Grace and the Transformation of Human Society

Calvinists have a reputation for a dour pessimism about human nature, but of all people they may be the most optimistic about human possibility because of their strong doctrine of sovereignty. Calvin's comments on the magistrate and civil government seem, in some ways, naive.  It is for Calvinists in our time to understand the balance between judgment and justice in a world where the magistrate cannot and, we have decided, should not mandate the piety on which Calvin sees both resting. 

In this final class session we will think about justice, judgment and piety. The news and a recent films provide interesting case studies.

First we will consider the recent release of the "Lockerbie Bomber"

The FBI Director is not happy.

Here is the response from the Church of Scotland, and a counterpoint by Charles Colson

Then we will consider the just released film Inglorious Basterds.

Here is the review from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Not a great movie.  But watch the embedded trailer to see why it is also a disturbing film.  Finally, consider this reflective piece from the Wall Street Journal.

Our primary texts will be Romans 13:1-7 and Jeremiah 29:1-14

And then these words from Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion:

We say, therefore, that (magistrates) are the ordained guardians and vindicators of public innocence, modesty, honor, and tranquility, so that it should be their only study to provide for the common peace and safety. But as rulers cannot do this unless they protect the good against the injuries of the bad, and give aid and protection to the oppressed, they are armed with power to curb manifest evil-doers and criminals, by whose misconduct the public tranquility is disturbed or harassed. For we have full experience of the truth of Solon’s saying, that all public matters depend on reward and punishment; that where these are wanting, the whole discipline of states totters and falls to pieces. For in the minds of many the love of equity and justice grows cold, if due honor be not paid to virtue, and the licentiousness of the wicked cannot be restrained, without strict discipline and the infliction of punishment. The two things are comprehended by the prophet when he enjoins kings and other rulers to execute “judgment and righteousness” (Jer. 21:12; 22:3). It is righteousness (justice) to take charge of the innocent, to defend and avenge them, and set them free: it is judgment to withstand the audacity of the wicked, to repress their violence, and punish their faults. 4.xx.9

But if it is true that each nation has been left at liberty to enact the laws which it judges to be beneficial, still these are always to be tested by the rule of charity, so that while they vary in form, they must proceed on the same principle. Those barbarous and savage laws, for instance, which conferred honor on thieves, allowed the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, and other things even fouler and more absurd, I do not think entitled to be considered as laws, since they are not only altogether abhorrent to justice, but to humanity and civilized life.  4.xx.15

Civil government has as its appointed end, so long a we live among men, to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the church, to asjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness, to reconcile us with one another, and to promote the general peace and tranquility. 4.xx.2

 

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