Encyclopaedic models in the Kuyperian tradition (part 3: towards a network-model)

Abstract

This is the third and final part of a series of three articles dedicated to encyclopaedic models in the Kuyperian tradition. Having explored several models and having noticed a few areas in which improvement is needed, I will in this article sketch a new model. Scholarship is better understood and promoted when compared to a network, in which all the fundamental players are in contact with each other without losing their unique nature and role. After demonstrating that such model reflects more adequately what happens in concrete scholarship, I clarify the role of "mediators" and I suggest an appropriate way of understanding the roles of worldviews and theology. It is argued that this model meets several requests (and answers some objections) which emerged in the past (as reported in part 1 and 2) in relation to specific encyclopaedic proposals. The remaining part of the article highlights some positive features of the network-model and finally argues that it is in line with a reformational worldview