitates duas amores duo, terrenam scilicet amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei, caelestem uero amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui. "Likewise, two cities have been formed by two loves, the worldly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self." Augustine, City of God, XIV.28 (AcBdAdBc) (parallelism with love & contempt, chiasmus with self and God).
• "...ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
• "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy