Logan
Puritan Board Graduate
Edit: I meant to note in the title that this is specifically about Bahnsen's writing on theonomy, no one else.
Since the Bahnsen Project liberated Bahnsen's recorded material from CMF, I've been listening to a good bit and got into one of Bahnsen's series on ethics.
Now background: I would consider myself Establishmentarian and certainly Confessional. I've always been a bit wary of Theonomy just because of the cult that seems to surround Rushdoony, although I admit my personal knowledge is very slim. For this reason I was wary of Bahnsen when he started talking about theonomy.
However, in listening to it, it seems to me to be more of a logical extension of the WLC's exposition of the decalogue. Example: how do we know that "thou shalt not murder" means preserving life, protecting the weak, if not from the OT case law which expounds the decalogue? Bahnsen seems to be arguing for a philosophical foundation for ethics and law as being what God has revealed and himself expounded, although those laws might be applied in different ways today (about which I'm sure wise and godly individuals will disagree as to the specifics).
This is contrasted to a purely "natural law" view, which leads people like the humanists to form erroneous conclusions and leads to seeming arbitrariness. It's hard for me to see how natural law, without divine revelation to interpret it, can be a standard.
Regardless of one's definition of "theonomy" (which seems to be fluid), is Bahnsen saying more than this? And what was the controversy, historically, with this view? Is Bahnsen at odds with Confessionalism? Or is it primarily Americanism or American Presbyterianism that has an issue with this view?
I'm hoping to get a better grasp and understanding on a topic that apparently has a lot of history and baggage for a lot of people.
Since the Bahnsen Project liberated Bahnsen's recorded material from CMF, I've been listening to a good bit and got into one of Bahnsen's series on ethics.
Now background: I would consider myself Establishmentarian and certainly Confessional. I've always been a bit wary of Theonomy just because of the cult that seems to surround Rushdoony, although I admit my personal knowledge is very slim. For this reason I was wary of Bahnsen when he started talking about theonomy.
However, in listening to it, it seems to me to be more of a logical extension of the WLC's exposition of the decalogue. Example: how do we know that "thou shalt not murder" means preserving life, protecting the weak, if not from the OT case law which expounds the decalogue? Bahnsen seems to be arguing for a philosophical foundation for ethics and law as being what God has revealed and himself expounded, although those laws might be applied in different ways today (about which I'm sure wise and godly individuals will disagree as to the specifics).
This is contrasted to a purely "natural law" view, which leads people like the humanists to form erroneous conclusions and leads to seeming arbitrariness. It's hard for me to see how natural law, without divine revelation to interpret it, can be a standard.
Regardless of one's definition of "theonomy" (which seems to be fluid), is Bahnsen saying more than this? And what was the controversy, historically, with this view? Is Bahnsen at odds with Confessionalism? Or is it primarily Americanism or American Presbyterianism that has an issue with this view?
I'm hoping to get a better grasp and understanding on a topic that apparently has a lot of history and baggage for a lot of people.
Last edited: