Kuyper had grasped that sphere sovereignty is a creational principle. And yet he still confused it with historically founded autonomy of parts in the body politic when he placed municipalities and provinces in his list of life spheres.
Differentiated life spheres such as the family, the school and economic enterprise can never be parts of the state.
The historicistic view has had an immense influence – it is important to avoid this absolutisation of the historical aspect of reality. One antidote is to expose the hidden ground motives that lie behind it.
From the historicist perspective the idea that there are principles rooted in the creation order is viewed as being undynamic and as not grasping the spirit of the age. The historicist view is more influential today than the scriptural view of history. But to find God’s ordinaces fo historical development our starting point must be the creation, fall and redemption ground motive.
There are (at least) two objections to this approach: the biblicist and the Barthian.
biblicism
The biblicist objection is that scriptural principles can come straight out the of the Bible – we have, for example, the ten commandments. Dooyeweerd answers this objection with a question: are all the laws for God’s creation order, such as laws that govern numerical and spatial relationships, physical and chemical phenomena also to be found in scripture? No, God has given us the task of discovering them.
barthianism
The Barthian responds: how can we know the original ordinances of creation? Sin has changed them so that now they are ordinances for sinful life.
Dooyeweerd asks: ‘Did God reveal himself as the creator so that we could brush this revelation aside?’ Creation should not be pushed to the background: Psalms, Job and Romans are all clear on the importance of creation.
Jesus himself uses creational ordinances for marriage in his discussion of divorce.
The fall has affected all of life but it has not as broad as creation; it does not alter the structures of reality of creation.
review questions
1. What is the difference between differentiated and undifferentiated states of society?
2. How does Dooyeweerd respond to the biblicist and Barthian objection?
study questions
1. How can we combat historicism today?
2. Does biblicism stifle cultural transformation?
The historicistic view has had an immense influence – it is important to avoid this absolutisation of the historical aspect of reality. One antidote is to expose the hidden ground motives that lie behind it.
From the historicist perspective the idea that there are principles rooted in the creation order is viewed as being undynamic and as not grasping the spirit of the age. The historicist view is more influential today than the scriptural view of history. But to find God’s ordinaces fo historical development our starting point must be the creation, fall and redemption ground motive.
There are (at least) two objections to this approach: the biblicist and the Barthian.
biblicism
The biblicist objection is that scriptural principles can come straight out the of the Bible – we have, for example, the ten commandments. Dooyeweerd answers this objection with a question: are all the laws for God’s creation order, such as laws that govern numerical and spatial relationships, physical and chemical phenomena also to be found in scripture? No, God has given us the task of discovering them.
barthianism
The Barthian responds: how can we know the original ordinances of creation? Sin has changed them so that now they are ordinances for sinful life.
Dooyeweerd asks: ‘Did God reveal himself as the creator so that we could brush this revelation aside?’ Creation should not be pushed to the background: Psalms, Job and Romans are all clear on the importance of creation.
Jesus himself uses creational ordinances for marriage in his discussion of divorce.
The fall has affected all of life but it has not as broad as creation; it does not alter the structures of reality of creation.
review questions
1. What is the difference between differentiated and undifferentiated states of society?
2. How does Dooyeweerd respond to the biblicist and Barthian objection?
study questions
1. How can we combat historicism today?
2. Does biblicism stifle cultural transformation?
No comments:
Post a Comment