Herman Bavinck's Monism and Redefinition of the Kingdom (II)

One can only sit back in wonder when reading a statement like this:

It is on this basis that Bavinck can say: “There is thus a rich revelation of God even among the heathen—not only in nature but also in their heart and conscience, in their life and history, among their statesmen and artists, their philosophers and reformers.”

Herman Bavinck's Monism and Redefinition of the Kingdom (I)

https://www.wyattgraham.com/p/what-does-herman-bavinck-mean-by

Reading this article about Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), I found myself overwhelmed by a flood of thoughts. His influence is profound and growing and yet is this something to celebrate?

Sabbath and Dominion: New Calvinism and the Question of the Mundane

I've mentioned this in passing before but I think it's a point worth revisiting. When I hear Confessionalists discussing New Calvinism they are often uneasy with regard to several points and rightly so.

I'm not a Confessionalist either (though I certainly used to be) and I don't share all their views or concerns but there is a marked difference between Reformed Confessionalism and the New Calvinism.

The Cosmology of Tolkien

Updated March 2017

While perhaps a little off-topic for this website, I wanted to share a few thoughts regarding Part 1of this lecture on Tolkien's Silmarillion. The topic has long attracted me and in fact there are aspects of it that grow more interesting to me over time.

For many years I have been interested in both Tolkien and Lewis and in particular how their Cosmological understandings play out in their fantasy works. Their writings reflect the Middle Ages, the era both authors appreciated, but some time ago I realised this question was more complex than the intricacies of Medieval Scholastic Speculation. There are larger questions regarding Apocryphal literature. That's easy enough to dismiss but I continue to revisit the issue in light of the New Testament's interaction and utilisation of certain works.

Biblicism, Transgenderism and Epistemological Chaos

While many conservative and Christian cultural commentators will speak of the dominance of postmodernism I would argue that particular category and the relativism that goes with it is really limited to sociological questions, hermeneutics and ethics. When it comes to most interpretations of reality, Scientific Realism and Modernism still reign. The postmodern thinker will most certainly subjectivise the interpretation of that reality but the scepticism rooted in postmodernism is largely shared with Scientific Realism (Materialism) and its commitment to inductive epistemology.

A Few Clarifications Regarding Philosophy and Christian Theology

This is an update/revision of an article originally published in July 2010

For years I grappled internally and with others over theological issues. As time progressed I became convinced most theological debate was basically fruitless due to fundamental differences regarding reason itself, and accepted or assumed thought categories.

We bring this baggage with us when we read the Bible and we run the risk of two extremes.

Dominionism, Sacral Transformation, Elitism, and the Unassailable Philosophical Wall: Part 3

The Medieval Manichee, the Modern Liberal, Monism and Pluralism

According to Kuyper, Christ declares, 'Every square inch is mine'......our job is to make this a reality.

The reality of life in a fallen world...accepting that some things won't ever be perfect and that some questions don't have good solutions.....is not acceptable. Every cultural question must have an answer and everything is now cast in strict moral categories. Pragmatism is not allowed. Everything is ideological and since so many of these areas of culture are shaped by law and power...everything ultimately becomes political.

Interestingly Marxists have understood this principle as well...they just have a different solution, but they frame it in very similar ways.

A clever attempt to refute Two Kingdom theology

The author of this post has been receiving quite a bit of attention. To many his argument deals a mighty blow to the advocates of Two Kingdom theology. It's worth a read and consideration. I've left it mostly intact, with a few responses. I have not read the Van Drunen book he is interacting with though I have certainly heard of it and have some familiarity with him. I've listened to some lectures and things and overall I am quite appreciative of where he's coming from.---Proto

Cronkrite's Kingdom: A response

Not Walter Cronkite, but we will tell it the way it is. This article was interesting. Cronkrite is considerably more thoughtful than the famous lemming with the similar sounding last name. There's a bit of a nuance in his thought, and not a little wisdom.



So close, but yet so far. An interaction with Cronkrite

National Confession and Explicitly Christian Politics sound great, but are they in accord with Scripture?

 National Confession, national repentance? How could anyone argue against that? It sounds pure and God honouring, but is it? The entire sphere of this discussion stems from a basic misunderstanding of the Bible and its teaching regarding the Kingdom of God.



The text article is below, or you can follow the link.... at Explicitly Christian Politics



My response/interaction follows.

Dominionism- What are its goals, and how does it seek to achieve them?

This is basically a summary of what this project and website are all about. Sorry this is kind of long, but since there are a lot of new readers here as of late I wanted to post this. It's nothing new to longtime visitors, but I've tried to piece together and encapsulate several of the main themes I've written about. Anything that's brought up here has already been written about in more detail in other posts.

I'm critiquing Dominionism and for my other responses and interactions to make sense, you have to know where I'm coming from. There are others out there arguing along lines that are similar, but I'm approaching this a specific way that I've not found anywhere else. So while some of what I'm saying might be familiar to both friend and foe, there are ideas I'm bringing out that will be new to some readers. Not constrained by Reformed Confessionalism and/or Reformed denominational commitments, I'm also able to speak a little more directly to what I think some of the problems are.



As a follow on, a sort of Part 2, I will respond to the critique of this website by DT Maurina. He is offering a broad critique of my ideas, so I provides a unique and excellent opportunity to interact. I already posted his text at the end of the GreenBaggins discussion post. D.V., I'll re-post the text with my comments in the very near future.

Discerning Babel

Just astonishing.

After years of defending the Bush administration, its wars, its renditions and tortures, suddenly we have Evangelical leaders critiquing the War in Afghanistan?

The Kingdom War

A war worth fighting.

Within Reformed circles there's an intense debate between the Two Kingdom Theology position which I advocate here, (though in a more extreme fashion than many Reformed), and the Monistic One Kingdom position argued by Dominionists, Theonomists, and Postmillennialists, and all other expressions of Transformationalist theology.

Two Kingdoms and Separatism (updated)

updated 6 July 2012(originally appeared in June 2010)

Separatism…Tactic, strategy, or a misunderstanding of our relationship to culture?

There is a movement at present within the greater Reformed world that advocates a kind of Christian Agrarianism. However rather than derive this from the Bible it comes from a complex of social and historical categories mixed with a little theology, although I am unsure as to how many of these folks really understand the roots of their movement. It actually stems from a kind of Confederate Romanticism.

Dialectical Theology...

These issues of recognizing the two-fold nature of Theology...straddling as it were the Already and Not-yet, are core to understanding what some mean by Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinists themselves will be sure not to see it, declaring dialectic tensions in theology to be irrational.

I will assert by not grasping this dynamic you are constantly faced with logical dilemmas...in your Bible reading (often called problem texts)...AND it gets even worse when you bring in Systematics.

#8 A Hermeneutical Key from Augustine

Augustine of Hippo completely baffled Louis Berkhof. If you read his 'The History of Christian Doctrines' you can sense his frustration with the 5th century African theologian. Augustine has been called the father of both Medieval Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation. There is a sense of course in which this is true. For with him you have both the seeds of sacerdotalism and of a Grace based system of Justification by Faith grounded in Divine Election. How can they be reconciled? Berkhof, a creature of post-Enlightenment rationalism could not, but for Augustine there was no conflict.