Robert D. Knudsen's Calvinistic Philosophy lectures (Disk 3)

This is a continuation of the class lectures on Calvinistic Philosophy given by Robert D. Knudsen at Westminster Theological Seminary.  As before, the information in the audio recordings have not been validated for accuracy (use at your own risk).

 Kuyper: The Heart of Man, part 1 (disk 3)

This central character of heart and its meaning of the service of God also effects the conception of sin.  Sin has a radical character affecting the radix (root) of existence.  We cannot setup one aspect of the cosmos as sinful over against another.  We have to see sin as affecting the entire cosmos.  Sin affects man in his thoughts.  The noetic effect of sin reaches to all man’s endeavors.

There are two kinds of consciousness: one affected by sin and one restored by grace.  There is no common undivided consciousness of man. 

One who denies the noetic effect of sin Kuyper called a normalist.  The opposition to these are the abnormalist.

Kuyper and his followers stressed the antithesis and made a point to distinguish the difference between the Christian and non-Christian consciousness.  There is no dualism that would relegate a part of the creation to evil. 

Creation as a whole was created good.  It has been corrupted as a whole in connection in the alienation of the heart of man from God.  In the fall of man the entire cosmos is corrupted.

The conception of sin is correlate with the conception of salvation in that it is radical.  It is personal and also has a cosmological significance.  Through sin the entire creation is distorted (Genesis 3:17-19) and after the fall the work of man became a burden.  The effect is seen in the decline in human longevity (Genesis 6:3).  In salvation there is personal and cosmic significance.  Salvation affects the very center of man and through him, the entire cosmos. 

If we are going to have a Christian philosophy we have to see the meaning of Creation, Fall and Redemption for the inner concerns of philosophy.

Palengensis – a restoration, repristination of the cosmos.  It isn’t a new creation ex nihilo.  It is a restoration of the cosmos that was disrupted by sin.

There is a redeemed consciousness and Kuyper said it is only this redeemed consciousness that can see the cosmos in its true proportions.

Armed with the idea of the redeemed consciousness Kuyper pleaded for a Christian scientific endeavor and strove for an institution of higher learning where a Christian learning could be carried out (this was the Free University of Amsterdam). 

Kuyper stressed the antithesis in theoretical work (Wissenschaft or Wetenschap).  There is no common ground for which a Christian and non-Christian foundation for science.

For Kuyper the redeemed consciousness did not mean that there should be a Christian attitude toward a neutral subject matter or that there is a personal Christian influence in its teaching nor did it mean that the Christian consciousness should be productive of truth.  One the one hand what is Christian extends to the subject matter itself, the subject matter is taught/studied from a Christian point of view.  On the other hand this subject matter had to be discovered by examination of the field in question.  So we get the idea that the creation of God is understood rightly by one who is lead by Christian understanding, led by the principle of regeneration, and must go and examine that field of endeavor.

Sphere Sovereignty (soevereiniteit in eigen kring) was founded upon the absolute sovereignty of God.  Religion is a service of God with ones whole heart.  If one has the idea that only God is the absolute sovereign, then the thought is that the authorities of this world are limited.  Kuyper developed the conception that there are various spheres of life each with a derived sovereignty in its own sphere answerable only to the sovereign God.  Each sphere exists by divine mandate and it is not dependent upon other spheres for its existence.  Each sphere has a competency in its own sphere and may not transgress its boundary into another.

This position concerning sphere sovereignty, which he developed with respect to social groupings, brought him to break with social configurations of longstanding, you had to break with the ideals of individualism (we are bound in God ordained bonds).  You could not, on the other hand, embrace the idea of socialism where the spheres were parts of a greater whole.  The center was in the sovereignty of God and in man’s calling (serving God with the whole heart in all of life).