Abstract
Reformed Public Theology is a collection of articles that is dedicated to Richard Mouw (1940–), put together by Matthew Kaemingk who currently holds the Richard Mouw Chair of Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary. While many volumes that set out to honour a scholar who have faithfully laboured for God's Kingdom have lacked either creativity or depth of insight, this volume successfully holds onto both. One of the most impressive features of this collection is that it displays creativity and insight while engaging very specific issues both theoretically and practically.
As a collection of twenty-five authors (some articles are co-authored and not including Kaemingk), a comment or two on the line-up is warranted. Kaemingk brings together an impressive set of voices to this volume. Though a good portion of the voices are associated with Fuller Theological Seminary, where Mouw dedicated many years of his academic service, there is a wide-ranging spectrum of Reformed thinkers and practitioners. The following four names illustrate, in addition to the ‘four-fold diversity of disciplines, denominations, issues, and contexts’ (p. 19), a diversity of generational experience: Nicholas Wolterstorff, a seasoned scholar, who started his academic life simply with Kuyperian colours but now has scholastic stature of his own recognised inside and outside Reformed circles; N. Gray Sutanto, a Bavinck scholar, newly embarking on his academic service in recent years; James K.A. Smith, a scholar specialising in Augustine, who has a trilogy series on public theology to his name; Alberto La Rosa Rojas, a promising doctoral candidate at Duke. The contribution of the less seasoned along with the established thinkers is a testament to the conviction of this volume to realise the second marker for Reformed public theology, ‘Dispersing Power’. This second marker is often neglected in Reformed conversations, not just on public theology but on issues in general. The presence of a diversity of experience alone is a strong methodological contribution to the field of Reformed public theology. Much more space could be taken to recognise the strength of this volume springing from its diverse cast of contributors, but we turn to its content, which offers much positive contribution to the issue of public theology.
Kaemingk explains in the ‘Introduction’ that the purpose of the volume is not to expound on ‘theological methodology or cultural analysis’, but rather ‘the authors were instructed to dive in, get to work, and actually do public theology’ (p. 19). In regard to that purpose, this volume is most successful. Even while the authors of each article ‘dives in’, the Reformed principles and methodology seep out visibly in each context, most obviously to the Reformed eye. While the introduction enumerates the tenets of Reformed public theology, there is no central theological blueprint to which the authors strictly abide. In that manner, there is theological flexibility in each author's presentation of their particular issue, but at the same time, there are common Reformed theological themes that are shared such as common grace, sphere sovereignty, principled pluralism, the biblical hermeneutical notion of the ‘already-not yet’, and the sovereignty of God most frequently observed in the cosmic scope of the Lordship of Christ. The collection of these frequented Reformed themes serves as the theological linchpin of the volume while at the same time allowing for freedom in application and contextual exploration.
Within the space provided, it is difficult to cover all of the individual contributions of this volume in sufficient detail, but some highlights can provide a general sense of the valuable contribution this collection makes, as well as some of its weaknesses. The issue of immigration is given particular attention by Rubén Rosario Rodríguez and Alberto La Rosa Rojas, the former making an argument through historic precedent of the Reformation church welcoming refugees and asylum seekers as image bearers of God. The latter more practically applies the meaning and practice of the Lord's Supper in two movements: the vertical with God as our home and the horizontal witness of becoming a taste of God's homecoming for others.
Pluralism is touched upon by various practical angles. N. Gray Sutanto, through the presentation of Indonesia's deeply engrained cultural concept of ‘Pancasila’, presents a case for principled pluralism where Christianity is safeguarded from political suppression by other religions while checking itself from an unnecessarily over-realised eschatology. Bethany L. Jenkins, Wolterstorff and Jeff Liou under the heading of ‘Public Academy’ address how the Reformed faith impacts the pluralism of ideas, but they additionally challenge Reformed thinkers to expand their reception of points of critique in a context of pluralism, while highlighting concepts such as common grace, antithesis, and ‘dialogic pluralism’ (p. 233). These authors press the reader to accept the value of non-Christian contributions as borrowed capital and particularly press the Reformed reader towards a humble, if sometimes uncomfortable, place of dialogue and away from over-confidence in our grasp of the truth. Wolterstorff rightly states that this can be an alarming critique, but to assume this is ‘giving ground’ may in fact display a false confidence of faith and knowledge that retreats from the world, rather than engaging with humility and true conviction that God is God and we are not (p. 233).
The articles presented under the headings of ‘Public Aesthetics’ and ‘Public Worship’ display a spirit of theological boldness from a Reformed perspective. Under ‘Public Worship’, the applicational use of the Lord's Supper, Public Prayer, Baptism, and Public Confession in addressing public issues of welcoming immigrants, raising awareness of public issues, combating sexism and racism, and augmenting the character of humility in the public sphere, respectively, seem to challenge the Western Reformed reader on the boundaries of the regulative principle of worship. While a commonly held Reformed principle of worship, the boundaries of the said principle are not uniformly agreed upon, even within Reformed circles. Though these authors are not giving prescription on the specifics of how to worship, they provide a window to reconceptualise the impact of the aspects of liturgy, with which those within Reformed Christianity are so familiar. Some applications are bolder than others. For example, the suggestion that baptism provides ‘spiritual’ significance to the political struggles against sexism and racism does require further thought and dialogue. The impact of public prayer raising awareness of issues functions most clearly as a reminder to the congregations located in more metropolitan contexts where these issues are more concentrated. Under ‘Public Aesthetics’, Robert Covolo's article on the public context of fashion presents a fresh formulation through application of Reformed concepts of John Calvin, Karl Barth, Herman Dooyeweerd and Calvin Seerveld. Against the common grain of seeing fashion as a realm of extravagance and exterior display, Covolo offers five perspectives to understand and engage fashion: ‘fashion as gift, fashion as market commodity, fashion as social force, fashion as aesthetic play, and fashion as social costume’ (p. 195). He offers much fodder to think further about how fashion and Reformed theology speaks to ‘the intersection of individual and collective identity’ (p. 194).
In many of the articles presented in this volume, there is a movement of Reformed critique and Reformed constructive application. Through the application of common grace and the affirmation of redemptive-historical context of the Fall, almost all the authors exercise with each issue and context a movement of critique (effect of the Fall and taste of redemption) and a movement of constructive application (application of common grace and the imago Dei). This two-fold movement seems to reflect, in a general sense, what Daniel Strange calls the ‘subversive fulfillment’ of the gospel when applied to cultural contexts (Plugged In (The Good Book Company, 2019), p. 102). Similar critical and constructive movements can be seen in Timothy Keller's preaching and teaching of how the gospel engages with culture, which is alluded to by multiple authors (Sutanto, Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Makoto Fujimura). This volume, without trying to provide a Reformed methodology of public theology, provides one nonetheless in this general critique and constructive application movement. Though it lacks the explicit exegetical undergirding of the method as a figure like Strange would most likely prefer, the critical and constructive movement is a helpful tool to unearth in this very application-oriented volume.
This collection has much to offer conversations in public theology, but it does also have one particular aspect that could use bolstering. Most of the articles have at least an implicit understanding of the very important Vosian hermeneutical lens of the ‘already-not yet’ paradigm. Along with it and a strong emphasis on common grace, the constructive portions land often in an optimistic perspective (without being triumphalist) about the lines of continuity between this eon and the one to come. This is perhaps the impact of Richard Mouw on the thinking of the authors. Without getting into the theological discussion of what constitutes continuity and discontinuity in each of the issues, this volume would have been strengthened had the concept of scarcity been explored in the details of each context. Walter Brueggemann's consideration of the reality of scarcity both in the context of redemptive history and in the application of common grace or exploration of the common good is an example of how a Reformed thinker can engage such ideas (Journey to the Common Good (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010)). Particularly under the headings of ‘Public Markets’ and ‘Public Justice’, consideration of scarcity and how that factors into the Reformed application of common grace would strengthen arguments of each specific context.
Kaemingk states that this volume is an introduction to Reformed public theology. This is the case in the sense that it offers many doors through which a reader can consider various critical issues. But it is not a foundational book in that it assumes one's familiarity to the Reformed theological concepts. A reader unfamiliar with Reformed theology may need to draw on help to orientate herself, and at the same time, the Reformed reader may be left wanting. The Reformed mind will most naturally desire a normative tool to unearth and apply in other contexts. The volume unintentionally does so, as mentioned above, but it is not clear that emergent impression would be of benefit to Reformed academics or the church in general. The authors ‘dove in’ to each of their contexts and issues, but the reader may want them to dive deeper. Perhaps, in the near future, Kaemingk can offer us a volume of further depth into these very important issues of public theology.