This publication adopts in a general way the same position as Jellema adopted in the public forum. In a general way the position of Jellema is the same as that of the Anti-Revolutionary Party. But if speeches, sermons and writings of men who are members of the Christian Reformed church and are prominent in its intellectual life can be taken as a criteria, then the prevailing attitude in the Christian Reformed church is basically equivocal. II Capitalism is based on the principle of freedom, especially on free markets. Capitalism is held to have, according to the prevailing Calvinist opinion in the Netherlands and among many of those of Dutch descent in the United States, a fatal deficiency.
Capitalism is believed to have too much of a certain principle in it, namely, too much freedom.
Therefore Calvinists in the modern Dutch tradition, whether living in the Netherlands or in the United States, reject capitalism. Consider what the Anti-Revolutionary Party pamphlet just referred to says. This unfavorable attitude against free markets is relatively modern among Dutch Calvinists. He represented a trend in public opinion away from freedom and liberty and toward Dirigisme, that is, interventionism, and especially toward guild socialism or syndicalism. The older Calvinists everywhere were of a basically different school.