Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought. By David VanDrunen. Emory University Studies in Law and Religion. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2010. x + 476 pp. $35.00 paper.

摘要

Entering into the debate shaped to a significant extent by Karl Barth over thenproper place for a doctrine of the two kingdoms and a doctrine of naturalnlaw in Reformed theology, VanDrunen presents a sure-footed path throughnthe intricacies of historical positions on, and current approaches to, hisntopics. His finely crafted argument begins with a helpful survey of thesentopics in several streams of medieval thought. Moving behind thenmisrepresentations of Luther’s views in much of modern scholarship, thenauthor demonstrates that Luther’s uses of “two kingdoms” terminologynfound rather precise echoes in Calvin’s thought. VanDrunen makes it clearnthat Luther (without the benefit of knowing that he was creating technicalnterms for use four hundred plus years later) contributed to modern confusionnby designating God’s and Satan’s warring domain as “two kingdoms” whilenalso using the same terminology for the spheres of human relationships withnGod and with God’s other creatures, human and non-human. Since both ofnthese spheres belong to God, according to the Wittenberg reformer, and bothnserve as battlegrounds for the other two “kingdoms,” it might be best to callnthe “heavenly” and the “earthly” spheres of life as God created themn“realms” instead of kingdoms. But Calvin followed Luther’s usage rathernclosely. VanDrunen might have used Luther’s distinction of “passive” andn“active” righteousness, the key to his anthropology, to make distinctionsnbetween the two clearer. This could have provided a basis for another anglenof exploration of the significance of the terms, also for Reformed theology.