For the Healing of The Nations

Essays on Creation, Redemption, and Neo-Calvinism

Edited By Brad Littlejohn and Peter Escalante

$29.95

About this book

The doctrine of creation concerns our beginning

but also our destiny, since the world to come is the new creation. But Christians have long debated: how much does the first creation have in common with the last? And what does this mean for Christians, who live even now with a foot in both? Our answer to these questions conditions our answer to many others: the relationship of philosophy to theology, of the church to the saeculum, of the kingdom of Christ to the visible church. This volume brings together the careful investigations of established and emerging historians and theologians, exploring how these questions have been addressed at different points in Christian history, and what they mean for us today.


Paperback | 298 pages | 6×9 | Published February 16, 2018 | ISBN 978-0999552742

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From One of the Essays

“IMAGINE A PASTOR who has recently received a call to a struggling church. This pastor wants to speak the word of God to the needs of this congregation. But further imagine that within a year of his ministry he discovers open sexual immorality among the members of the congregation (which is not being dealt with by the elders of the church), petty divisions over trivial matters, disorderliness in the church’s worship, questioning of central tenets of the Christian faith, and what might seem most personal to the pastor, factions which question his right to tend to the congregation in these situations.

You have just imagined something of the relationship Paul had with the congregations of the city of Corinth. What does this have to do with infant baptism? Simply put, I want to argue that the way that we speak to adults in our churches is integrally related to the way that we speak to our covenant children. More to the point, the way God speaks through His public words to the adults in the congregation is integrally related to the way He speaks to His little ones.”

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“Abraham Kuyper’s neo-Calvinism, with its communitarian and pluralist vision for social existence, served as a clarion call to cultural and political involvement by conservative Christians in twentieth century Europe and America.  These essays demonstrate both the complexity and the continued vitality of this tradition as Christians today wrestle with the possibilities and limits of social transformation.”

William B. Evans, Younts Prof. of Bible and Religion, Erskine College

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction – Peter Escalante

1

Abraham Kuyper: A Compact Introduction
Dr. James D. Bratt

21

Sphere Sovereignty among Abraham Kuyper’s Other Political Theories
Dr. James D. Bratt

49

And Zeus Shall Have No Dominion, or, How, When, Where, and Why to “Plunder the Egyptians”: The Case of Jerome
Dr E. J. Hutchinson

81

“The Kingdom of Christ is Spiritual”: John Calvin’s Concept of the Restoration of the World
Dr. Matthew J. Tuininga

105

Participating in Political Providence: The Theological Foundations of Resistance in Calvin
Andrew Fulford

139

“Bavinck’s bug” or “Van Tilian” hypochondria?: An analysis of Prof. Oliphint’s assertion that cognitive realism and Reformed theology are incompatible
Laurence O’Donnell

173

De-Klining From Chalcedon: Exegetical Roots Of The “R2k” Project
Rev. Benjamin Miller

209

Narrating Christian Transformationalism: Rousas J. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism in Current Histories of American Religion and Politics
Dr. Brian J. Auten

241

Nature and Grace, Visible and Invisible: A New Look at the Question of Infant Baptism
Joseph Minich

Praise for this work

For the Healing of the Nations contains excellent scholarship and persuasive reasoning on issues confronting the Christian community. I’m particularly pleased that the authors seek to avoid encouraging factionalism. I hope that this volume attracts many readers and sound practical applications in church and society, for the glory of Jesus throughout the world.”

– Prof. John M. Frame

J. D. Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

“The initial publishing foray of The Davenant Trust is a great one…. The published versions of the conference papers are uniformly excellent. Each demonstrates a deep scholarly familiarity with its subject matter and an even deeper concern to address topics relevant to a wide sweep of neo-Calvinist thought in America…. The essays are important to anyone who takes seriously the effects of thinkers such as Dutchmen Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck as well as Americans who followed in their tradition.”

– Prof. C. Scott Pryor

Professor of Law, Regent University

“These essays serve helpfully to advance several important conversations occurring today…within Reformed theology and life. The subject range is broad enough to attract a wide range of participants into the conversation, and the comprehensive attention given by each author is sufficient to lead readers deeper into the relevant sources. But let the reader be warned: the history of ideas, including theological ideas, is neither as linear nor as univocal as we are often led to believe.”

– Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman

Executive Director at Worldview Resources International

About the Authors

Bradford Littlejohn holds a Ph.D in Theology and Ethics and is the author of several books and articles. He is the former President of the Davenant Institute.

Peter Escalante holds an M.A. in Philosophy and serves as Editor of The Calvinist International and previous Vice-President of the Davenant Institute.


MORE FROM DAVENANT PRESS

The Davenant Institute endeavors to restore wisdom for the contemporary church. We seek to sponsor historical scholarship at the intersection of the church and academy, build friendships and facilitate collaboration within the Reformed and evangelical world, and equip the saints with time-tested resources for faithful public witness. Below are some of the works we’ve published towards that end.

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