This page is mostly a collection of the webpages on RBO related to political theology.
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“There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy…”
James 4:12
“For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God… For he is the minister of God to thee for good.”
Rom. 13:1,4
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Topics Below
Civil Government 3
Erroneous Political Views 3
Civil Laws 5
Authority & its Abuse 6+
State & Religion 8
Church-State Relations 10
Dissent 2
Ethics 6+
. Particular Civil Issues 6
Family & State 3
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On Civil Government
This is about Church constitutions, but the same principles apply civilly.
‘Civil Magistrate’ in Works Against the Roman Apologist Robert Bellarmine
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On Erroneous Political Views
Contra Socialism, Communism, etc.
On Toleration & Pretended Liberty of Conscience
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On Civil Laws
On Positive Laws & Ordinances, & the Law of Nations
On the Ordinances, Order & Policy of the Church
While Church government and civil government are significantly different, yet both are only capable of enforcing positive ordinances of good order. As this is the case, the principles on this page are very pertinent to a philosophy of civil law. Read especially the Introduction.
The General Equity of the Old Testament Civil Laws
Whether Ladies have the Right to Vote for Church Officers
While this page mainly pertains to the Church (one article addresses the civil question), many of its principles apply to civil voting (though ecclesiastical and civil voting are not completely parallel).
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On Authority & its Abuse
How Far the Laws & Commands of Human Authorities Bind the Conscience
On Implicit, or Blind Faith & Obedience
On the Ethics of Material Cooperation & Associations with Evil
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The State & Religion
The Civil Magistrate’s Authority Around Spiritual Things (Circa Sacra)
The Extent of Christ’s Mediatorial Kingdom
This deals with historic Two-Kingdom theology and the erroneous modern version of the same.
Difference of Religion does Not Make Void the Magistrate’s Authority
The Westminster Divines on Social Covenanting
Defenses of Scottish Covenanting & the Indulgence & Occasional Hearing Controversies, 1661-1688
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Church-State Relations
The Civil Magistrate’s Authority Around Spiritual Things (Circa Sacra)
The Interpretation & Defense of the Original Westminster Standards
How Far the Church May Speak to Civil Issues
On the Immunities & Non-Immunities of the Church with Respect to the Civil Government
Besides by offerings, the Biblical and classic reformed view of the Post-Reformation was that the magistrate was morally bound to financially provide for the material welfare of the True Religion in the land.
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On Dissent
Difference of Religion does Not Make Void the Magistrate’s Authority
Against Separation from Impure Civil Governments
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On Ethics
On the Relations Between the 1st & 2nd Tables of the Law
On Things Indifferent (Adiaphora)
On the Ethics of Material Cooperation & Associations with Evil
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The Ethics of Particular Civil Issues
During a Time of Spreading Disease
‘For Civil Magistrates’ in Historic Reformed Quotes on Social Distancing & the Adaptation of the Church in a Time of Spreading Disease
Advice to Magistrates During a Plague: the Reformed Treatise of von Ewich, 1582
The Right of Continued Protest unto the Truth
This page is mostly about the Ecclesiastical context, but it applies equally to civil society.
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The Family & the State
‘Civil & Church Governments are by Positive Law, but not the Family’ in On Positive Laws & Ordinances, & the Law of Nations
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On the History of Political Thought
On the Post-Reformation
Books
eds. Burns & Goldie – The Cambridge History of Political Thought,1450–1700 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991)
Höpfl, H. – Jesuit Political Thought. The Society of Jesus & the State, c.1540–1630 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004)
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On the Netherlands
Article
Van der Wall, E.G.E. – ‘The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus & Dutch Calvinism, 1670–1700’ in eds. H. De Dijn, F. Mignini & P. van Rooden, Spinoza’s Philosophy of Religion, Studia Spinozana 11 (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1995), pp. 201–226
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Books
Blom, H.W. – Causality & Morality in Politics. The Rise of Naturalism in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Political Thought PhD. diss. (University of Utrecht, 1995)
Mulier, Haitsma – Bibliography of Dutch Seventeenth Century Political Thought. An Annotated Inventory, 1581–1710 (Amsterdam/Maarssen: APA-Holland University Press, 1986)
Kossmann, E.H. – Political Thought in the Dutch Republic. Three Studies (Amsterdam: KNAW, 2000)
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On the 1500’s
Article
Figgis, J. Neville – ch. 22, ‘Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century’ in The Cambridge Modern History, vol. 3, The Wars of Religion (1909) 35 pp.
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Books
Allen, J.W. – A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century (1928) 575 pp.
Murray, Robert – Political Consequences of the Reformation: Studies in Sixteenth Century Political Thought (1960) 338 pp.
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On the 1600’s
Adams, Brandon – ‘Rutherford’s Lex Rex – Summary’ (2017) 91 paragraphs
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Related Pages