CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY V. , N. W Education and the Great Commission Towards A Biblical Philosophy of Science Persecution of Christians in Pakistan The Judeo-Christian Cosmology Formative Ideals of Western Civilisation Trinity and Daily Living The Degeneration of Liberalism ISSN - www.kuyper.org Christianity & Society is published biannually in Summer and Winter by the K F, a Christian charitable trust founded in to promote a renaissance of Christian culture in society by furthering awareness of the implications of the Christian faith for every sphere of life, including the Church, family and State. Its vision of Christian society was expressed in the words of Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch Christian theologian and statesman, who said: “One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. And sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: that in spite of all worldly opposition, God’s holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to him.” The Foundation seeks to promote this vision of Christian society by publishing literature, distributing audio-visual materials, and running lecture courses and conferences. E: S C. P S P is the Director of the Kuyper Foundation. He has lectured in the UK, Europe, America, New Zealand, Australia and Africa on a wide variety of issues dealing with the application of Christian principles to con- temporary society and has written a number of books and numerous arti- cles and essays dealing with issues such as law, education, theology, politics and economics. E A B R A is a professional translator and author residing in the Netherlands with his wife, Corine, and their three children. D N A is Senior Lecturer in Law at the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland, Australia. D P. B is a freelance writer investigating the relationship between the enjoyment of literature and Christian worship/practice. D E B is a university lecturer, author, Presbyterian elder, and an elected politician (a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly). D C, a native Zimbabwean, is a pastor, missionary, and author now ministering in the USA. B D has pastored, taught theology, administered a Christian school, and currently lives in British Columbia. D D E is retired Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. S J. H works in mobile communications. He was ordained in the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the USA. D T S is President of, and Professor of Systematic Theology at, Martin Bucer Theological Seminary in Germany. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY E V , N W, S C. P C C S P is the Director of The Kuyper Foundation. EDITORIAL M K is Assistant Profes- E G C sor of Biblical Studies and Christian by Stephen C. Perks .............................................................................. Mission at Montreat College near Ash- eville, North Carolina. FEATURES P G is a Social Anthro- T A B P S pologist specialising in the study of belief by Mark R. Kreitzer ............................................................................. systems, ideologies and religions. M W. K is a graduate of P C P—M C Biola University and Westminster Theo- S CLAAS ..................................................................... logical Seminary and holds a doctorate in philosophy from Duquesne Univer- T J-C C O S sity. by Paul Gosselin................................................................................... D C, a native of Zimba- bwe, is a pastor, missionary and author T I P: now ministering in the USA. F I W C—Cont. R P teaches history and by Michael W. Kelley ........................................................................... civis at the Classical Christian Academy in Post Falls, Idaho, USA. T D L S L is a tutor/worker by Derek Carlsen ................................................................................... at the English L’Abri and a Ph.D student at Stavanger School of Missions, Nor- T D L A P? way, studying philosophical theology, by Robin Phillips ................................................................................. focusing on Christology in Protestant scholarship. REVIEWS T W is a computer and net- D. H. Williams, Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influences work support technician at the University of Minnesota. of the Early Church Reviewed by Stefan Lindholm..................................................... B C: Saved! Jesus Camp Reviewed by T. E. Wilder.............................................................. 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Box , Taunton, Somerset, web site address are displayed. , England. Permission to reproduce the whole or any part of this PDF file for any other purpose must be ob- Copyright © Christianity & Society . tained from the Kuyper Foundation. Christianity & Society— V. , No. , O There is in Britain now a settled and institutionalised antipathy to the Christian faith and its value system. At times this attitude manifests itself almost as belligerence as the E State uses the police force to enforce its secular humanist doctrines of political correctness on society. For example, the public expression of certain Christian values and morals C E is now likely to result in police visits and warnings to individuals that they should abstain from expressing such † G C opinions publicly in future. Several such incidents have been reported in the media and even a bishop of the Church of England has been visited by the police and warned against by Stephen C. Perks expressing his opinions on certain moral values in public— though this latter incident was perhaps more significant for the fact that an Anglican bishop was prepared to make a M Britain faces a serious cultural crisis. The Christian stand in terms of orthodox Christian values than that the worldview that once characterised our society has collapsed. police tried to suppress the public expression of such values. This is not merely a matter of declining church attendance. Nevertheless, the fact that the police are increasingly taking Something has happened at a much more profound level in it upon themselves to enforce this politically correct code of the psyche of the nation that declining church attendance immorality demonstrates the reality of secular humanism as and many other modern trends are merely symptoms of. a religion that is willing and able to use the full machinery of Christianity has ceased to function as public truth, i.e. as the State to enforce its own form of religious dogma: political religion that underpins and gives meaning to our way of life. correctness. This is the secular humanist inquisition. The nation has converted to a new religion, and it is in terms In short, Britain is in the process of being de-commis- of this new religion that people make sense of life. The nation sioned as a Christian nation, and the hard-won freedoms has been de-Christianised. The worldview that governs our that the nation cherished for so long, which were the fruit of society is no longer a Christian worldview. The worldview a Christian worldview and way of life, are fast disappearing that governs the nation is secular humanism. It is the as society rejects the Christian religion. This cultural decline, worldview of secular humanism that now functions as public however, is not confined to the UK. This is a problem that truth in our society. And as the religion of secular humanism affects the West generally, though to varying degrees in grows stronger