Reformed Theology and the Question of Protestant Individualism
A Dialogue with Henri de Lubac
In: Journal of Reformed TheologySearch for other papers by D. Glenn Butner, Jr. in
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Though Protestantism is all too commonly accused of providing a theology that is too individualistic, there are in fact numerous historical resources from which a decidedly Reformed theology can be developed which is attentive to the social nature of theology. This essay will develop precisely such a theology in dialogue with Henri de Lubac, the Catholic theologian perhaps most aware of the social dimension of Catholic thought. Combined, Heinrich Bullinger’s doctrine of election, John Owen’s understanding of limited atonement, and Abraham Kuyper’s pneumatology provide an adequately social reformed theology that can overcome numerous objections.
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1
Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ (New York: Paulist Press, 1976), 219–221.
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2
Jacques Maritain, Three Reformers (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1929), 14.
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7
De Lubac, Catholicism, 13–14. See also Henri De Lubac, The Splendor of the Church, trans. Michael Mason (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), 25. Henri de Lubac, The Drama of Atheist Humanism, trans. Edith M. Riley (Cleveland, OH: Meridian Books, 1963), 106–107.
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31
H.H. Rowley, The Biblical Doctrine of Election (London: Lutterworth Press, 1952), 95.
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32
Alan C. Clifford, Atonement and Justification: English Evangelical Theology 1640–1790 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 128.
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36
John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1963), 157.
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40
Trueman, The Claims of Truth, 206. Trueman helpfully notes that in Owen “the covenant of redemption includes both the appointment of Christ as Mediator and an essential particularity in its reference to the elect.” Election and satisfaction are ordered to one another.
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43
John Calvin, “Reply to Sadoleto,” in The Protestant Reformation, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (New York: Harper Perennial, 1968), 163.
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45
Alister C. McGrath, Iustitia Dei (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 255.
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49
Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (New York: Cosimo, Inc., 2007), 153. Following Calvin, Kuyper does here explicitly connect the work of the Holy Spirit with the gift of human talents such as art.
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58
De Lubac, Catholicism, 313. De Lubac makes a similar charge against Protestantism as being a religion of antitheses in The Mystery of the Supernatural, Translated by Rosemary Sheed (New York: Herder and Herder, 1967), 219.
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66
Kuyper, Spirit, 291. This gradation resists an accusation of antithesis, but one might still suggest that the bifurcation of common and special grace is an antithesis of sorts. This antithesis is minimized by three elements: First, everyone who participates in special grace also participates in common grace. Second, the antithesis is complicated by the levels of grace mentioned above. Third, the doctrine of the invisible church makes it impossible to ever say with certainty that any one individual does or does not possess special grace. There may be those within the institutional Church who lack special grace, and those outside who possess it. As such, the binary can never be used in any functional way to distinguish sharply between those with common grace and special grace in any way that creates the escapist mentality that de Lubac is critical toward.
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96
De Lubac, Catholicism, 33. Similarly, those not a part of the Church are said to be in “exile and solitude.” De Lubac, Splendor, 236.
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Reformed Theology and the Question of Protestant Individualism
A Dialogue with Henri de Lubac
In: Journal of Reformed TheologySearch for other papers by D. Glenn Butner, Jr. in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Though Protestantism is all too commonly accused of providing a theology that is too individualistic, there are in fact numerous historical resources from which a decidedly Reformed theology can be developed which is attentive to the social nature of theology. This essay will develop precisely such a theology in dialogue with Henri de Lubac, the Catholic theologian perhaps most aware of the social dimension of Catholic thought. Combined, Heinrich Bullinger’s doctrine of election, John Owen’s understanding of limited atonement, and Abraham Kuyper’s pneumatology provide an adequately social reformed theology that can overcome numerous objections.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 704 | 141 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 228 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 100 | 9 | 0 |
