Product Description: Conventional wisdom holds that the theology and social ethics of the Reformed tradition stand at odds with concepts of natural law and the two kingdoms. This volume challenges that conventional wisdom by studying how Reformed social thought developed from the Reformation to the present.

David VanDrunen begins by exploring the early development of Reformed thought in its first few centuries on the continent, in Britain, and in America. He argues that natural law and the two kingdoms were common themes in this early theology. In fact, he says, these ideas were embedded in crucial anthropological, christological, and ecclesiological doctrines, shaping convictions about the state, civil rebellion, and the role of the church in broader social life.

VanDrunen then turns to more recent thinkers of the Reformed tradition — Abraham Kuyper, Karl Barth, Herman Dooyeweerd, and Cornelius Van Til — tracing how each contributed in his own way to the decline of these doctrines in Reformed theology and social ethics. Finally, he reflects on recent signs of renewed interest in natural law and the two kingdoms, suggesting how their recovery is a hopeful sign for the Reformed tradition.

512 Pages
Published January 2010

About the Author: David VanDrunen is Robert B. Strimple Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Westminster Seminary California. His other books include Bioethics and the Christian Life and A Biblical Case for Natural Law.