An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Monday 30 November 2015

Kuyperania November 2015


Simon P. Kennedy reviews Larson's Abraham Kuyper, Conservatism, and Church and State at Calvinist International blog.

He concludes:
However, the main problem I see with Larson’s project is the lack of “counter-evidence”. The “counter-evidence” is not so much counter to Larson’s claims. I am looking for counter-evidence to contemporary conservatism’s claims. New readers of Kuyper will quickly discern a number of policy positions in Kuyper, like pro-trade unionism and strong critcisms of lassez faire capitalism, which don’t readily fit the contemporary ‘conservative’ framework. Perhaps most alarmingly to the modern liberal-conservative mind, Kuyper was in favour of full household suffrage. That is, every head-of-household has a vote. This illustrates well that modern individualism would have been anathema to Kuyper. But modern individualism is a sacred cow to many on the conservative end of the political spectrum these days, and Kuyper serves as a strong and welcome challenge to this. I suppose that Larson would have needed to write a much longer book in order to provide a full-orbed ‘conservative’ picture of Kuyper. But in doing so, he could have provided, not only a solid defence of Kuyperian conservatism on religious liberty and limited government, but also could have provided a truly, “classical” conservative challenge to the rather tired and compromised conservatism we observe in contemporary western politics.

Joel R. Beeke. 2015. The Life and Vision of Abraham Kuyper. In  Common Confession: Essays in Honor of James M. Renihan edited by R.S. Baines, R.C. Barcellos and J.P. Butler. Reformed Baptist Academic Press.
This is a republishing of an article that appeared in 2004 Church & Society 14(1):24-31.

Sunday 29 November 2015


Christian Political Action in an Age of Revolution


Authored by Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
Translated by Colin Wright
A companion volume to Rougemont’s The Individualists in Church and State, this outline of Christian political action was written by the nineteenth-century pioneer of the genre, the Dutchman Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer. Groen not only developed a political philosophy based solidly in Reformation truths but he also formed a political party to bring those truths to bear in the political forum of his day.
Then, as now, the battle was against the Revolution: “the invasion of the human mind by the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of man, thus making him the source and centre of all truth, by substituting human reason and human will for divine revelation and divine law.” It is “the history of the irreligious philosophy of the past century; it is, in its origin and outworking, the doctrine that-given free rein-destroys church and state, society and family, produces disorder without ever establishing liberty or restoring moral order, and, in religion, inevitably leads its conscientious followers into atheism and despair.”
Against the Revolution there is only one antidote: the Gospel. To proclaim and elaborate this truth was Groen van Prinsterer’s life work. This volume - never before published in English - is an adept summary of it.
Details are available from the publisher's website
I recently interviewed Colin about another of his translations here

Saturday 28 November 2015

M D Stafleu a new book and website


Dick Stafleu writes: It is my pleasure to announce my new book: Laws for dynamic development. ... The book will not appear in print, but is available from www.mdstafleu.nl.


Contents
General introduction

Part I: Time and again 
General laws for the development of relations

  1. Framework
  2. Number and space
  3. Metric and measurement
  4. The dynamic development of kinematics
  5. Interaction
  6. Irreversibility
  7. Wave packets
  8. Individuality and probability
  9. Probability in quantum physics

Part II: Emerging structures 
Specific laws for natural evolution

10. Structures of individuality 
11. Physical characters 
12. Biotic characters 
13. Inventory of behaviour characters

Part III: Acts, artefacts and associations
Dynamic principles for historical development

14. Ethics and normativity 
15. Time and history 
16. Dynamic engines of historical development 
17. The development of human-made structures 
18. The open future of the public domain

Miracle Maker: Dave Brons and John Biglands in conversation #WYSOCS

New WYSOCS EVENT:

Miracle Maker

Music, mulled wine and mince pies: Dave Brons and John Biglands in conversation

FRIDAY 4TH DECEMBER 2015

Miracle Maker
Join us for a magical evening of music, mulled wine and mince pies. Enjoy local musicians Dave Brons and John Biglands sharing their music, as well as hearing how their music, lives and faith interact.
Dave Brons (davebrons.com) is a professional guitarist who has just crowd-funded his first album. Fresh from touring with Dave Bainbridge (Iona), Dave teaches guitar - including to young people on the margins. Dave will share some of the story behind his album as well as his calling to be a professional musician.
John Biglands is an expert in medical physics and imaging, as well as a multi-talented musician. From worship leading to the bright and funky Motif band (motifband.com), John’s faith and music go hand in hand.
Venue: St Chad's Church, Otley Road, Far Headingley, Leeds, LS16 5JT
Dates: Friday 4th December 2015
Time: 20.00-22.00
Cost: £15 (£10 for students)

Saturday 14 November 2015

Philosophia Reformata 80(2) 2015.

Philosophia Reformata 80(2) is now available on the Brill website. It contains the following:

Articles
The Contribution and Philosophical Development of the Reformational Philosopher, Dirk H. Th. Vollenhoven 159
Jeremy G.A. Ive

Action and Reflection (ii) 178
Sander Griffioen

Book Reviews

Pierre Marcel, The Christian Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd, Volume i: The Transcendental Critique of Theoretical Thought: Prolegomena to the Philosophy of the Law-Idea of Herman Dooyeweerd; The Christian Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd, Volume ii: The General Theory of the Law-Spheres: Introduction to the theory of the structure of temporal reality in the framework of Herman Dooyeweerd’s Philosophy of the Law-Idea 205
Henk G. Geertsema

B.J. van der Walt, At the Cradle of a Christian Philosophy in Calvin, Vollenhoven, Stoker, Dooyeweerd; Constancy and Change: Historical Types and Trends in the Passion of the Western Mind 214
Steve Bishop

J.B. Stump and Alan B. Padgett (eds), The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity 218
Marc de Vries

David T. Koyzis, We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God 224
Philip D. Shadd

Martin J. Jandl, Praxeologische Funktionalontologie, Eine Theorie des Wissens als Synthese von H. Dooyeweerd und R.B. Brandom 228
Danie Strauss

Rob A. Nijhoff, De logosfilosofie van Jan Woltjer (1849–1917). Logos en wijsbegeerte aan de vroege Vrije Universiteit 232
Roger Henderson

J. Glenn Friesen, Neo-Calvinism and Christian Theosophy. Franz von Baader, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd 236
Rob Nijhoff

Sunday 8 November 2015

Herman Dooyeweerd's Philosophy by Danie Strauss


Danie Strauss has produced a new introduction to Dooyeweerd's philosophy. It is available on the all of life redeemed website 


Contents

WESTERN PHILOSOPHY ............................................................................................................4
ULTIMATE COMMITMENTS......................................................................................................5
  THEORETICAL AND SUPRA-THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS .......................................... 6
GROUND-MOTIVES ..................................................................................................................8
  THE GREEK GROUND-MOTIVE OF MATTER AND FORM................................................. 8
  THE BIBLICAL GROUND-MOTIVE..........................................................................................10
  THE SCHOLASTIC MOTIVE OF NATURE AND GRACE...................................................... 11
  THE HUMANISTIC GROUND-MOTIVE OF NATURE AND FREEDOM ............................. 12
  DOOYEWEERD AND KANT...................................................................................................... 14
  POST-KANTIAN PHILOSOPHY ................................................................................................ 17
THE BASIC CONTOURS OF DOOYEWEERD'S PHILOSOPHY .......................................18
THE THEORY OF MODAL LAW-SPHERES...........................................................................19
  SUBJECT FUNCTIONS AND OBJECT FUNCTIONS................................................................. 19
  THE MULTI-ASPECTUAL NATURE OF HUMAN BEINGS ..................................................... 20
  RETROCIPATIONS AND ANTICIPATIONS ON THE LAW SIDE AND FACTUAL SIDE..... 20
  PRIMITIVE TERMS...................................................................................................................... 23
  THE ELEMENTARY BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES ..................... 24
  THE COMPOUND BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES........................... 26
  DISCLOSURE AS A DEEPENING OF MEANING....................................................................... 29
  CONTRADICTION AND ANTINOMY......................................................................................... 32
THE DIMENSION OF ONTIC TIME .........................................................................................35
  DO WE LIVE IN A “SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM”?.................................................................. 36
  TIME AND THE IMPASSE OF POSITIVISM.............................................................................. 37
THE DIMENSION OF (NATURAL AND SOCIETAL) ENTITIES ........................................42
  UNDIFFERENTIATED SOCIETIES.............................................................................................. 45
  THE STATE WITHIN A DIFFERENTIATED SOCIETY............................................................. 47
THE LEGACY OF REFORMATIONAL PHILOSOPHY............................................................51