Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Means of common grace
Means of common grace
Dec 4, 2024 2:11 PM

In this week’s Acton Commentary, we take a short excerpt from the latest volume in the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology, the second volume of the trilogy mon grace.

In this section, excerpted from chapter 68, “Finding the Means,” Kuyper is exploring the question of how the fruit mon es to expression in the world. In the standard Reformed understanding, baptism munion are confessed to be the “means” of special grace. But what are the “means” mon grace? Here Kuyper points particularly to the role that human action has been given in God’s ordination of the means mon grace. Human reason, will, intelligence, creativity, curiosity, and desire all are part of how God has deigned to discover and dispense the fruits mon grace.

As Kuyper puts it,

Far from passively sitting on one’s hands, godliness would seem to consist in the fact that God has placed upon us the obligation of unremitting activity in the use of means. Common grace is God’s gracious arrangement to temper sin and misery in their deadly effect, and every human being—whether young or old, weak or strong, rich or poor—is called upon to make his or her personal contribution to that tempering of sin and misery.

This responsibility, moreover, is mon calling for everyone, regardless of station or occupation. “Everyone has to participate in this,” writes Kuyper. “All persons, without distinction, must put forth effort in this. In fact, every bit of life’s energy must be applied to this.”

For more on how human discovery and invention relate mon grace, read the Acton Commentary. And for more on volume 2 of Common Grace, you can read an excerpt from the new editors’ introduction at Public Discourse, “Common Grace, Natural Law, and the Social Order.”

Volumes 1 and 2 of Common Grace are now available and on sale from the Acton Book Shop. Later this year volume 3 of Pro Rege will appear along with On Education.

Volume 3 of mon grace trilogy will be out next year, and the 12 volume series will conclude in 2020 as well. Next year marks the centennial of Kuyper’s death and the series will conclude with Common Grace, volume 3, On Business and Economics, and On Charity and Justice.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
ResearchLinks – 09.14.12
Working Paper: “Top Ten Myths of Medicare” Richard L. Kaplan (University of Illinois College of Law),Illinois Program in Law, Behavior and Social Science Paper No. LBSS13-02; Illinois Public Law Research Paper No. 11-28; SSRN, Working Paper Series (PDF) In the context of changing demographics, the increasing cost of health care services, and continuing federal budgetary pressures, Medicare has e one of the most controversial federal programs. To facilitate an informed debate about the future of this important public initiative, this...
Interrupt Me, Please?
Today’s blog post is from one of our faithful On Call in munity members, Sheila Seiler Lagrand, Ph.D. who earned her doctorate in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, she studied anthropology and literature with an emphasis in writing. Currently she blogs at Godspotting with Sheila and contributes regularly at BibleDude.net. Sheila is a member of the The High Calling. Her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for...
The Fat Tax and Government’s Morality Substitute
Public health officials estimate that Americans consume an average of 40 gallons of sugary soda per person per year. But now thanks to the tireless efforts of Michael Bloomberg, NYC’s Mayor and Nanny-in-Chief, the average New Yorker will now only consume 39.2 gallons of sugary soda per person per year.* On Thursday, New York City passed the first U.S. ban of oversized sugary drinks as a way of curbing the obesity epidemic. Violators of the ban face a $200 fine...
Of Ministers and Muck Farmers
In today’s Acton Commentary, “Mike Rowe and Manual Labor,” I examine the real contribution from a star of the small screen to today’s political conversation. Mike Rowe, featured on shows like The Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs, has written letters to both President Obama and Mitt Romney focusing attention on the skills gap and our nation’s dysfunctional attitudes towards work, particularly hard labor, like skilled trades and services. In his letter to Romney, Rowe writes that “Pig farmers, electricians, plumbers,...
Leaves and Fruit: The Spiritual Value of Manual Labor
In his Acton Commentary today, Jordan Ballor writes, All work has a spiritual dimension because the human person who works in whatever capacity does so as an image-bearer of God. “While the classic Greek mind tended to scorn work with the hands,” write Berghoef and DeKoster, “the Bible suggests that something about it structures the soul.” If we derogate work with the hands, manual and skilled labor, in this way, we separate what God has put together and create a...
Retailer Hobby Lobby Sues Over HHS Mandate
Yesterday, privately-owned Hobby Lobby, a popular craft store chain, filed suit opposing the HHS mandate which forces employers to provide “preventive care” measures such as birth-control and “morning after” pills. “By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow,” said David Green, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs ply with this mandate.” Hobby Lobby is the...
Playing at Poverty
Yesterday at , a leading social media site, an article entitled ‘5 Fun Games With a Higher Purpose‘ was featured. The article noted that these types of games attempted bine fun with some sort of societal impact. One game, Darfur is Dying, allows the player to simulate life in a Darfuri refugee camp for a family. If one family member leaves to get water and is killed or captured, the player must choose the next family member to send out....
Acton Institute’s New Building Has Room To Grow
The Acton Institute is anticipating a move to our new building in the heart of Grand Rapids, MI. With the generous funding of donors, the 24,000 square feet of space will allow us to serve an even munity. Acton’s Executive Director, Kris Mauren, says the $6 million renovation allows the Institute to remain in its Grand Rapids home, while raising its international profile. “This is a great place to be and it doesn’t stop us from being the international organization...
Nuns vs. Managers in the Proxy Wars
For many nuns in the U.S. April is a busy month. Not only do they have the liturgical season of Easter but they have the proxy season of corporate governance. The proxy season is the time when panies hold their annual shareholder meetings. During these meeting any shareholders who own more than $2,000 in stock or 1% of pany can mend pany take a specific course of action or institute a policy change for the betterment of pany. As the...
Speed Cameras and Moral Culture
In an odd story from Maryland, Ari Ashe of WTOP reports, Many people find speed cameras frustrating, and some in the region are taking their rage out on the cameras themselves. But now there’s a new solution: cameras to watch the cameras. Yes, you read that correctly. Prince George’s County, Maryland, has a problem with people vandalizing their speed cameras and their solution is to install additional cameras to watch them. In response, Michael Rosenwald says what many others surely...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved