Scribd
Upload
131 views5 pages

Emphases of Neo-Calvinism

Neo-Calvinism is a theological movement initiated by Abraham Kuyper that emphasizes Jesus' lordship over all areas of life, not just the church. It holds that all knowledge and culture must be redeemed under Christ's authority. Key beliefs include sphere sovereignty, rejecting dualisms, and viewing all of life through a Christian worldview. The movement established institutions like Calvin University and the Free University of Amsterdam.

Uploaded by

Teodoro Miguel Carlos Israel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
131 views5 pages

Emphases of Neo-Calvinism

Neo-Calvinism is a theological movement initiated by Abraham Kuyper that emphasizes Jesus' lordship over all areas of life, not just the church. It holds that all knowledge and culture must be redeemed under Christ's authority. Key beliefs include sphere sovereignty, rejecting dualisms, and viewing all of life through a Christian worldview. The movement established institutions like Calvin University and the Free University of Amsterdam.

Uploaded by

Teodoro Miguel Carlos Israel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Neo-Calvinism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the Dutch Calvinist movement. For the movement that emerged in
the late-20th-century United States, see New Calvinism.
Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is a theological movement initiated by
the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper. James Bratt has
identified a number of different types of Dutch Calvinism: The Seceders, split into the
Reformed Church "West" and the Confessionalists; the neo-Calvinists; and the
Positives and the Antithetical Calvinists. The Seceders were largely infralapsarian and
the neo-Calvinists usually supralapsarian.[1][page  needed]
Kuyper wanted to awaken the church from what he viewed as its pietistic slumber. He
declared:
No single piece of our mental world is to be sealed off from the rest and there is not a
square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is
sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'[2][page  needed][3]
This refrain has become something of a rallying call for neo-Calvinists.

Contents

 1Emphases of neo-Calvinism
 2Key individuals associated with neo-Calvinism
 3Neo-Calvinist institutions and organizations
 4Key texts
 5References
o 5.1Footnotes
o 5.2Bibliography
 6Further reading
 7External links

Emphases of neo-Calvinism[edit]
Part of a series on

Calvinism
John Calvin

show

Background

show

Theology

show

Documents

show

Theologians

show

Churches

show

Movements

show
Inter-denominational organizations

 Calvinism portal

 v
 t
 e

Source:[4][self-published source]

 Jesus is Lord over all of creation. Jesus’ Lordship extends through every area
and aspect of life – it is not restricted to the sphere of church or of personal
piety.
 The idea that all of life is to be redeemed. The work of Jesus on the cross
extends over all of life – no area is exempt from its impact. All knowledge is
affected by the true knowledge of God through redemption in Christ. [5]
 Cultural Mandate. Genesis 1:26–28 has been described as a cultural
mandate. It is the mandate to cultivate and develop the creation. [6] There is a
historical development and cultural unfolding. Some neo-Calvinists hold that
the Cultural Mandate is as important as the Great Commission.[7]
 Creation, fall and redemption. God's good creation has been disrupted by
the fall. Redemption is a restoration of creation. [8]
 Sphere sovereignty (Soevereiniteit in eigen kring). Each sphere (or sector) of
life has its own distinct responsibilities and authority as designed by God – for
instance, communities dedicated to worship, civil justice, agriculture, family,
etc. – and no one area of life is sovereign over another. Hence, neither faith-
institutions nor an institution of civil justice (that is, the state) should seek
totalitarian control or any regulation of human activity outside their limited
competence.[9]
 A rejection of dualism. Dualisms are (purportedly false) bifurcations,
dichotomies, contrasts, or oppositions, such as the dualism between nature
and grace that [allegedly] dominated much of Scholasticism. In the neo-
Calvinist view, nature is the God-created and sustained cosmic order, not a
"non-supernatural" category, and grace is God's means of renewing the
cosmic order, it is not something "non-creational" added onto nature (albeit
eschatological in consummated glorification of bodily resurrection to eternal
life and cosmic transformation of the new heavens and earth).
 Structure and direction. Structure denotes created laws and norms for (other)
created things. Direction denotes relative deviation or conformity to norms;
primarily regarding the central orientation of the human heart toward or away
from God in Christ.[10]
 Common grace. God providentially sustains the created order, restraining of
possible evils and giving non-salvific good gifts to all humanity despite
their fall into sin, God's curse, and his eventual condemnation of the
unredeemed.[11]
 Presuppositional apologetics. The only framework in which any fact about the
world is intelligible is the Christian worldview in general, and the theologically
Reformed worldview in particular. The principles of logic and the use of
reason assume the existence of God. Presuppositionalism is a reductio ad
absurdum approach to Christian apologetics, in that it argues that all non-
Christian worldviews are internally inconsistent.
 The antithesis. There is a struggle in history and within every person –
between submission to and rebellion against God; between the kingdom of
light and the kingdom of darkness; between the age to come (already
inaugurated in Christ) and this present evil age (of sin). [12]
 World views. Neo-Calvinists reject the notion that theoretical thought can be
religiously neutral. All thinking and practice is shaped by world views and
religious ground motives. For the neo-Calvinist, life in all its aspects can be
shaped by a distinctively Christian world view.[13]
 The role of law. For neo-Calvinists, "Law" is more than the Mosaic
Decalogue, or even the entire abiding moral will of God. Law is, rather, the
order for creation (or creation ordinances) established by God and includes a
variety of types of cultural norms including physiological, psychological,
logical, historical, linguistic, social, economic, aesthetic, juridical, and faith
norms.

Key individuals associated with neo-Calvinism [edit]


 Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
 Abraham Kuyper
 Herman Bavinck
 Klaas Schilder
 Herman Dooyeweerd
 Greg Bahnsen
 D. H. Th. Vollenhoven
 Gerrit Cornelis Berkouwer
 Albert Wolters
 Craig Bartholomew
 R.J. Rushdoony
 Nicholas Wolterstorff
 James K.A. Smith
 Richard Mouw
 George Marsden
 Cornelius Plantinga
 E. L. Hebden Taylor
 H. Evan Runner
 Hans Rookmaaker
 Auguste Lecerf
 Chuck Colson
 Stephanus Jacobus du Toit

Neo-Calvinist institutions and organizations[edit]


 Arrowhead Christian Academy in Redlands, California
 Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI
 The Center for Public Justice
 Dordt College, Sioux Center, IA, USA.
 Free University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
 Theological University of the Reformed Churches in Kampen, the
Netherlands
 Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, Canada
 Kuyper College
 Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA
 Covenant College, Lookout Mtn, GA
 Redeemer University College, Ancaster, ON, Canada
 Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, IL
 The Kings College, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Key texts[edit]
 Bavinck, Herman, Reformed Dogmatics.
 Kuyper, Abraham, Calvinism: Stone Lectures.
 Wolters, Albert M., Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational
Worldview.
 Bahnsen, Greg, By This Standard.
 Rushdoony, R.J., The Institutes of Biblical Law.
 Rutherford, Samuel, Lex Rex.

You might also like