Cultural mandate
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The term cultural mandate is used by modern evangelical Christians to represent the doctrine that the biblical principles of Christianity are not only to be applied to one's personal life and the life of the church, but that God commands Christians to also transform society and its structures with biblical principle, thereby "redeeming culture" for the good of all. It is well summarized by Nancy Pearcey in her book Total Truth:
- In Genesis, God gives what we might call the first job description: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." The first phrase, "be fruitful and multiply" means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, "subdue the earth," means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations-nothing less.
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[edit] Related Doctrines and Distinctions
The cultural mandate is similar to but less theocratic than the related ideas of Dominionism and Christian Reconstructionism, and less theologically tied to "creating God's kingdom on earth now," as Kingdom Now theology seeks to do. Unlike Dominionism, it does not seek to establish Old Testament law as modern civil law, but merely establish biblical principle as civil law and public morality. Unlike Kingdom Now theology, it does not try to bring biblical principle into public life in order to establish the kingdom of God on this earth, but merely to present a holistic, biblical world view that proponents believe lead to liberty and happiness.
The cultural mandate is probably most closely aligned with Neo-Calvinism and may most accurately be seen as a type of theonomy.[citation needed]
A view that probably bridges Kingdom Now theology with the cultural mandate theology is Amillennialism, which includes the idea that by biblically transforming culture, we are beginning the work of ushering in God's kingdom, but this will only be completed when Christ returns. Theologian Anthony A. Hoekema has written a treatise on this in his book The Bible and the Future
[edit] Biblical Principle v. Religious Principle
A key distinction of the cultural mandate is that proponents are not interested in legislating religious laws, such as Sabbath attendance or blue laws, but rather, are interested in taking timeless practical principles, many of which are not the sole property of Christendom, and applying them within a biblical framework.
For instance, the principles of an honest and independent judiciary, criminal sentencing accompanied by restitution and the possibility of mercy on the penitent guilty, and the fair treatment of prisoners are all considered to be "biblical principles." This may be a misnomer, since these principles have also been elucidated by other religions and ethical systems. But what makes them biblical to the cultural mandate proponents is that they are in the bible AND fit within a larger biblical framework.
[edit] Appeal to Reason v. Appeal To Scriptural Authority
Another key distinction of those supporting a cultural mandate is that, in the public arena, proponents feel that they must convince and argue for their worldview, not from the bible as an authority, but from natural law and common ethics. As an example, they would argue to criminalize murder not because it is condemned by the bible, but because it violates the self-evident right to life that all men deserve, and because it violates the ethic that we should not harm one another or society. Even if cultural mandate proponents are biblically motivated, they respect the idea that appeals to religious authority should not carry weight in public policy discussions.
[edit] History
Like neo-calvinism, the cultural mandate is closely associated with the ideas of Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch Calvinist minister, who wrote in The Stone Lectures of 1898:
- That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to him.
[edit] Modern Proponents
Modern proponents of the cultural mandate include Chuck Colson, Nancy Pearcey, and the late Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer. Also, the aforementioned Kuyper has inspired the creation of The Kuyper Foundation, which is also committed to furthering the application of biblical principle to public life.
[edit] External links
- The Kuyper Foundation
- Abraham Kuyper. Lectures on Calvinism: The Stone Lectures of 1898
- Christianity Today: Connecting Colson's Dots
- Christianity Today - Heaven: Not Just an Eternal Day Off by Anthony A. Hoekema
- Christianity and the Cultural Mandate: Vote Wisely Warns US Evangelical Leader Colson
- The Cultural Mandate: A Malaysian Context
- The Agora: Renewing Minds, Redeeming Cultures
