Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and political movement within Protestant Christianity. It calls for Christian dominion over government and the enforcement of the general principles of Older Testament moral law, as expounded in the case laws and summarized in the Decalogue.
It is best known in the United States of America, where its most vocal advocate was Rousas John (R. J.) Rushdoony.
The social structure advocated by Christian Reconstructionism would have the clergy, laity and government, individually and corporately, to be in ultimate submission to the moral principles of the Older Testament, while retaining their separate scopes of authority and roles in society as designated in the Older Testament. It is the claim of Christian Reconstructionism that even as under the Davidic administration of the Isrealites, the Priests (Levitical line) and Kings (Davidic line) were distinguished by their scopes of authority (e.g., the King could not offer sacrifices for others and the Priests could not pass or enforce legislation) and their roles in society (e.g., the King maintained the social welfare and the Priests maintained personal welfare), so it should be in a modern Christian Reconstructionist society.
Christian Reconstructionists do not intend to establish social laws to regulate beliefs, instead they wish to establish social laws to regulate actions, and more specifically, public actions (where public denotes a demonstrable corpus delecti or mens rae).
Christian Reconstructionists are opposed to most of the common forms of religious tolerance, but adherents of the movement are equally opposed to Erastianism (State-Church) and Papalism (Church-State), so they tend to support a modified form of religious tolerance -- what might be called "denominational tolerance", or "tolerence within the bounds of (Yahwistic) Christianity". Christian Reconstructionists claim that because of the distinction they draw between legislating beliefs and legislating actions, religious tolerance is not principially ruled out by the movement. What are ruled out on principle are those forms of religious tolerance where public actions, which are contrary to the general principles of the moral law (e.g., blasphemy, dissemination of idolatry, homosexuality), are encouraged or entail no negative sanctions (which lack of sanctioning is taken to be a form of encouragement because it is seen as the removal of the action from the category of moral precept to the category of personal preferance).
Christian Reconstructionists generally hold to a form of Postmillennial Eschatology, though the distinctive tenets of the movement (generally referred to as Theonomic Ethics or Theonomy) are purported to be compatible with other eschatological viewpoints within mainline Christianity.
Critics of the movement are skeptical of the pragmatic value and actual viability of the proposed Christian Reconstructionist social structure, claiming that an overly authoritarian civil society would be a very real threat if such a structure were to be adopted, and that most unions of civil and religious authority are unable to avoid confusing their respective scopes of authority and social roles, or to avoid an imbalence of power in one direction or the other (either toward Erastianism or Papalism).
Some critics continue to categorize the Christian Reconstructionist movement as a form of Totalitarianism or Facism, based on a comparison of a number of shared features. Adherents of the movement contend that this connection remains superficial because the moral principles of the Older Testament incorporate into themselves both the scopes of authority and civil roles of the various social stations, so that no individual or group holds absolute civil power, and none are civily penalized for their beliefs -- furthermore, the use of violence or privation of life and liberty is not advocated for the establishment of the Christian Reconstructionist social structure.
The movement is unrelated to Reconstructionist Judaism.
See also
External links
References
- Rushdoony, Rousas John. 1973. The Institutes of Biblical Law. Nutley, NJ: P & R Publishing (Craig Press). ISBN: 0875524109.
- North, Gary & Demar, Gary. 1991. Christian Reconstruction: What It Is, What It Isn't. Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics. ISBN: 0930464532.
- Barron, Bruce. 1992. Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agendas of Dominion Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. ISBN: 0310536111
- Clarkson, Frederick. 1997. Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage. ISBN: 1567510884
Last updated: 07-31-2005 12:35:58
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13
