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 through a study of Reformed social thought from the Reformation to the present. John Bolt  — Calvin Theological Seminary “The strength of this book is the overwhelming amount of historical evidence, judiciously analyzed and assessed, that positions the Reformed tradition clearly in the natural law, two kingdoms camp. This valuable contribution to our understanding of the Christian life cannot and should not be ignored or overlooked. The growing acceptance of the social gospel among evangelicals puts us in jeopardy of losing the gospel itself; the hostility to natural law and concomitant love affair with messianic ethics opens us up to tyranny. This is a much needed and indispensable ally in the battle for the life of the Christian community in North America.”  David VanDrunen is the Robert B. Strimple Professor ofSystematic Theology and Christian Ethics at WestminsterSeminary California, an ordained minister, and an attorney. Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought By David VanDrunen William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Copyright © 2010 David VanDrunen All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8028-6443-7 Contents Preface.........................................................................................................ix1. Natural Law, the Two Kingdoms, and the Untold Story of Reformed Social Thought...............................12. Precursors of the Reformed Tradition.........................................................................213. Reforming Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: John Calvin and His Contemporaries...............................674. Natural Law in Early Reformed Resistance Theory..............................................................1195. The Age of Orthodoxy: Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms in Reformed Doctrine and Practice.....................1496. Theocratic New England, Disestablished Virginia, and the Spirituality of the Church..........................2127. An Ambiguous Transition: Abraham Kuyper on Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms..................................2768. The Christological Critique: The Thought of Karl Barth.......................................................3169. The Kuyperian Legacy (I): Herman Dooyeweerd and North American Neo-Calvinism.................................34810. The Kuyperian Legacy (II): Cornelius Van Til and the Van Tillians...........................................386Conclusion: The Survival and Revival of Reformed Natural Law and Two Kingdoms Doctrine..........................423Bibliography....................................................................................................435Index...........................................................................................................463 Chapter One Natural Law, the Two Kingdoms, and the Untold Story of Reformed Social Thought Reformed Christianity is widely respected for having a vibrant tradition of social thought. Whether the examples be taken from John Calvin's Geneva, Puritan New England, or Abraham Kuyper in the Netherlands, friend and foe alike often admire Reformed Christianity for inspiring its adherents to think not only about ecclesiastical piety but also about the wide spectrum of political and cultural affairs. Many people, accordingly, have written about the tradition of Reformed social thought from a variety of angles. Yet there are important aspects of this tradition that are largely unknown and frequently overlooked in such studies. The place of the natural law and the two kingdoms doctrines in the development of Reformed social thought is one of these aspects. For the better part of four centuries Reformed thinkers widely affirmed doctrines of natural law and the two kingdoms and treated them as foundational concepts for their social thought. In affirming natural law they professed belief that God had inscribed his moral law on the heart of every person, such that through the testimony of conscience all human beings have knowledge of their basic moral obligations and, in particular, have a universally accessible standard for the development of civil law. In affirming the two kingdoms doctrine, they portrayed God as ruling all human institutions and activities, but as ruling them in two fundamentally different ways. According to this doctrine, God rules the church (the spiritual kingdom) as redeemer in Jesus Christ and rules the state and all other social institutions (the civil kingdom) as creator and sustainer, and thus these two kingdoms have significantly different ends, functions, and modes of operation. Furthermore, classic Reformed theology interconnected the natural law and two kingdoms doctrines, particularly in looking to natural law as the primary moral st