Kuyper and the Bush Faith Based Initiatives

[rmwilliamsjr]

there is a fascinating article about the Kuyperian origins of Bush's faith based initiatives---

for instance:

Kuyper was both anti-socialist and anti-individualist. He believed that social order, and human flourishing within and through this order, are rooted in divinely ordained social structures that constitute a "œnatural" community, theologically and morally prior to the state (whether it is democratic or not). The family, the church, charitable associations, and confessional schools"” "œintermediary" structures between the individual and the state"”are elements of this natural community, and are fully as real as individual persons. Government agencies, programs, and rules form the political community. In more conventional, pietistic theology, the political realm arises with the "œfall into sin" and is viewed negatively, as a deterrent to violence and destruction in the postlapsarian world of fleshly human pride. Kuyper embraced a more positive view of the state. In his Free University speech, citing Proverbs 29:4, he said that the state "œgives stability to the land by justice." But "œpublic justice" is a coordinating, subsidiary power. Apart from shared needs such as national defense and infrastructure, the doctrinal watchword for the state is "œsovereignty in one´s own circle" (souvereiniteit in eigen kring).

from: http://bostonreview.net/BR30.2/daly.html


it is a little longer than most online articles but well worth the time to read.