PHL 210: Faith and Philosophy

The authors develop the Kuyperian tradition's rich resources on creation for systematic theology and the life of the church today. In addition to tracing historical treatments of the doctrine, the authors explore intertwined theological themes such as the omnipotence of God, human vocation, and providence. They draw from diverse streams of Christian thought while remaining rooted in the Kuyperian tradition, with a sustained focus on doing theology in deep engagement with Scripture.

Founded by the Dutch politician, theologian, and social theorist, Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), neo-Calvinism is a specific variant of Reformed social thought unique for its emphasis on institutional pluralism. It has long theorized themes such as church-state separation, religious diversity, and both individual and institutional liberty. Out of this tradition Shadd reconstructs an alternative framework for legitimacy. The central neo-Calvinist insight is this: legitimacy is a function of preventing basic wrongs. ... This book will be of particular interest to secular theorists focusing on themes of political legitimacy, public reason, justificatory (or political) liberalism, or the work of John Rawls, and to religious theorists focused on theories of church-state separation, institutional pluralism, and religious diversity.

Neo-Calvinist scholars address issues on which they differ with Two Kingdoms supporters, such as the nature and extent of Christ's kingdom, the idea of Christian culture, cosmic redemption, the cultural mandate, natural law, and common grace. This is not only an academic debate. The outcome of the debate will have broad implications for Christian schools, colleges, seminaries, and churches and for Christians in the academy, politics, business, the arts, and other realms of cultural activity.

The key ideas of Abraham Kuyper's Neo-Calvinism do not come from Calvin or from Reformed sources. Their source is the Christian theosophy of Franz von Baader (1765-1841). Among the many ideas derived from Baader are the ideas of a Christian worldview, a Christian philosophy, the idea of sphere sovereignty, opposition to the autonomy of thought, a Free University, the importance of an embodied spirituality, and the idea of our supratemporal heart, the center of our existence. Seeing these ideas in their historical context of Christian theosophy will challenge many of the current assumptions of evangelicals and reformational philosophers who claim to base their worldview and philosophy on Kuyper's ideas or on the development of these ideas in the Christian philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977).

This volume... has emerged from a small scholarly conference... on the relationship between Christianity and Greco-Roman civilization, above all, that civilization's characteristic patterns of philosophical thought... The field of investigation [is] the neo-Calvinist current within Dutch protestantism and the elaboration in the 1920s and 1930s of 'Calvinistic' philosophy as one of its most distinctive effects... this 'parish tale' has more to recommend it than might appear at first blush. For there is a good argument to be made why such a thoroughly local study can benefit a much broader segment of contemporary Protestantism.

The doctrine of creation is obviously one of the first things, but it is also one of the last things since the world to come is also, by definition, creation. The simple truth that it is so is incontestable since neither the world to come nor those whose dwelling it is built to be are God. But the way in which this is so is the subject of a long, long debate in Christendom, with the question of whether and in what degree the life to come is continuous with this one. How common is the "thing" in "first thing" and "last thing"? Our answer to this question conditions our answer to many others: the relationship of philosophy to theology, of the church to the saeculum, of the kingdom of Christ to the visible church. This volume brings together the careful investigations of established and emerging historians and theologians, exploring how these questions have been addressed at different points in Christian history, and what they mean for us today.

One of the most influential evangelical voices in America shows how, by common grace, God takes delight in all things that glorify him--even those that happen beyond the boundaries of the church.