About Contra Mundum, a study of the conditions of Christian culture.
About
Who speaks for Christian culture?
Every strong theological tradition has its view of the relation of Christianity to culture, or of the
independence of Christianity from culture. In particular the Reformed branch of theology early
evolved a strong view of the topic. Today there are many conflicting schools of thought each
claiming to be the Reformed view. The non-Lutheran reformers themselves were trained in and held
to the Via Antiqua, most being Aristotelians with Calvin apparently influenced by Duns Scotus. In
politics the best claim to represent the Reformed view would be that of Johannes Althusius in his
Politics, or some British Puritans. The problem is that almost no one holds the view today; even the
Confessions have been altered to remove it. Probably the closest would be the perspectives at
Wordbridge Publishing. Instead we have:
1) The older form of the two kingdom doctrine, emphasizing the separation of the institutions of
church and state that Philip Schaff called “the American idea of religious liberty”. “It is a free
church in a free state, or a self-supporting and self-governing Christianity in independent but
friendly relation to civil government.”
2) Dutch neocalvinism, or Kuyperianism, that sees all the social order, even culture, as composed of
independent spheres each with its own norms and authority.
3) Late neocalvinism or the Reformational philosophy, that introduces a radical disjunction between
the created order, including culture, and God, who is beyond being, logic, meaning, etc.
4) The theonomic-presuppositional view, evolving out of neocalvinism, which preserves one side of
the original Reformed position with its emphasis on divine norms and even theonomy in some cases,
while falsifying the philosophical foundation of Reformed theology in favor of Karl Barth’s anti-
Thomist version of history. Presuppositional foundationalism becomes the Reformed philosophy.
5) The Radical Two Kingdom theology with natural law, which highlights the Reformers’
Aristotelianism, but falsifies their their view of the social order and the role of God’s law.
While the Radical Two Kingdom theology coming out of the seminaries seems to be dominant in the
Reformed church establishment, there are outsiders, increasingly Baptists, who are attracted by the
theonomic-presuppositional view, though the limitations imposed by their theology and ecclesiology
prevents them taking this too far toward the position of Althusius.
Reformed churches always forbade the theater, and if we consider how many weekly hours today’s
Christians spend with the theater’s descendants, movies and television, is it apparent how remote
they are from the old Reformed idea of legitimate culture. The view of work is also different. Early
Reformed and Puritan writers held that those who do not put in a good six days of labor every week
are thieves who are robbing their community of production that they owe it.
It seems clear that can be no going back to the past. On these pages are essays representing a
variety of perspectives on Christianity and Culture: its theology and history.
Contra Mundum is not related to any institution, foundation, church or commercial entity. Opinions
expressed by the writers are solely their own and may be and sometimes are contrary those of the
editors.
contramundum@contra-mundum.org
The problem of the relation between Christ
and culture immediately concerns the
fundamental questions of Christian thought
and action. Therefore a Christian must
continually contend with it. The one who
does not touch it neglects his direct calling.
— Klaas Schilder
To say that culture is man's calling in the
covenant is only another way of saying that
culture is religiously determined.
— Henry R. Van Til