Challenging The Zeitgeist:
what societal sphere sovereignty really means

So I've been really busy with trying to finish my short paper, so I can get started on my thesis. For a long time I was hung up on a few passages, and it took way longer to write than it should have. But I'm done now, and I am grateful to the Lord for His tender mercy. Your prayers for me were effectual, and I appreciate them.

I still have to add the footnotes and other references, but you can read my short paper here. Please do comment or ask questions!

I believe that Dooyeweerd's conception of societal sphere sovereignty is an essential key to faithful Christian living. Of course, not every one can grasp the theoretical details of this view. But in its basic outline this view is essential to a genuine Christian worldview. Every Christian --but especially those who already understand that culture is not optional, that cultural life is the shape of human life, and therefore of the Christian life-- should carefully consider these ideas as best they can, whatever their vocation.

What Home Tastes Like

Many thanks to my friends who have sent me care-packages while I've been here. I do feel cared for. Today I was so pleased to find a can of Old Bay in my mailbox. I suppose this means nothing to most of you, but to me it's comfort in salty form.

Now for all you LOVERS out there, here's a whole bunch of great audio stories to enjoy from ThisAmericanLife:
Love Thy Neighbor, people trying to love their neighbors... and failing.
What Is This Thing?, they call it love.
So Beautiful... To Me, about love, and what people mean when they use the word.
How To Win Friends, highly recommended fourth act: Jonathan Goldstein on what it's like to date Lois Lane when she's on the rebound from Superman.
Star-Crossed Love, how love blossoms, even when (perhaps) it shouldn't.
The Big Day, all that takes place decades after the moment your eyes meet.
Impossible Love and Heartbreak, need we explain?
And a special from Hearing Voices.

The Glory Of Kings
: a meditation on the calling of Christian scholarship

Even before the fall, Adam was dependent upon God to know how he ought to serve God in the dominion which God granted him over all the earth. There is a passage of Scripture in which we learn about a certain way that man is called to cultivate and keep, to fill, subdue and rule the creation. It is the passage that tells us about the naming of animals. “So out of the ground Yahweh-God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name” Genesis 2:19. So God reveals to man that part of his calling to rule involves naming things.

But do we find it strange that the man does not inquire of God concerning their names? And might we find it even stranger to begin with that God brings the animals to the man to see what their names are? In the calling of scholarship --itself a form of naming the creation-- some would have us look to Scripture to provide specific criteria for every field of study. But this is not the example we have in the Scripture itself. Rather, man calls out the names that he reads upon the "book of nature," God's general revelation in the creation. This is also the meaning of that ancient proverb concerning the glory of man's kingly dominion over the world's treasures: “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search them out” Proverbs 25:2.

Don't Lose My Number

Several international friends, who were only studying here for six months, have left. ...And they left behind a lot of stuff. It's like Xmas all over again. One dear friend gave me her cell phone! So, feel free to "SMS" me (abbr. "short message service," European for the verb text).

# 064-854-3296

If you're calling from the U.S., drop the zero, and first dial 011-31 (the intl & NL codes).
I also skype and googletalk.

In other news, the Reformational Philosophy Club of Amsterdam is set to have the next meeting on Monday (13 Feb).

I Break For History


Darryl Hart and John Muether have given us a wonderful treat in their continuing series of historical vignettes. They write, "...this series is designed to interpret [the] significance [of the American Presbyterian tradition] for Orthodox Presbyterians. Our aim is less to win readers over to our interpretation of these events (although that would be nice), than to get [you] to focus more carefully on [your] history... we want to make a case for memory and not nostalgia... what will unfold is three centuries of Presbyterian struggles over strikingly familiar issues."

Take a moment, now and then, to be enriched by these essays.

01 -- Introduction
02 -- Origins and Identity, 1706–1729
03 -- Old Side versus New Side, 1741–1758
04 -- A National Presbyterian Church, 1789
05 -- The Plan of Union, 1801
06 -- Old School Presbyterianism, 1838
07 -- The Reunion of 1869
08 -- Confessional Revision in 1903
09 -- The Special Commission of 1925
10 -- 1936: A Continuing Presbyterian Church
11 -- The Confession of 1967
12 -- 1973: The Presbyterian Church in America
13 -- Liberal Reunion in 1983
14 -- Conclusion

update April 2007 : the index above now available on OPC homepage.
See also Presby & DutchRef family trees and a list of "P&R" churches.

Quiet Week

It stopped raining as often, and the temperature dropped below freezing. The canals are frozen, thick enough to hold ducks, but probably not ice skaters yet. I bet those ducks are sorry they didn't go south for the winter. If you think ducks walk funny on average, you should see them when they're really, really cold. Oh man, it almost makes the bitter weather worth it, just to see those guys try to waddle all scrunched-up like that.

So... beside the duck thing, not much is going on. Earlier in the week I attended another SID lecture in a series on Religion and International Relations (& Development). If you're interested in the topic, you can read several of the lectures here (scroll down).

David Lynch (yes, really) stopped by the university the other day, but it was only to evangelize for TM.

You can read about some of the historical background to my short paper in an article I would have entitled "The Anti-Revolution Betrayed."

Recently posted articles on Kuyper, Science, and Design by R.vanWoudenberg (thanks to Steve Bishop). You may also be interested in Macht's 101 posts about Intelligent Design. Good stuff.

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum

I'm not quite myself yet, but feeling much improved. Oddly enough, I can tell how recovered I am from the taste of my tobacco. Experienced RYO-ers will understand.

Anyway, in this January term I'm working on a short paper. See my academic blog for details. Also, there are updates at The Kuyperian. Check it out and pass it on.


Fellow Covenant College alums should check out the new association page.

And in other news, the Russians finally agree to return precious books that the Soviets stole from the Hungarian Reformed (Calvinist) Church. Since the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991, the Hungarian people have struggled to recover their Magyari culture and Reformed religious heritage.

In A Fever Dream

Tuesday evening I began to feel ill. "Here it comes," I thought, "I just hope it doesn't last more than a few days." For some reason, I'd been expecting to get sick for a month now. I tend to have a brief cold at some point each winter. But I've been taking my vitamins, so I almost supposed that I might escape it. But no. Last night it laid me out.

I was in bed for a long time. Half asleep in a sort of stuffy-headed delirium, I had an inexplicable feeling of light-heartedness and simultaneous profundity. I can't quite explain (it wasn't the same as the flashes of euphoria one gets with certain sicknesses). But it came to me as a realization that I've been taking some things too seriously, and other things not seriously enough. For instance, I might be undone by someone's unfriendliness; or I might lose sight of the bigger picture concerning my work here. The first, I should take less seriously; the second more seriously. It was a moment of insight and re-prioritizing, and I'm thankful for it. Having taken it to heart, I will, in the Lord's mercy, bear up under this minor affliction.

Where Two Or Three Have Gathered

This weekend I attended the annual study conference of The Association for Reformational Philosophy. I arrived a bit late due to re-directed trains, but eventually met up with my colleague, Karel, and caught the last bit of Dr. Schuurman's address and attended two workshops. That evening in Amersfoort I crashed a gathering for the Christian Union Party Youth at Café Seven. And later, was hosted by Johann & Lizette for a wonderful curried potpie dinner. I stayed the night, and Johann graciously passed on to me the "wandering guitar," an ownerless Juan Salvador modelo2 which, after countless stewards, found its way to him some time ago, and which I promised to pass on before leaving the Netherlands.

This afternoon Karel and I met with Sander to discuss the formation of a Kuyper Society at the Free University for the propagation of a Calvinist worldview and interdisciplinary co-operation among students and scholars. We are quite encouraged by each others zeal, and yet are keenly aware that the task is too great for any of us. Thankfully, the battle is not ours to win.

In other news, I've really been enjoying Pandora. Listen here to "Baus Cool Jazz Radio" and tell me how you like it.

The Return

After today's second semester agenda meeting I went out with a few friends to the Tropen Museum. They have an intimate theater, and although I had seen it a year or two ago, we watched the Russian film Vozvrashcheniye. Amazing scenery, solid acting.

On the way home I walked by the Alto Jazz Café, and remembered that someone had recommended it to me. The house band was trying too hard to look hip, and not succeeding.

Anyway, I ended up meeting Phil Leavitt and his girlfriend Genevieve among the audience at the bar. Turns out Phil is the drummer for dada and Butterfly Jones. They were very kind and let me chat them up for a while. I didn't realize til later that I've been somewhat missing familiar American conversation.