Contra Omnia Adversa
2023 Reading List to Rebuild Civilization & Community
Rebuilding civilization will be a project soon halted without literature, academics, and history. As Augustine understood, a city is a community of people united by a shared love. Taking Augustine’s point more loosely, a shared…
Christian Nationalism: An Introduction
Anthony Smith characterizes nationalism as a movement that seeks to preserve “national autonomy, unity, & identity” [1]. Starting with Smith’s definition as a general framework, Christian nationalism can be reasonably understood as a movement that…
Machen On The Need For Christian Education
Though Christian schools are good for liberty and are a check on public schools, Machen ultimately embraced the Christian school because he believed in the necessity of Christian education.
Fault Lines: Book Review
Baucham connects Marxism and Marxist Critical Theory to the issues surrounding discussions and actions related to the CSJ Movement. As such, the CSJ Movement, while seeking to address injustice, finds itself linked to ungodly standards and philosophies.
The Case For Fusionism
Since the early days of the conservative movement, conservatives and libertarians have uneasily coexisted as combatants in the fight against liberal authoritarianism. That both groups have common objectives has not prevented them from occasionally warring…
Challenging Divine Authority
As a totalitarian system, communism is hostile towards religion as it threatens authority. Karl Marx declared that “communism begins where atheism begins,” and communism “abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality.”
Exercising Non-Political Power in a Politicized World
Trying to gauge conservative reaction to the change in political wind, I listened to a segment of talk radio while traveling this week.
Groen’s Fight For Christian Education
Groen van Prinsterer’s battle for Christian education in the Netherlands took place during a time of increased deconfessionalization of the Dutch state and the liberalization of Dutch schools. This battle is perhaps what Groen van…
Who are “The Least of These?”
“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me” (Matt. 25:40, NIV). This verse tends to be a…
A Christian Response To Political Correctness
Jesus warned that He was sending His disciples out as “sheep in the midst of wolves,” and they should not be surprised when they are flogged in the “synagogues” and “dragged before governors and kings”…
An Unorthodox Introduction to Libertarianism
“An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government,” said then-presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2012. The idea Paul was speaking of was libertarianism, and though no armies or…
Problems With Critical Race Theory Pt 1
This is the first of two essays discussing Critical Race Theory. This article discusses Delgado and Stefancic’s discussion on “nationalism,” followed by a brief discussion of “white privilege.”
How Does The Bible Define Freedom?
The God-given ontological framework for all reality is designed so that obedience to God’s law is the only way to escape slavery to the arbitrary authority of men and the bondage of sin and any false freedom from Christ ends only in death and destruction.
Machen’s Rejection of Libertarian Individualism
Two more principles are at work in society. The ancients saw these as the principles of the One and the Many. Today, we call it the collective and the individual.
Calvin’s Political Theology
The Calvinistic confession of the sovereignty of God holds good for all the world, is true for all nations, and is of force in all authority which man exercises over man.
The RTS Professor Against Social Justice
Social justice confuses different conceptions of justice and merit, and chases after an undeserved and jealous-based equality that never leads to equality, but only tyranny.
Aborting Abortion
In America today, we call it “abortion.” Should we be calling it something else? Could aborting abortion be the way to saving life outside the womb?
Three Reasons Against Cloning
Leon Kass, author of the essay, The Wisdom of Repugnance, gives three arguments used to defend cloning. These three arguments are: the Argument of Technology, the Liberal Argument, and the Meliorist Argument.
Confounding the Postmodern Mind
Christians dare not succumb to either rationalism or relativism; rather, because of our mind’s limits and our sins, we must be dependent on revelation. The Word of God breaks into our narrow, human minds with God’s judgment and His grace, confounding both the modernists and the postmodernists.
An Aesthetic Apologetic?
Goodness, Truth, and Beauty as transcendental goals worthy of all human pursuit has plagued many a philosophical mind through the ages. Truth is something in which knowledge delights, the good is something whose possession satisfies us: beauty is that which the perception pleases us.” (Italics original). The idea of reason or truth defending the veracity of the Christian truth claims is not new. Nor terribly new is the idea that our faithful behavior may commend the faith to the unbeliever. But what about beauty?
The Development of Social Justice
Social justice is a teaching born in the Enlightenment, steming from Hume, Bentham, Smith, Kant, and Rousseau. Francois-Noel Babeuf, is a lesser known, but no less important, name in this history as well.
Statism
Throughout the history of the Christian church, Christianity has always stood over against all forms of statism.
Libertarians And The Eternal Contract
Conservatism and libertarianism, at heart, are at odds. Conservatives hold that society is no mere temporary contrivance, but based on ‘Eternal Contract,’ as it were.
Is Oikophilia Biblical?
“Love of home” is central to conservative political philosophy. We at the Reformed Conservative contend that Oikophilia is a biblical concept.
Alexandr Dugin’s Fourth Political Theory
I’ve recently read through the Russian philosopher Alexandr Dugin’s The Fourth Political Theory, and overall, I must say I am quite impressed. His critique of Enlightenment modernism and its heirs, which he identifies as liberalism,…
The Westminster Doctrine of Inequality
To be fair a theory of equality is a necessary element in the sciences of philosophy, anthropology, and civics. In what ways are all men equal? What does equality really mean? The problem comes in…
Edwards In The Hands Of Social Justice
The recent call to say “Farewell” to Jonathan Edwards was replaced with a more manageable observation to take the good and dismiss the bad. This initial call was based on Edwards’s ownership of a female slave named Venus. Let’s assume two propositions. First, in order to examine the rationality of the present “cancel culture,” suppose the first impulse to bid Edwards farewell remained as the unvarnished desire and, thus, something we would attempt to do. What would the advice be in such an instance? Stop reading Jonathan Edwards? Ignore any Edwardsean influence in American culture or evangelical theology?
Why Reformed Christians Are Vulnerable To Social Justice
Reformed Millenials are vulnerable to social justice. Social justice has become so widely accepted in mainstream Reformed circles it might be considered their sixth point of Calvinism.
Abraham Kuyper: Reformed Statesman
Abraham Kuyper used his massive intellect and top-flight educational achievements to wage war against the destructive forces of Modernism. He wrote, “it must be felt that in Modernism the vast energy of an all-embracing life-system assails us, then also it mush be understood that we have to take our stand in a life-system of equally comprehensive and far-reaching power.” He then asserted that the alternative “life-system” was the comprehensive worldview of Calvinism.
Race Counseling in the Early Church
To employ the vocabulary of the modernists, the early church seemed to suffer from a classic case of xenophobia and privilege. Successful evangelical work on the part of the Church in and around Jerusalem had brought members from two diverse groups of distant brothers back into closer proximity than they had been for centuries and problems were bound to arise.
By the time of Acts chapter six, dissension had arisen between the Hellenists and the Hebraics. The accusation was favoritism.
The Restless Heart of Public Education
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Augustine You see, education is not an object to be held in our hands or…
Calvin & Culture, Reconsidered
One of the greatest social scientists credits John Calvin for the rise of capitalism and, by extension, modern Western culture itself. That is quite an influence and quite a tribute to Calvin.
Piety or Patricide
Christians today must avoid using corrosive elements of rebellion in the rebuilding of civilization. Failure to reject rebellion will lead to the same present path of ruin.
An Introduction to Hohfeldian Rights Analysis
Arguably, Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld is the greatest legal theorist America has ever produced. The Hohfeldian Rights Analysis was one of the greatest breakthroughs in the philosophy of law.
2021 Reading List to Rebuild Civilization & Community
Rebuilding civilization will be a project soon halted without literature, academics, and history. This list is curated to inspire and encourage, to critique and to sharpen.
Abortion & Historical Theology
Christians humility builds on the wisdom of the church, the wisdom of two millennia. Historically, the church has rejected abortion. Why should only those who walk around on two feet have the right to share their wisdom?
Harmony of Interest and Authoritarianism
For centuries Western nations have prized a social structure which places heavy emphasis on harmony of interest. High levels of social concord have given way to de-centralization of power structures and increased personal liberty.
The Conservative’s Prophetic Role
The conservative, like the prophet, is never popular among the people. It is a lonely road telling a generation they are headed the wrong way.
Thomas Sowell on “Atomistic” Libertarians
Libertarians, ironically, tend to feed modern secularism. Libertarianism fails to balance the individual and the collective.
Disobedience as Ritual Magic
Man, being now in a fallen state, is at enmity with this natural order of things and seeks to suppress the glory of God. In his rebellious state man seeks unnatural means to an unnatural end. But since this world belongs to God, He alone may determine the terms of its right and proper use.
American Conservatism in Hospice Care
The concept of “freedom” to many ostensible Conservatives today has nothing to do with virtue or the wisdom of tradition, but everything to do with soft, self-perpetuating libertinism.
Dabney on Education as a Religious Task
Dabney’s prophetic voice has rung true in many areas, perhaps most of all in education and the secularization of American schools.
