The Christian Idea of the State

Here are the extensive headings for the Craig Press edn:

•    Emil Brunner rejects the Christian idea of the state
•    National Socialism and Fascism and the idea of the Christian state
•    The ever new, inspiring idea of the Christian state and the causes of its decline
•    Synthesis and Antithesis
•    Actually, there is but one radical and Scriptural idea of the Christian state
•    The contrast of “nature” and “grace” is non-Scriptural. Scripture posits the heart as the religious center of man’s existence
•    The pagan view that “reason” is the supra-temporal center of man’s being 
•    The effects of compromise of Christian and pagan views. The scheme of “nature” and “grace” as a result of this compromise
•    Thomas Aquinas on human nature. “Nature” as portal of “grace”
•    Aristotle: the pagan idea of the state. The state as the highest bond of human society, of which all other societal relationships are but dependent parts
•    The pagan totalitarian idea of the state and its revival in National Socialism and Fascism
•    The truly Christian view of the state takes its stance in the supra-temporal root-community of redeemed humanity in Christ Jesus
•    All temporal societal relationships ought to be manifestations of the supra-temporal, invisible church of Christ
•    The Kingdom of God as the all-embracing rule of God
The Christian idea of sphere-sovereignty over against the pagan view that the state is related to the other societal structures as the whole to its parts
•    The Roman Catholic view of the Christian state - Thomas Aquinas - is a falling away from the Scriptural conception
•    Infiltration of the pagan totality-idea in the Roman Catholic concept of the church
•    A false view of the Christian state: the state is subject to the temporal church-institute.
•    Penetration of this view in modern denominational political parties
•    The Reformation over against the Roman Catholic view of Christian society
•    Nominalism in Late-Scholasticism
•    The nominalistic conception of the law as subjective arbitrariness and the Thomistic idea of the law as rational order
•    The Nominalist dualism of nature and grace
•    This dualism was perpetuated in Luther’s law-gospel polarity 
•    Melanchthon’s synthesis
•    Brunner continues Luther’s dualism
•    Calvin breaks with the dualistic nature-grace scheme
•    Calvin’s Scriptural view of law
•    The law as boundary between God and creature
•    Calvin’s view of the divine creation-order contrasted with Thomas Aquinas 
•    The principle of sphere-sovereignty: Calvin and Althusius
•    The greater influence of Melanchthon’s synthesis predominates
•    The rise of the modern humanistic world and life view
•    The overpowering influence of the new mathe¬matical science-ideal upon modern culture
•    The humanistic ideal of science continues in the modern individualistic idea of the state
•    Relativizing character of modern individualism in its view of society
•    Humanistic natural law over against its Aristotelian - Thomistic counterpart
•    Two mainstreams in humanistic natural law and the idea of the “Rechtsstaat” in its first phase of development.
•    The old-liberal view of the Rechtsstaat and the separation of Church and State
•    Tolerance in State-absolutism
•    The Calvinistic view of sphere-sovereignty has nothing in common with the humanistic freedom-idea of natural law
•    The truly Christian idea of the state cannot be separated from a recognition of sphere-sovereignty
•    The radical difference between sphere-sovereignty and autonomy
•    Sphere-sovereignty and antithesis go hand in hand in Kuyper
•    Kuyper broke with nature-grace and distinguished between church as institute and as organism
•    Elaboration of Kuyper’s views the first meaning of sphere-sovereignty, the sovereign law-spheres
•    Temporal reality-aspects in distinct law-spheres
•    The religious root-unity of the law-spheres
•    As sunlight diffuses itself in prismatic beauty . . .
•    Common grace and the grace of rebirth (palingenesis): no dualistic doctrine
•    Sphere-universality of the law-spheres
•    Succession of the law-spheres and the organic character of sphere-sovereignty
•    Disclosure and deepening of the meaning of a law-sphere
•    The second meaning of sphere-sovereignty: individuality-structures in things and in societal relationships
•    Concrete things function in all law-spheres indiscriminately. The significance of the typical end-function
•    The first meaning of sphere-sovereignty (law-spheres) is not voided in the individuality structure of things. The thing as individual totality
•    The basic error of humanistic science: the attempt to dissolve the individuality structure of a thing in a schema of lawful relations within one aspect of reality
•    The individuality structure of societal relationships
•    The typical founding-function
•    The structural principle of the state. The state an institution for the sake of sin. This Scriptural view not maintained by Thomas Aquinas
•    One-sided action for national disarmament is a neglect of the structural principle of the state
•    The indissoluble coherence of the typical found-function and the typical end-function of the state
•    The “common good” (public welfare) as jural principle and as absolutistic principle of power
•    The old-liberal idea of the “Rechtsstaat” proves powerless to control the absolutism of “common good”
•    The humanistic idea of the “Rechtsstaat” in its second, formalistic phase
•    Only the Christian idea of the state, rooted in the principle of sphere-sovereignty, is the true idea of the “Rechtsstaat.”
•    The task of the state cannot be limited externally by excluding the state from certain aspects of reality.
•    The state, with its function as political faith-community, may not be subjected to an ecclesiastical creed
•    The Christian faith deepens the typically political principles of justice. The Roman and the Christian idea of justice
•    The liberal-humanistic and the Fascistic views of justice
•    All non-Christian theories of the state are essentially theories of power (Machtsstaats-theorieen)
•    The true relation of state and church: not a mechanical division, but sphere-sovereignty
•    The inseparable, interwoven texture of the various structures of society
•    The prophetic task of Christianity in these times