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FIRST THINGS

a powerful critique of the point of view most of us received in school was for me a great stimulation. Rushdoony taught us that the American Constitution, witli its eloquent absence of references to Christian faith, was a secular document only in appearance. In fact, it William Edgar was deliberately fashioned as a minimalist document by men of genius whose primary purpose was to ensure ousas John Rushdoony died on February 8 of this the vitality of local government. Here Rushdoony year, at the age of eighty-four. He was the founder, added a distinctive perspective, one which would president, and chairman of the Chalcedon Foundabecome a leitmotif throughout his long career, and one tion, which holds conferences and publishes both a which would have a wide impact on other figures in his journal by the same name and the Chalcedon Report, a circle. monthly magazine with articles on every subject imagIn Rushdoony's view, the Constitution did not need inable. All these efforts are meant to advance the view to include a Christian confession because the states that Christian faith is for all of life. The name of the were already a Christian establishment or setdement. foundation is taken from the great ecclesiastical counThe First Amendment prohibited laws respecting the cil of 451 that produced the formula that Christ was establishment of religion because religion was already God of very God and man of very Manan affirmation established at the local level. There were sabbath rules, which for Rushdoony meant that no human power religious tests for citizenship, laws regarding heterosexcould make claims to divinity. A lifelong enemy of ual fidelity, blasphemy lawsall of them strongly consocialism, Rushdoony believed it had usurped the nected to biblical law. The First Amendment was unique authority ofJesus Christ. intended to protect the states from interference by the I first encountered Rushdoony at L'Abri, a Christian federal government. community high in the Swiss Alps. The year was 1964. Central to just about every one of Rushdoony's writFrancis Schaeffer, the founder and director of L'Abri, ings is the notion that freedom must be preserved at had recendy come across a litde book by Rushdoony the local level, so that Cod's law can be faithfully obeyed called This Independent Republic: Studies in the Nature and by all people, without interference from higher tempoMeaning ofAmerican History, and he made it the basis for ral powers. America held a special place in world histoa seminar with the students at L'Abri. We gathered in ry for him because it began as a Christian civic structhe living room of Chalet les Melezes, where most of the ture. And yet, in our time it desperately needed to community's meetings were held. It was before Schaefregain its original vision. More than anything else, fer became a popular sage for many evangelical ChrisAmerica had to "press the crown rights ofJesus Christ tians, and so we could study such a text informally, in all spheres of life," as the Chalcedon slogan has it. though we always did so with care. The topics covered in the Rushdoony book were wideush," as he was known by his friends and colranging. The chapter that Schaeffer chose for the sub. leagues, believed that he was laying the foundaject of his seminar focused on the difference between tions for a reformation. Born in 1917 in New York City the American and the French Revolutions. Drawing on to recent Armenian immigrants from Turkey, Rushscholars such as Peter Drucker and James C. Malin, doony was educated in California, where he eventually Rushdoony challenged the propriety of calling Ameriestablished his residence. He spent over eight years as a ca's defensive war gainst Great Britain a true revolumissionary to Shoshone and Paiute Native Americans tion. According to him it was instead a "conservative in Nevada. Before serving two churches in Santa Cruz, counterrevolution," whose purpose was to preserve casting his lot with separatist Presbyterians, he followed American liberties from their usurpation by the British the lead of J. Gresham Machen, who left Princeton Parliament. It owed nothing to the Enlightenment. By Theological Seminary in 1929 to found Westminster contrast, the French Revolution was the direct result of Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and eventually the Enlightenment, along with the organizational stratehelped to form the American Presbyterian Church gies fostered by various secret and esoteric societies. (now the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). Though Rushdoony did not attend Westminster himThough at the time I was too much a novice in histoself, he was strongly influenced by its famous professor ry to judge the accuracy of his thesis, I was drawn to the of apologetics, Cornelius Van Til. Van Til had argued clarity and cogency of Rushdoony's arguments. Those that there was a fundamental difference in the way were heady days at L'Abri, which in the sixties was a unbelievers and believers reasoned because their seedbed for ideas that captivated our imaginations and source of authority was radically different. On this basis sought to link every area of our lives to a Christian

The Passing of R. J. Rushdoony

worldview. A Christian historiography containing such

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he reproached traditional apologetics, represented for treatments of taxation, government, virtue, oaths, example by Thomas Aquinas and Bishop Joseph Buder, penal sanctions, property, and nearly every domain of for allowing commonly held, neutral standards to jurisprudence. The book opens, tellingly, with a quote become the warrant for the truth of Christian faith from Wycliffe about his translation of the Bible: 'This radier than the standards revealed by God in the world, Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, in human consciousness, and in Scripture. and for the people." Also revealing is the fact that RushRushdoony focused on the same problematic in his doony's Institutesdespite the reference to Calvin's own work, although his approach to it was, if anything, Institutes of the Christian Religion in its titlereproaches more radical. For Rushdoony, the fundamental gulf the reformer for refusing to advocate the complete subtliat separates truth from error can be bridged only by mission of the state to the Mosaic law. allowing the light of God to penetrate every aspect of There is no denying that these 1,600 pages show our lives. His opposition to secular premises was total. Rushdoony to have been a man of extraordinary brilMany have credited Rushdoony with being an early liance possessing an almost encyclopedic knowledge of inspiration behind the home school movement. He human affairs. It is truly a work of Protestant casuistry. certainly was the strongest possible advocate of reliAt the same time, these pages tend to confirm the accugious education, consistendy favoring private over pubsations of harshness often brought against Rushdoony. lic schooling. In The Messianic Character ofAmerican Edu- His Institutes conveys a stern message, and one senses in cation (1963) Rushdoony decried the American public it a certain deficit of gi'ace and forgiveness. school system, tracing its ideology back to John Dewey Rushdoony and his followers have always considered and other secular thinkers who believed in the natural themselves to be at war with antinomianism in any goodness of children and the role that education could form. They are convinced that European and North play in liberalizing society. American Christians have been afflicted by a belief in what can only be called cheap grace. In response to this Rushdoony was often called upon as an expert witsituation, they have taught that when Jesus said he came ness to defend the rights of home-school advocates "not to abolish the law but to fiilfill it" (Matthew 5:17), against their detractors. In 1983 the Home School he meant to ratify the lawto establish itnot to surLegal Defense Association was formed under the leadpass it. The fact remains, however, that Jesus ership of people inspired by Rushdoony's attacks on announced he was not here "to abolish the law and the seculai- education. By 1990 over fifteen thousand famiprophets . . . but to fulfill them," something far more lies in all fifty states belonged to the Association, and extensive than mere ratification. The Sermon on the today home schooling is more popular than ever. Mount, from which this quote is derived, goes on to explicate how the law's message had been distorted by he movement inspired by R. J. Rushdoony is often the scribes and lawyers of Israel who followed it to tlie given the label Theonomy. The term should not letter but missed its deepest meaning. Genuine Chrisbe conflised with Paul Tillich's concept of the same tian piety requires that we take a more expansivea name, which was meant to be a corrective to idolatry less narrowly political and punitive^view of the law. through an appeal to "autonomous reason." Rather, Only then will the door of heaven be opened, and the Rtishdoony's Theonomy involves the application of the Heavenly Father provide graciously all things needful law of God, and the biblical law particularly, to all of life. (Matthew 6:32; 7:7-11). It also requires that one appeal to the whole law of Godincluding the civil law of the Old Testamentas a necessary supplement to being saved by grace t is difficult to say how much influence R. J. Rushthrough faith. Some of Rushdoony's followers prefer doony will ultimately have. The brilliant Greg the term "reconstructionist," because they believe it Bahnsen and the fiery Pat Robertson are among his does a better job of conveying their positive outlook on mjuiy admirers. Bill Moyers has produced a PBS doculife. Indeed, their view of the future could be described mentary on Rushdoony that was widely praised. Theonas postmillennial, since they tend to believe that God's omy has many champions from quite diverse quarters Kingdom will eventually be established on earth around the world. Although Rushdoony's particular through the faithful preaching of the gospel and the brand of reconstniction may not much outlast his faithful application of God's law to society. The result death, it will continue to appeal to some. For the antiwill be a Christian civilization and a thousand year reign nomianism of our world is very much in need of being ofJesus Ghrist. resisted, even if Rushdoony's own response to it resultRushdoony's most extensive and thorough treatment ed, in the end, in a severe overcorrection. of tlie law can be found in his Institutes of Biblical Law, a massive, two-volume work that includes an exhaustive WiixiAM EDGAR is Professor of Apohgetics at Westminster Tlieostudy of the Ten Commandments followed by detailed logical Seminary, Philadelphia.