Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard J. Mouw is the former president of Fuller Theological Seminary and former director of the Institute of Faith and Public Life. He has authored over twenty books and served as an editor of Reformed Journal.

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The Challenges of Cultural Discipleship

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................viiCalvin's Legacy for Public Theology..............................................................................................................1Culture, Church, and Civil Society: Abraham Kuyper for a New Century.............................................................................16Some Reflections on Sphere Sovereignty...........................................................................................................33Modal Diversity in Dooyeweerd's Social Thought...................................................................................................58Law, Covenant, and Moral Commonalities: Some Neo-Calvinist Explorations..........................................................................69Educational Choice and Pillarization: Some Lessons for Americans from the Dutch Experiment in "Affirmative Impartiality".........................87Creational Politics: Some Calvinist Amendments...................................................................................................108Klaas Schilder as Public Theologian..............................................................................................................124Learning from the Dutch Calvinist "Splits".......................................................................................................145True Church and True Christians: Some Reflections on Calvinist Discernment.......................................................................159Baptism and the Salvific Status of Children: An Examination of Some Intra-Reformed Debates.......................................................171The Seminary, the Church, and the Academy........................................................................................................191Dutch Calvinist Philosophical Influences in North America........................................................................................206APPENDIX: Dutch and Dutch American Church Groups and Movements Especially Relevant to the Development of Dutch Neo-Calvinism.....................235

Chapter One

In discussing the role of the ideal legislator in book 2 of his Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau paid tribute in a footnote to the Protestant Reformer who had dominated public life in the city of Geneva two centuries earlier: "Those who only consider Calvin as a theologian do not understand the extent of his genius. The drawing up of our wise edicts, in which he played a large part, does him as much honor as his Institutes. Whatever revolution time may bring in our cult, as long as love of the homeland and liberty is not extinguished among us, the memory of that great man will never cease to be blessed."

Rousseau does not offer any examples of the sort of wise edicts he has in mind, but he does eventually make it clear why he is not enthusiastic about the substance of Calvin's theology. When he gets around to discussing the role of religion in public life further on in his treatise, he singles out, without mentioning the Reformer by name, the kind of theology for which Calvin was known as posing a serious danger to the very fabric of civil society. Theological intolerance, Rousseau argues, is inextricably linked to civil intolerance. The believer in an intolerant God will be obliged to hate those whom God hates. "It is impossible to live in peace with people whom one believes are damned.... Wherever theological intolerance exists, it is impossible for it not to have some civil effect."

Rousseau would have had no difficulty bringing forth examples of the actual results of Calvin's theological intolerance for political life. Calvin's well-known complicity in the burning of Servetus is an obvious case in point. And, if anything, the Calvinist attitude on such matters had hardened in a place like Scotland in the years following the Reformation era. The Presbyterian "Covenanter" James Guthrie, in his 1651 pamphlet The Causes of God's Wrath against Scotland, offered just the kind of sentiment Rousseau was worried about when he wrote: "we judge it but the effect of wisdom of the flesh and to smell rankly of a carnal politic spirit to halve and divide the things of God for making peace amongst men."

There is no reason to question, however, the sincerity of Rousseau's explicit praise for Calvin's impact on life in Geneva. The best way of reading that accolade in conjunction with his condemnation of a theological intolerance is to take Rousseau as expressing a genuine ambivalence about the overall merits of Calvin's contribution to an understanding of a flourishing civil society. Furthermore, his concern about a Calvinist type of theological intolerance points to an important area of exploration that goes beyond a focus specifically on Calvin's views on political life in particular—a topic, to be sure, that deserves much detailed attention. Rousseau's observation about a theology's "civil effect" highlights a concern that has been receiving considerable theological attention in recent decades, particularly in that area of discussion that has come to be known as "public theology."

Theology and Civil Society

Public theology as an identifiable theological subdiscipline addresses an agenda that overlaps with those associated with some other rubrics that have been given much attention in the past century, such as "Christian social ethics," "political theology," and "church and society." While these other subdisciplines are still very much alive, public theologians have wanted to explore questions about "public" life that are not adequately addressed simply by focusing on "ethical," "political," or "church-and-state" topics.

This expanded theological focus takes up the concern expressed by some social scientists, that the identification of the public with the political tends to focus too exclusively on the relationship of the individual to the state in exploring normative questions about societal life, ignoring thereby the significant role that "mediating structures" can play—neighborhood organizations, youth clubs, service groups, churches, and families themselves — in creating a buffer zone between the state and the individual. This broad "middle" area of social interaction, characterized by a variety of associational groupings, is what constitutes much of civil society, and a healthy public life will encourage the flourishing of these entities. Conversely, as Robert Putnam has made the case in his much-discussed Bowling Alone, the decline in these associational patterns means a loss of the "social capital" that plays a crucial role in the character formation that is in turn necessary for effective citizenship.

These same issues have been taken up in the public theology discussions. Special attention has been given to the ways in which Christian theology and spirituality can contribute to the flourishing of civil society in this broader sense. In this context, Rousseau's concern about a theological intolerance has special poignancy. What is the "civil effect" of a theology like John Calvin's?

"Two Calvins"

Rousseau's ambivalence about Calvin's contribution is certainly...