Foundations 70 (Spring 2016)

Issue 70 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available (here in its entirety as a pdf), with the following contributions. The essays by Ted Turnau and Andrew Latimer will be particularly significant for those interested in cultural engagement and the role of Christians in the contemporary world.

Ralph Cunnington

Editorial

Benedict Bird

The Covenant of Redemption According to John Owen and Patrick Gillespie

John Owen and Patrick Gillespie made profound contributions to the Reformed understanding of the “Covenant of Redemption”, or pactum salutis. Owen discusses it in at least sixteen of his works  from  1645  onwards.  Gillespie’s work, The Ark of the Covenant Opened, 1677, has  been described as “the most elaborate work in the English language” on the subject. The importance of the doctrine, in Owen’s view, is apparent in the Preface that he wrote to Gillespie’s work. He says “the truth herein is the very centre wherein all the lines concerning the grace of God and our own  duty do meet, wherein the whole  of  religion  doth  consist.” Both  authors  regard  the doctrine as the intra-Trinitarian foundation of the Covenant of Grace apart from which no man is  saved.  Both  explain  that  God’s  salvation  plan was  the  result  of the  eternal  counsels  of  the persons of  the  Trinity,  such  counsels having  the features of  a  covenant  and  including Christ’s distinct personal concurrence. Other theologians have rejected the notion of an intra-Trinitarian covenant, on the basis that it contradicts the undisputed truth that God has one indivisible will, and have sought  instead  to explain  the plan  of  salvation  simply  in  terms  of  divine decree. Yet Owen  and  Gillespie  regard  the  “pure  decree”  explanation  as  an  inadequate account  of  the Scriptural data – and hence an inadequate account of the whole foundation of God’s covenantal dealings with his people which underpin the whole of theology. In their view, the Covenant of Redemption provides a more compelling and faithful account, and does so without dividing the indivisible Trinity. This essay explores the alignment of their thinking on this vital issue. 

Ted Turnau

Dialogues Concerning Cultural Engagement (Part One)

In  this two-part essay,  the author addresses  the  subject of Christian  cultural engagement  in a post-Christian context. In Part One (Foundations 70), the author establishes that cultures of the West can be characterised as post-Christian. He then explores the issue of engagement through a  series  of  dialogues  with  different characters:  1)  the  Knight,  who  represents  a  political approach to cultural change, 2) the Gardener, who represents the Benedict Option espoused by conservative writer Rod Dreher, and 3) the Member of the Loyal Opposition, who represents the posture  of  “faithful  presence”  espoused  by  sociologist  James  Davison  Hunter.  Part  Two (in Foundations 71) gathers the various characters for a round-table discussion. After pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each, the author lays out his own approach which focuses on imaginative  cultural  engagement  using  the  arts  and entertainment.  He  explores  the  issue  of same-sex  marriage  as  a  case  study,  and the  reconciliation  between  gay  activist  Shane Windemeyer  and  American Christian  businessman  Dan  Cathy  as  an  example  of  winsome engagement in which each discovered a common humanity in the other. Our goal is a cultural engagement that is an analogue to that kind of winsome reconciliation that creates space within which  estranged  parties  can  meet,  or  what  the  author  calls “planting  oases”.  He  then  briefly considers two examples of this in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and U2’s Superbowl performance in February 2002. 

Andrew Latimer

Is the Adamic Work of Christ Shared with the Believer? A Critique of Van Drunen

One of the ongoing debates in Reformed theology is how Christians are to engage with the wider culture. David Van Drunen’s book “Living in God’s two Kingdoms” provides a clear presentation of a two kingdoms approach to cultural engagement and is written to challenge the “vision that the  redemptive  transformation  of  culture  is central  to  the  Christian  life”.  This  article  aims  to show how Van Drunen’s misreading of the covenant with Adam sets him on the wrong course, and  leads  to conclusions  which  are  at  odds  with  the  New  Testament’s  description  of  the Christian life. He fails to see that alongside an “exile paradigm” for believers in this age, the New Testament  also  describes  a  “conquest  paradigm”,  and  he  misses how  the  New  Testament teaches that in Christ believers share in Christ’s Adamic work.

Ben Rogers

Ryle and Evangelical Identity

This  article  examines  J.C.  Ryle’s  understanding  of  Evangelical  identity.  More specifically,  it examines his discovery, definition, and defence of Evangelical principles. He was convinced that Evangelical religion, which is characterised by five distinguishing principles, was the religion of the Scriptures, the Thirty-nine Articles, the English Reformers, the leading Pre-Laudian divines, and the leaders of the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century. This conviction was born out of his own conversion and reinforced by his study of the Bible and church history, and it led him  to  become  an  outspoken  advocate  of  Evangelical  principles  and  an apologist  for  the Evangelical cause.

Samuel Crossley

Recent Developments in the Definition of Evangelicalism

The  second  half  of  the  twentieth century  saw  a  spike  in discussions pertaining  to Evangelical identity. During these discussions the term “Evangelical” came to be used with greater intensity and was deployed in an increasingly technical manner. This phenomenon was in no small part due  to  the Evangelical  renaissance, where New and  Conservative Evangelicals  came  to  global prominence. This paper  examines the  two distinct  approaches  to defining  an Evangelical  that were used in this period, with particular reference to the propositional approach of John Stott and Martyn  Lloyd-Jones  and  the phenomenological  approach  of David Bebbington. The paper finishes by considering the merit of these two approaches in the present day. 

Book Reviews

Richard Simpkin

The Message of Worship (Risbridger)

Tim Ward

Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism

James K.A. Smith on Rethinking the Secular

Having posted about Jamie Smith’s short piece on public theology last week – which effectively provides a taster of his work in progress for the third volume of his ‘Cultural Liturgies’ project – I thought I’d link to part 2, ‘Rethinking the Secular, Redeeming Christendom’. As with last time, he’s reworking Oliver O’Donovan here.

Here’s an early paragraph:

‘Our political institutions, habits, and practices are contingent cultural configurations that are included in the “all” that Christ redeems (Col. 1:16-17). The political is not insulated from the impact of the Christ-event and the specific witness of the church in history – including the political habits learned in the polis that is the church.’

Smith helpfully summarises what is known as the saeculum, the significance of which I think is often overlooked in discussions of pubic theology and cultural engagement more generally (for instance, in ongoing debates between two-kingdoms protagonists and so-called advocates of cultural transformation).

‘Everything is now in subjection to Christ (Heb. 2:5-8); he has already disarmed the principalities and powers (Col. 2:15). But we live in the “not-yet” where this victory is not universally recognized. It is this time – between cross and kingdom come, between ascension and second coming, between the universal scope of his lordship and its universal recognition – it is this time or season that is “the secular,” the saeculum, the age in which we find ourselves... It’s not that “secular” authorities have full authority over a limited jurisdiction; they have also only been delegated their authority for a time (the saeculum).

‘So we don't shuttle between the jurisdictions of two kingdoms; we live in the seasons of contested rule, where the principalities and powers continue to grasp after an authority that has been taken from them. The church is now the site for seeing what Christ’s kingly rule looks like – and it will be from the church that the authorities (the “stewards”) of this world might come to recognize their own penultimacy.

‘On the one hand that means relativizing the “secular” authorities. But on the other hand it also means the church’s mission can make a dent there, too. In the church’s proclamation and her embodiment of a polis in which Christ reigns... It is the very mission of the church that takes it into the imperial palace, into the executive mansion, into halls of the capitol.’

So, controversially, as Smith says...

‘This, O’Donovan points out, was the Christendom project: a fundamentally missional endeavor in which the regnant authorities recognized the lordship of Christ, recognized they were simply stewards for a coming King.

‘[A]s O’Donovan points out, most of the examples of Christendom held up for critique are, in fact, examples of something else – a church that has lost its missional, evangelical center and has forgotten how to pray “Thy kingdom come.” Once the church forgot this was still the saeculum – once it fell into the trap of thinking the kingdom had arrived in their configuration of society – the result was a “negative collusion”: “the pretence that there was now no further challenge to be issued to the rules in the name of the ruling Christ” (citing O’Donovan).

‘Christendom, then, is a missional endeavor that refuses to let political society remain protected from the lordship of Christ while it also recognizes the eschatological distance between the now and the not-yet.’

The Bavinck Review 4 (2013)

The Bavinck Institute have just made available online volume 4 of The Bavinck Review. The contents are listed below, with the summaries of the articles taken from Laurence O’Donnell’ editorial. Individual articles are available here, or the entire issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Editorial

Articles

Henk van den Belt

Religion as Revelation? The Development of Herman Bavinck’s View from a Reformed Orthodox to a Neo-Calvinist Approach

Professor Henk van den Belt leads the way with a thorough historical analysis of Bavinck’s formulation of the revelation-religion relationship. He inquires into the theological grounds for Bavinck’s affirmations of the truth, goodness, and beauty evident in non-Christian religions. In what senses does Bavinck consider non-Christian religions and religiosity itself to be divine revelations? How can a Reformed dogmatics with its affirmation of a religio vera nevertheless find theological grounds for affirming proximate goods in non-Christian religions? His historical findings lend themselves to further dogmatic reflection on the religio vera within the contemporary context of religious pluralism. They also help to clarify the meaning of certain controversial passages within the Reformed Dogmatics wherein Bavinck makes positive statements about pagan religions in general and Muhammad in particular.

Brian G. Mattson

A Soft Spot for Paganism? Herman Bavinck and ‘Insider’ Movements

These intriguing passages [where Bavinck makes positive statements about pagan religions] are the subject of Dr. Brian Mattson’s essay on the ‘insider’ debate in contemporary Reformed missiology and Rev. J. W. Stevenson’s response. Mattson argues that misguided appeals to these passages such as Stevenson’s suggest that Bavinck’s view of non-Christian religions in general and Islam in particular downplays the doctrine of total depravity in order to highlight the goods found in these religions. Against these appeals he argues that, rightly understood in context, Bavinck’s statements regarding the goods in non-Christian religions have the opposite effect, one that is grounded in the catholic tradition and is non-controversial. Further, he argues that Bavinck’s statements – when interpreted in light of his view of the relation between nature and grace – do not provide theological grounds for ‘insider’ models of missions.

J.W. Stevenson

A Brief Response to Mattson’s ‘A Soft Spot for Paganism? Bavinck and Insider Movements’

Stevenson’s reply challenges Mattson’s reading of his appeal to Bavinck’s statements as misguided. He further argues that his view of Herman Bavinck’s theology and J.H. Bavinck’s missiology in relation to contemporary ‘insider”’ movement missiological discussion is not at odds with but in harmony with Mattson’s.

Laurence O’Donnell

Bavinckiana digitalia: A Review Essay

O’Donnell’s review essay takes a turn to the technological. After surveying the current array of digitized Bavinck resources, sampling their functionality, and sharing some tips for rewarding digital research, [he reflects] upon the ways in which these digital tools can provide a boon to Bavinck researchers.

John Bolt

Herman Bavinck on Natural Law and Two Kingdoms: Some Further Reflections

Professor Bolt’s essay revisits the VanDrunen-Kloosterman duplex regnum debate with a significant revision of his earlier Bavinck Society discussion guide in light of two recent dissertations by Drs. Brian Mattson and James Eglinton. The underlying theological question in this debate is one that Bavinck calls the hardest theological question of all; namely, the proper relation between nature and grace. This difficult question comes into expression in smaller, even simple, questions such as whether Bavinck, who designated a portion of his student budget for ‘Glas bier,’ would consider those Leiden pints to be Christian in any sense; or whether in Bavinck’s view a fundamental, creational institution such as the family can be properly qualified as Christian, as the title of his recently translated book suggests. Though seemingly simple on the surface, such questions have a profound depth when viewed in light of the nature-grace relation. Bolt offers his own perspective on this discussion.

In Translation

James Eglinto

Letters to a Dying Student: Bavinck’s Letters to Johan van Haselen

Pearls and Leaven

John Bolt

The Imitation of Christ Is Not the Same in Every Age

Bavinck Bibliography 2012

Book Reviews

Pro Rege 41, 1 (2012)

The latest issue of Pro Rege – the quarterly faculty publication of Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa – is online, containing the following main essays:

Jason Lief

The Two Kingdoms Perspective and Theological Method: Why I Still Disagree with David Van Drunen

James Calvin Schaap

Holy Writ and Human Writ

Jan van Vliet

Abraham Kuyper’s Wisdom and Wonder: Review Essay

The whole issue is available as a pdf here.

Pro Rege

Some new issues of Pro Rege – the quarterly faculty publication of Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa – have been placed online:

• 40, 2 (December 2011) – one of their ‘fine arts’ issues.

• 40, 3 (March 2012) – contains an essay by David VanDrunen (‘The Two Kingdoms and Reformed Christianity: Why Recovering an Old Paradigm is Historically Sound, Biblically Grounded, and Practically Useful’), and a review of Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture.

• 40, 4 (June 2012) – contains an essay by Roger D. Henderson (‘Connotations of Worldview’) and a review of Craig Bartholomew’s Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View of Place for Today.

Nelson D. Kloosterman on David VanDrunen’s Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms

Those who have been even vaguely following some of the ongoing discussion surrounding ‘Two Kingdoms’ theology will be interested to see an extended (82 pages) review by Nelson D. Kloosterman of David VanDrunen’s Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009).

It’s essentially a modified collation of a series of review articles which originally appeared in Christian Renewal, but it’s very handy to have them gathered together in one handy pdf, available here.

Crucially, it ends with a chapter devoted to ‘Today’s Renaissance of Neo-Calvinism’, engaging with some of the criticisms of neo-Calvinism voiced by a number of ‘Two Kingdoms’ advocates.

James K.A. Smith on Two Kingdoms Theology

James Smith and Calvin Theological Journal kindly make available his recent essay engaging with ‘Two Kingdoms’ theology:

James K.A. Smith, ‘Reforming Public Theology: Two Kingdoms, or Two Cities?’, Calvin Theological Journal 47 (2012), 122-137.

On his blog, Smith writes:

‘In my little corner of Reformed Christianity, there has been a notable uptick in folks who are sympathetic to “two kingdoms” (2K) theologies of culture – a model more traditionally associated with the Lutheran tradition. There are aspects of 2K thought I appreciate, notably its robust emphasis on the church as a sacramental community as well, its critique of the idolatry of nationalism, and its goal to resist Christian accommodation to partisan politics. There are other aspects, however, that I’m less enthused about.’

He also notes that he hopes to contribute more fully to this conversation over the next few years, especially in the third volume of his ‘Cultural Liturgies’ trilogy.

Michael Horton on Christians and Politics

In response to someone’s query about a Christian approach to, and involvement in, politics, Michael Horton has what I consider to be a useful post here in which he offers some reflections. In all these points (which are expanded in the post), he says, it is important ‘to make distinctions without oppositions’.

(1) Distinguish Christ’s kingdom from the kingdoms of this age without seeing them as enemies.

(2) Distinguish common grace from saving grace.

(3) Distinguish between the church as institution from the church as its members.

(4) Distinguish between ‘necessary’ and ‘good’ consequences of Scripture.

(5) Distinguish between the sufficiency and scope of Scripture.

‘To conclude: Christians, of all people, should be concerned about the pressing issues in culture and society today. However, even in the same church, where people share the same faith, worldview, and values, there will be different applications, policies, and agendas. Where Scripture speaks, we speak; where it is silent, we don’t dare to speak in God’s name but as those who are attempting to apply our understanding of God’s Word and world to daily living in ways that are not explicitly or even implicitly determined by Scripture.’

Tim Keller on Evidence of Coming Together on Culture

Tim Keller follows up his recent short but helpful article (here) on culture with another one (here) highlighting what he sees as further evidence of ‘transformationists’ and ‘two kingdoms’ proponents coming closer to each other.

Michael Horton on Christ and Culture Once More

Michael Horton responds here to the recent post by Tim Keller on ‘Coming Together on Culture’. I suspect the ‘Once More’ in the title of his piece is either wishful thinking on his part or a complete misnomer.

He recognises that Keller is ‘encouraging healthier conversation’, yet sees ‘even in his post’ what he ‘would regard as some misunderstandings about the 2K [two kingdoms] position’. He thinks Keller’s description ‘makes it sound as if 2K folks are more neo-Anabaptist’. ‘On one point,’ he says, ‘I think that’s true. Neo-Anabaptists like Stanley Hauerwas and Scot McKnight argue that the church is called to be a new society in this fading evil age, not to create one. Beyond that, though, we are worlds apart.’ He then goes on to point out that Luther and Calvin opposed radical Anabaptists ‘who disparaged God’s common grace in culture’.

My blog entries over the years will testify to the esteem in which I hold Michael Horton and his work, but he has not convinced on this issue – even if I do feel as if I’ve been helpfully warned away by him and other 2K advocates from the worst excesses of a transformationist position.

For my own part, nothing he says here detracts from the essence of what Keller was outlining in the earlier post. Horton says he is ‘often baffled by the gross caricatures of the 2K position’ but, while he declares this isn’t the case with Keller’s interaction, he still looks as if he is trying to fine-tune what really is the 2K position. Fair enough, I think, providing the warning against building caricatures and the generosity to allow fine-tuning is allowed both ways.

He also notes that David VanDrunen, one of the main current proponents of the 2K position, has a new work in the pipeline, ‘defending the position with exegetical and biblical-theological depth’. I’ll look forward to seeing that. I’m very interested in what Luther and Calvin and the Anabaptists thought, and how we place ourselves in relation to them; but I’m so much more interested in Jeremiah and Jesus and Peter and Paul, and how we place ourselves in relation to them...

Meanwhile, we can expect this discussion to run and run...

Tim Keller on Coming Together on Culture

For those who are following the ongoing debates in some circles about the nature of Christian engagement with culture – with the ‘transformationists’ on one side and the ‘two kingdoms’ proponents on the other side – here is a short but helpful article by Tim Keller which critiques both sides, and draws attention to some of those who are trying to steer a ‘middle way’ or reframe the discussion in different ways.

Equip to Disciple Issues Two and Three (2011)

The second and third 2011 issues of Equip to Disciple are online here (6 MB pdf) and here (3.7 MB pdf) respectively, carrying their usual assortment of brief articles and reviews (in amongst a pile of adverts).

I’ve been particularly interested in the article on the kingdom (the first of two parts) in Issue 3, in which the editor, Charles Dunahoo, addresses issues related to the so-called ‘two kingdoms’ approach to the church and culture. (The same issue also carries a review of David VanDrunen’s recent book, Living in God’s Two Kingdoms.)

Dunahoo advocates a ‘one kingdom model’:

‘We take the position... that the kingdom, which predates the church, now has the church at the heart of the kingdom. The kingdom is one and the church is part of that kingdom with the special assignment to make disciples for the purpose of worshipping and serving God in his Kingdom... While the church’s role is not to transform culture or society, as it disciples its people to live with a biblically reformed world and life view, their witness and influence will make an impact on the culture, not by embracing it, but by living a Christlike life in every area of life’ (9).

Themelios 36, 2 (July 2011)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the following articles:

D.A. Carson

Editorial: Generational Conflict in Ministry

Carl Trueman

Minority Report: A Word to the Conscience

Scott M. Manetsch

Is the Reformation Over? John Calvin, Roman Catholicism, and Contemporary Ecumenical Conversations

John C. Peckham

Intrinsic Canonicity and the Inadequacy of the Community Approach to Canon-Determination

Mark R. Saucy

Canon as Tradition: The New Covenant and the Hermeneutical Question

Dan Strange

Not Ashamed! The Sufficiency of Scripture for Public Theology

Sinclair B. Ferguson

A Preacher’s Declaogue

Book Reviews

I’m particularly looking forward to Dan Strange’s essay on Scripture and public theology, which is an updated version of a paper originally presented at the Affinity Theological Conference in February 2011 (see here for a link to some of the other papers on Scripture presented at the same conference).

David VanDrunen on Living in Two Kingdoms

David VanDrunen, Living in God's Two Kingdoms: A Biblical Vision for Christianity and Culture (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 208pp., ISBN 9781433514043.

Crossway have given advance notice of what looks like a significant title in the area of Christian engagement with culture.

VanDrunen, whose previous publications embrace treatments of natural law and bioethics, is essentially tackling the increasingly popular and vocal position that it is the task of Christians to redeem cultural activity and institutions in order to advance the kingdom of God. However, according to VanDrunen, while Scripture does require ‘a high view of creation and of cultural activity’, it also ‘requires a distinction between the holy things of Christ’s heavenly kingdom and the common things of the present world’.

A pdf excerpt of the book is available here.