Scripture in Dooyeweerd

Monday, January 12, 2009

Provisional Scripture Index to NCTT (1955 edn)

Genesis
1 I, 33
II, 262
II, 246
1:26-28 II, 257
2:24 III, 269 (fn)
9:6 III, 423 (fn)
11 II, 262 (allusion)

14: 18-20 II, 307 (fn)
17:7 III, 533 (fn)
20:3 ff II, 307(fn)
21:22ff II, 307(fn)
24:50 II, 307(fn)
26:19 II, 307(fn)
40:8 II, 307(fn)

Deuteronomy
26:5 II, 307(fn)

Joshua
24:2 II, 307(fn)

Psalms
103:13 III, 269 (fn)

Proverbs
3:12 III, 269 (fn)

Second Testament

Matthew
4:4 II, 192 (fn)
13:18, 19 III, 533 (fn)
19:14 III, 533 (fn)

Luke
7: 36-50 II, 152-3 (allusion)
15 III, 269 (fn)
22:11 III, 533 (fn)


Acts
2:39 III, 533 (fn)
10: 47 III, 533 (fn)

John
1:14 II, 305
13: 8 II, 486


Romans
3 I, 63 (allusion)
7:8 I, 35 (fn)
9:19-20 II, 42
13: 1-5 III, 423 (fn)

1 Corinthians
12:12ff II, 418 (allusion)


Colossians
2:11,12,13 III, 533 (fn)
2:18 I, 100
3:14 II, 152(fn) (Calvin)

1 Peter
2:13 III, 423 (fn)

Revelation
2:27 III, 505 (fn)
13:10 III, 423 (fn)
19:11-17 III, 504 (fn)
21 allusion (Hume)

Saturday, March 05, 2005

In the Twilight of Western Thought, p.149ff Gen 1

In the Twilight of Western Thought
Craig Press edn p. 149-51
Mellen Press edn p. 103-04

I refer, for example, to the question concerning the sense of the six days of creation. By disregarding the faith-aspect of the temporal order and by utilizing astronomical and geological concepts of time, theology was entangled in the following [pseudo-theological - editorial insertion in the Mellen edn] dilemma: if these days are not to be understood in the sense of astronomical days of twenty-four hours, they are [then they ought - Mellen version] to be interpreted as geological periods. A curious dilemma indeed [1]. For it has not occurred to any theologian to apply this alternative to the seventh day, the day on which God rests from all his work which he had made [wrought - Mellen version]. This [Such an interpretation - Mellen version] would be rightly considered blasphemous. But why was it overlookd that the same blasphemy presents itself if God's creative deeds are conceived of in natural scientific time-concepts? The reason is that the theologians who posed the [aforementioned - Mellen version] dilemma mentioned did not realize the fundamental difference between the divine creative deeds and the [genetic - Mellen version] genetical process occurring within the created temporal order as a result of God's work of creation. Here the influence of Greek philosophy clearly manifested itself. For because of its pagan religious basic motive, this philosophy excluded any idea of creation. It merely accepted a temporal genesis, at the utmost [at most - Mellen version] conceived as the result of a formative activity of a divine mind which presuppoes a given material. The scholastic accommodation of the biblical revelation of creation to this Greek idea of becoming gave rise to the false view that creation itself was a temporal process.
God's creative deeds surpass the temporal order because they are not subjected to it. But as a truth of faith of God has revealed these creative deeds in the faith-aspect of this temporal order which points beyond itself to what is supra-temporal. It was God's will that the believing Jew should refer his six work days to the six divine creative works and the sabbath day to the eternal sabbathic rest of God, the Creator. This is the biblical exegesis given by the Decalogue. And it eliminates the scholastic dilemma concerning the exegesis of the six days of creation, which originated from a fundamental disregard of the faith-aspect of the temporal order. This disregard is also to be observed in the Augustinian interpretation of the six days as a literary form or framework of representation which lacks any temporal sense, through this conception is, no doubt, preferable by far to the astronomical or geological interpretation.

_________
[1] Footnote in Mellen edn
Dooyeweerd would view any form of scientific creationism as an interpretation of Geneis 1-2 which fails to understand the meaning 'day' within the faith-aspect, thereby reducing it to the physical aspect .

Thursday, March 03, 2005

The Secularization of Science

The concluding paragraph of the booklet The Secularization of Science reads:

Let us remember the words of our Savior, “No man can serve two masters.” And let us pray to God, that He will send faithful workmen into the harvest field, which is the entire earth, and which therefore includes also the domain of scientific knowledge.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

New Critique I, p. 33 (1955) Gn 1

New Critique I, p. 33 (1955)

Under the subtitle 'The eschatalogical aspect of comic time'

To be sure, cosmic time has its limiting aspect in faith and there is a temporal oder and duration in the special meaning of the latter. The modal meaning of faith, as we shall see in the second volume, is by its nature related to divine revelation. In this eschatalogical aspect of time faith groups the "eschaton" and, in general, that which is or happens beyond the limits of cosmic time. In this special sense are to be understood the "days of creation", the intitial words of the book of Genesis, the order in which regeneration precedes conversion etc.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

New Critique II, p. 486 (1955) Jn 13:8

New Critique II, p.486 (1955)

And in this process a truly Christian philosophy will realize, with ever increasing clarity, that the fulfilment of meaning refracted in cosmic time into the various modalities, is not given us in an eidetic intuition but in the religious self-reflection on our part with Christ [1].

________
[1] St. John 13:8.

New Critique II, p. 418 (1955) allusion to 1 Cor 12:12ff

New Critique II, p.418 (1955)

In Christ, the root of the reborn creation, the transcendent fulness of its individuality has been saved. The 'corpu Christianum' in its radical religious sense is not a colourless conceptual abstraction without any individuality. Rather it is, according to the striking metaphor used by St PAUL, a religious organism in which the individuality of its members is ultimately revealed in all its fulness and spleandor. Individuality, in other words, is rooted in the religious centre of or temporal world: all temporal individuality can only be an expression of the fulness of individuality inherent in this centre. However, obfuscated by sin, it springs from the religious root. If the modalities of meaning are temporal refractions of the religious fulness of meaning, then the fulness of individuality must also be refracted prismatically within the modal aspects, and temporal individuality must be diversified in all the meaning-modalities.

New Critique II, p. 307 (1955) (Gen, Jos, Deut; Heb 12:2)

New Critique II, p. 307 (1955)

The independent line of development of a revalatio particularis which was no longer universal, did not start before Abraham. Presently the people of Israel was to be the provisional bearer of this special revelation. Israel, which was to bring forth the redeemer, was separated from the other nations because of the t[h?]reatening general apostasy from Word-revelation, until the Word appeared in the flesh[1].
In the Word-revelation God addresses the human race in its religious root, and man has only to listen faithfully. As this Word-revelation was originlly a revelation to a community, and not to individuals, its adressee was not each inividual believer apart, but mankind in community with its first head Adam. The function of faith can likewise again be truly directed to God only in Christ, as the Head and root of the regenerate human race. But now in such a way that only Christ is the Finisher and the Subject of the Covenant of faith (Hebr. 12:2). Only in faithfully listening to the divine Word is the true meaning of God's reveltion in 'created nature' revealed to man.


_______
[1] Gen. 14:18-20; 20:3 ff; 21:22 ff; 23;6; 24: -50 [sic]; 26:19; 40:8 etc.
Jos. 24:2, 14, 14; Deut. 26:5 etc. see also BAVINCK's exposition in his Philosophy of Revelation (1908), pp. 161 ff.

New Critique II, p. 305 (1955) Jn 1:14

New Critique II, p. (1955)

The transcendental terminal character of the aspect of faith confronts Christian philosophy with the most difficult problems. If pistis, as the transcendental terminal function of the cosmos, has a law-sphere of its own, it must have a law-side and a subject-side. And the law-side can only be the norm prescribing the subjection of our belief to Divine Revelation, as the ultimate guarantee of certainty. The religious consummation of the meaning of Revelation is Christ Jesus, as the Word that was made flesh (John 1:14). This Word-revelation in its aspect of faith establishes the norm and contains the principium of Christian belief.

New Critique II, p. 248 (1955)

New Critique II, p.248 (1955)

It ought to be completely restored in its irrelaceable value within the divine world-order by considering its modal sense in the light of the biblical motive. For it is of Divine origin and finds its religious consummation [1] in Christ Jesus as the Incarnate Word, in Whom God's omnipotence finds its pure expression, not tainted with sin.
It has not been included in the world-order because of sin only. For God created man after His own Image as ruler and lord of the earthly world [2]
_________

[1] Matth. 28 18 ; John 3 35.
[2] Genesis 1 26, 28.

New Critique II, p. 147 (1955)

New Critique II, p.147 (1955)

There cannot exist a moral disposition of the will independent of the central religious disposition of the heart [1].

_______
[1] This word is meant here in its pregnant Biblical sense.

New Critique II, p.262 (1955) Gen 1 & 11

New Critique II, p.262 (1955)

For the rest of the arguments may be alleged for the thesis that from the Biblical standpoint the principle of cultural differentiation is to be acknoledge as a fundamental norm of historical development. The history of the building of the tower of Babel, viewed in the light of the cultural commandment of Genesis I, shows that seclusion and isolation in cultural development is contrary to the Divine ordinance.

New Critique II, p. 53 (1955) (Gen 1)

New Critique II, p. 53 (1955)

According to the temporal relationship between foundation and superstructure in the cosmic world-order, man is not there before the things of inorganic nature. But, viewed from the supertemporal creaturely root of the earthly world [1], this organic nature, just as the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingom, has no existence apart from man, and man has been created as the lord of the creation.

_____
[1] This is what in Genesis I is called the "earth" in its contradistinction to the "Heavens", viz. the temporl world concentrated in man.

New Critique II, p. 35 (Rom 7:8)

Sin, as the root of all evil, has no meaning or existence independent of the religious fulness of the Divine Law. In this sense St PAUL's word is to be understood [1].

___
[1] Rom. 7: 8 choris gar nomou amartia nexra.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Colossians 1:16

Dooyeweerd Verkenningen - Grondproblemen der Wijsgerige Sociologie - Tien Voordrachten (1946/7) Buijten en Schipperheijnp 1967 p.144

ftn 1
"Men heeft dit van theologische zijde wel bewist t.a.v de staat en van het met zwaardmacht bekleed overheidsambt i.h.a, dat immers om der zonde wil is ingestelde. Dezulken moge ik verwijzen naar Coloss 1 vrs 16"

Verbrugge translation in A Christian Theory of Social Institutions ftn 77 p.107
"Some have denied, from a theological viewpoint, that the sword-wielding state or general office of government is rooted in creation and have argued that it was instituted on account of sin. I refer proponents of this view to Col 1:16 [editorial note added here states: Cf Dooyeweerd New Critique Vol 3 pp.423ff.]

Luke 10:25-37

A Christian Theory of Social Institutions 1986 p. 107 [This is Magnus Verbrugge's translation of Grondproblemenen der Wijsgerige Sociologie (Studium Generale T H Delft 1946/7), tien voordrachten initially published in Prof Dr H Dooyeweerd Verkenningen in de Wijsbegeeerte, de Sociologie en de Rechtsgeschiedenis Buijten en Schipperheijn Amsterdam 1967 pp. 145-6

"The human community has its common origin in creation. it shares in the fall and its need for redemption. Because it has this central, religious nature, the community of man transcends both the temporal communal and temporal social relationships. But, according to the demands of the central command of love, this common religious nature of mankind ought to come to expression in both relationships (BCW note: ie in temporal communal as well as temporal social relationships). It is, therefore, of special significance that Christ Jesus answered the question of the Pharisee, "Who is my neighbor?" with the parable of the merciful Samaritan. For Jews and Samaritans entertained no private communal relationships. The Samaritan encounters the Jew, robbed and injured, in a temporal social relationship of a typical moral qualification. He shows that he understands the central significance of neighborly love better than the Jewish priest and Levite, who found their fellow countryman in a hapless state and passed him by."

"De wortelgemeenschap van het menselijke geslacht in schepping, zondeval en verlossing gaat zowel de tijdelijke gemeenschaps- als de tijdelijke maatschapsverhoudingen te boven, omdat zij van centrale, religieuze aard is. Maar zij dient naar de eis van het centrale liefdegebod in beide tot uitdrukking te komen. Daarom is het van bijzondere betekenis, dat Christus Jezus op de vraag van de Fraizeer: 'Wie is mijn nasste?' antwoordt met de gelijkenis van de barmhartige Samaritaan. Want de Joden en de Samaritanen onderhielden geen private gemeenschapsbetrekkingen me elkander. De Samaritan ontomoet de door rovers uitgeschudde en gewonde Jood in een tijdelijke maatschapsverhouding van typisch morele kwalificatie. Maar hij blijkt de centrale betekenis der naastenliefde beter te hebben verstaan dan de Joodse priester en leviet, die hun volksgenoot in zijn hupeloze staat aantroffen en 'tegenover hem voorbijgingen' " (the date is 1946/7 and the terms of Dooyeweerd's explanation are relevant not least because of the cessation of the war, the only recently overcome "helpless state" of Jewish people who had been targetted within the domain of Nazi Germany, and with the setting up of the Jewish state in Palestine).

Kenneth Bailey in the exposition of this parable (in Through Peasant's Eyes 1980 pp.33-57) takes the discussion of Dooyeweerd one step further by pointing out that Jesus' teaching prodded the imagination of his hearers by explicitly noting that the man had been robbed and stripped; he was then left for dead. In other words, all three passersby, could not definitively determine the ethnicity of the victim by his appearance.

Luke 7: 36-50

New Critique Volume II pp.152-153
Under the heading "Love and the conventions of social intercourse" Dooyeweerd writes thus: "In the modal aspect of intercourse the social conventions have an inner anticipatory connection with love in its moral nuclear meaning.
This is clearly shown by Jesus Christ who contrasts the love of the prostitute who had anointed his feet with very costly spikenard, with the uncourtly attitude of the pharizee who had invited him but had omitted the eastern forms of courtesy towards the Rabbi of Nazareth. Jesus shows here that courtesy and social convention in ggeneral are not indifferent things. They should be directed and animated by love. Nevertheless the conventions of social intercourse as such are not to be reduced to morality in its original modal meaning-nucleus...."
The biblical scholar Kenneth Bailey in his literary-cultural interpretation of the parables Through Peasant Eyes (Eerdmans 1980) develops his explanation of the parable of the two debtors (pp.1-21) in a way that is consistent with Dooyeweerd's interpretation and reference to Simon's neglect of "eastern customs."

Proverbs 4:23

In his "Introduction" to the Philosophia Reformata volume celebrating the work of his brother-in-law, D H Th Vollenhoven, Dooyeweerd makes reference to Proverbs 4:23 "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the issues of life." But he does so - either consciously or unconsciously - by directing his readers to the fact that this much quoted scriipture text is endorsed by the view present in the musings of "Kohelet". Dooyeweerd writes:
"The Scriptures teach us throughout that human nature has been provided with a root-unity pregnantly called the 'heart' of human existence. Out of the heart as the radix or root-unity of human existence are "the issues of life" as the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes tells us expressly." "Introduction by the Editor in Chief, Prof Herman Dooyeweerd" Philosophia Reformata 38e jrg 1973 pp.5-16 at page 9.

Twilight, p. 91 (Craig Press edn)

In The Twilight of Western Thought
Craig Press edn p. 91
Mellen Press edn p. 63

Thus the cultural mode of formation must recieve its specific qualification through freedom of control, domination or power. That is why the great cultural commandment given to man at creation reads: "Subdue the earth and have dominion over it." [(Genesis 1:28) added in Mellen edn]

New Critique II, p. 42 (1955 edn)

That's why St PAUL's words are full of wisdom when he answers those
who speculate on causality with reference to the will of God. "Thou
wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath
resisted his will?" "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God?" This answer is a direct dismissal of
speculative thought and it does not enter into the false
method of posing problems used by speculative philsophy.

New Critique II, p. 52 (1955 edn)

The Scriptures reveal God's act of creation. In their statement of
this basic truth, which transcends all theoretical thought, they do
not primarily appeal to a certain temporal cognitive functions of man,
but to ourselves in the religious root of our existence.
They do not use theoretical scientific concepts, but by means of their
central basic motive they appeal to the heart of man in the language
of naive experience.

New Critique II, p. 257 (1955)

Already in its restrictive retrocipatory structure the modal meaning of cultural implies the normative historical principle of the call to win the control over nature in its objective cultural potentialities. This principle appeared to be founded in the Divine ordinance of the creation (Gen. 1:26-28). Though the fall into sin deprived man of the fullnes of this power, the principle itself has retained it modal validity in the development of culure. It is positivized in technical indutry in the sense intended in the Greek word techne, i.e. formative control.

New Critique II, p. 246 (1955)

In addition, from the Christian standpoint this conception is hardly to be reconciled with the Divine cultural commandment mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, according to which the subjection of the earth and mastery over it is expressly posited as a normative task of mankind. There is no explicit mention of power-formation in the social relations between men in this passage. But without the latter cultural development of mnkind would be impossible.

New Critique II, p. 192 (1955)

When , e.g., a Christian statesman in opposition to the speculative political constructions repeatedly appeals to the adage: 'It is written, and it has happened!'[1], it must be clear that history is not conceived here in an abstarct theoretical sense, but rather in the fullness of the concrete temporal coherence of meaning, revealed within typical structures of totality and individuality.

footnote
[1] This adage was dircted by the famous dutch christian statsman and historian GUILLAUME GROEN VAN PRINSTERER against the natural law construction of the state, familiar to the French revolution. Cf. The Authorized (King James) Version Mathew 4:4.

New Critique I, p. 100 (1955)

By the fall of man, thought (nous), according to St Paul's word, has become nous tes sarchos, the "carnal mind" (Colos. II:18), for it dos not exist, apart from its apostate religious root. And that thought includes its religious function.

New Critique I, p. 63 (1955)

New Critique I, p. 63 (1955 edn)

The dynamis of sin can unfold itself only in subjection to the religious concentration-law of human existence. Therefore, the apostle PAUL says, that without the law there is no sin and that there is a law of sin