Kruse Kronicle

“Calvin and Sewage” Richard Mouw

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mwkruse
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Mouw's Musings: Calvin and Sewage

I have been putting the finishing touches on the Kuyper Lecture that I will be giving at Princeton Seminary this week. In the end, a good part of the editing process has meant cutting out some things in order to stay within the time limit for delivering the lecture. One of the sections I had to cut back on a bit had to do with offering examples of the ways in which Kuyper’s theology of culture has provided practical guidance to “ordinary” Christians in their daily pursuits of their callings. I have never, for example, come across anyone who has testified that Karl Barth’s theology was a real help to them in understanding how to serve the Lord in the insurance business, or in teaching English literature, or in selling cars. But I can offer dozens of examples of that kind of testimony with reference to Kuyper’s thought….

As much as I respect the witness of my anabaptist friends, Mouw highlights in this post the main reason why I am not an anabaptist.

Comments

5 responses to ““Calvin and Sewage” Richard Mouw”

  1. Terry Tiessen Avatar
    Terry Tiessen

    You and me both, Michael. As a Reformed Baptist, I had long believed in the separation of church and state, as different institutions established by God for distinct purposes, with distinct instruments. When we moved into a Mennonite community, I was surprised to discover how fundamentally unMennonite I am, despite my Mennonite name and ancestry. What I encountered was a doctrine of separation of Christians from the state. At its root was the sort of total negativism about the state, perceived as under the demonic powers, that I meet in the thought of Hauerwas and his disciples. I am much more at home with the Calvinistic doctrine of common grace that Mouw elucidates so nicely in He Shines in All That’s Fair . This allows me to approach institutions outside the church with a sense of their ambiguity (just as I do the church itself), as places in which both the grace of God and the efforts of the adversary are at work. In that sphere, God calls us to be instruments of his grace and this by no means risks the re-establishment of Christendom which Anabaptists and Hauerwasians fear so strongly.
    Terry

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Well said, Terry! Thanks.

    Reply
  3. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    Yes indeed, Terry, well said. I find that “Calvinists” have made me suspicious of Calvin’s actual ideas, and I have to hear those ideas in some other context in order to give them a fair hearing, and then I find myself agreeing with quite a few of them. My issue, not Calvin’s…
    So Michael, if you are not an anabaptist in this post, in which posts are you an anabaptist? 😉
    Dana

    Reply
  4. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    LOL. No comments from the editorial peanut gallery. (I fixed it just for you.)

    Reply
  5. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    Hehehe-
    D.

    Reply

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