Kingdoms Apart: Engaging the Two Kingdoms Perspective

“This collection of essays, both varied and subtle, and mostly emphasizing the Dutch Reformed perspective, should be a helpful guide for anyone seeking to think through the issues of the Two Kingdoms view of culture and its alternatives. Highly recommended.”– Donald N. Petcher, Professor of Physics and Department Chair, Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Georgia

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“This thoughtful survey of the thought of Reformed exemplars such as Calvin, Kuyper, Bavinck, S. de Graaf, and others calls us toward a global Christianity, instead of dividing vital sectors into hemispheres with some normed by God’s Word and others left essentially normless. Modernity’s program has surely persisted in seeking to arm–wrestle the church into such a diminished posture—normally leading to some hideous or inhumane trend or other—and the church’s dubious wisdom wishes to go back to the effect of a secularism–of–all–but–the–soul, as spawned by modernity. These deliberate scholars have saved the church much time and interacted with a reincarnated idea that is finding some renewed popularity. Instead of needlessly bifurcating our discipleship or abandoning a calling, however, these essays call us to take every thought captive and follow Christ in all that he commanded. The church and students cannot but be enriched by this bracing reminder toward unified Christian living in all areas of life, as our Reformed parents rediscovered. Our day should hardly beg for a shrunken witness; this balanced collection emboldens the church toward comprehension. We are glad to welcome it.”– David W. Hall, Senior Pastor, Midway Presbyterian Church, Powder Springs, Georgia

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“Charles Hodge, the great nineteenth-century Princeton theologian, affirmed the ‘spirituality of the church’ in the face of those who would have him confuse the institutions of church and state. At the same time, Hodge refused to allow ‘spirituality of the church’ to mean that the church had nothing to say to or about the state. In recent times, some proponents of a Two Kingdoms approach have advocated a separation of church and state without addressing the necessary relation that subsists between church and state. The essays in this volume, while not confusing different realms or spheres, such as church, state, and family, show that there are both distinctions and connections between these spheres. In other words, these essays seek to account for the one and the many. Hodge referred to the relation of the church and the state as ‘an exceedingly complicated and difficult subject.’ This writer agrees with Hodge and wearies of those who either simply merge all spheres, on the one hand, or, on the other hand, separate kingdoms without any clear integration points. This volume seeks to reflect the complexity of the subject matter and to treat it with both sophistication and clarity.”– Alan Strange, Professor of Church History and Librarian, Mid–America Reformed Seminary, Dyer, Indiana

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“The difference between neo–Calvinism and the Two Kingdoms perspective is much deeper than theology. It is a matter of a fundamental disagreement on the nature and scope of the gospel. And the way one understands the gospel has implications for the missional calling of the church. The writers of this volume commend to us the neo–Calvinist vision as more faithful to Scripture than the dualism of the Two Kingdoms perspective. I welcome this book, which joins a growing chorus of voices critically analyzing the Two Kingdoms approach in an attempt to understand the gospel and the church’s mission more faithfully.”– Michael W. Goheen, Geneva Professor of Worldview and Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia

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“Kingdoms Apart is a strategic book because it compares and contrasts the one–kingdom view and the Two Kingdoms view. The church has fallen into the Two Kingdoms view, both consciously and unconsciously, and consequently has struggled with its role and message within the kingdom. Each chapter, written by a different author, carefully and fairly leads the reader to a clearer understanding of the importance of the kingdom issue. This is a challenging and straightforward book that deserves to be read, studied, and taught by the church.”– Charles H. Dunahoo, Chairman of the Board, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

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”For centuries, Reformed Christians have debated and divided over the question whether the cultural mandate retains abiding force in the contemporary setting and whether Scripture is the only rule, not just for faith but for cultural life as well. The new debate, stimulated by those who would answer those questions in the negative, is proving to be a matter of life and death for those Christian educational and social institutions dedicated to answering those questions in the affirmative. This volume will be of critical interest for those who support such institutional endeavors as they sort out whether their efforts have truly been God’s work or whether, as their critics imply, these educational social institutions have simply become the new idols of our age.”– Carl E. Zylstra, President, Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa

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“Too many Christians, especially in the American evangelical Reformed renaissance, speak as though one must choose between Christ and culture, gospel and kingdom, salvation and justice. The Kuyperian tradition, with its rich, multiform, and I believe biblical vision, provides a counterweight to all that reductionism. This book engages this conversation and deserves a careful hearing by all who believe God has made Jesus of Nazareth the rightful and ultimate king of everything.”– Russell D. Moore, Dean, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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“This is a very fine collection of essays on the issues surrounding Christ and culture, marked by careful scholarship, an irenic spirit, and a deep commitment to a Reformed understanding of the gospel. Though occasioned by the challenge mounted by David VanDrunen and others to the comprehensive and holistic view of the kingdom advocated by Dutch neo–Calvinism and its heirs, these essays are much more than a reflexive defense of neo–Calvinism against this challenge. They also represent creative theologizing that not only is rooted in Scripture and the classical Augustinian and Reformed tradition, but also is actively engaged in the philosophical and theological currents of the twenty–first century. The contributors include both seasoned older scholars and promising young academics who are just beginning to make their mark. A number of the contributors also give us much–needed access to the Dutch theological and historical background of neo–Calvinism, and introduce us to little–known but seminal thinkers such as S. G. de Graaf and Klaas Schilder. What I find particularly attractive in this volume is its tone. Though in some ways a work of polemical theology, it avoids the rhetorical excess and partisan characterizations that so often mar this genre of discourse. Instead, it freely acknowledges that there are unresolved tensions in the work of such Reformed giants as Calvin, Kuyper, and Bavinck, and at the same time is animated by a quiet passion for the comprehensive claims of Christs rule. I believe this volume represents a valuable and constructive advance in the often heated debates surrounding the themes it treats.”– Al Wolters, Professor of Religion and Theology/Classical Languages, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario

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“It is for these reasons, and more, that I have prayed for wise and courageous scholars to step up—and step into—this fraternal debate within the Reformed Christian community concerning Two Kingdoms. I am praising God, therefore, for a new book by general editor Ryan McIlhenny: Kingdoms Apart: Engaging the Two Kingdoms Perspective. From razor–sharp scholarly engagement with biblical, historical, philosophical, civil, and theological sources, this new collection by ten trusted theologians treats the issues Christianly, fairly, and respectfully, without the dark smoke of polemics, yet with the unfettered urgent appeal for the reader (and the church) to consider the calling of believers in this age—and especially those who serve the Lord as preachers and teachers—to announce the lordship of Jesus Christ as both Creator and Redeemer until that day when, indeed, the kingdoms of this world become the once–and–for–all kingdom of our God and of his Christ. The Reformed churches and the seminaries who serve those churches need this timely book now more than ever before. I thank the editor, the contributors, and P&R Publishing for producing this critical book and pray that it will encourage twenty-first-century Reformed believers to return to the brave heritage of our spiritual forefathers who lived in the tension of the world now and the world on its way to cry, like John Knox, ‘Give me [this kingdom] or I shall die!’”– Michael A. Milton, Chancellor/CEO, James M. Baird Jr. Professor of Pastoral Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary

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“The church, particularly in ‘old Christendom’ (an admittedly provocative term in this debate, but still useful, I think), is in desperate need of a ‘public theology.’ Our desperation, in my opinion, is linked to increasingly secular and anti–Christian assaults on religious liberty, sanctity of marriage, sanctity of life, and the very meaning of our humanity, as well as the Christian’s place in this pluralistic culture. Wearied Christian activists who have personally endured the corrupt kingdom of this worlds turning a deaf ear (and now active, relentless personal attacks) to their cries are understandably discouraged. For others, pastors are chided for being too political by their congregations who have been sedated by the dualistic charms of secularism. Could it be that this discouragement has metastasized into a theological skepticism that shrinks from prophetic engagement with culture and the kingdom of this world? If so, sympathy for war–worn soldiers of the cross notwithstanding, this is the wrong time to retreat from prophetic preaching to human kingdoms. Talk of Two Kingdoms—a secular and a sacred—has possibly provided a supposed Calvinistic safe harbor from the vicissitudes of cultural engagement and its invariable struggles (and defeats). But as the Christian citizens of a 1930s German Republic would now surely testify, such a radical discontinuity—and, I would add, misunderstanding—of Two Kingdoms theology can lead to national and even worldwide catastrophe. And yet we may be living in such a day once more.

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“One of the most significant controversies of our time among Christians of Reformed conviction is that generated by the Two Kingdoms perspective and its stringent critique of the neo–Calvinist interpretation of the implications of the paleo–orthodox confession that ‘Jesus is Lord’ over all of life, and that ‘life is religion.’ This is not only an academic debate. Its outcome will have broad implications for Christian schools, colleges, seminaries, and churches and for Christians in the academy, politics, business, the arts, and other realms of cultural activity. The essays in this volume contribute clarity to our understanding of what—and how much—is at stake.”

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