Constitutional Government and Free Enterprise: A Biblical Christian Worldview Approach and Emphasis Interactive Notes
Edition: 3
Copyright: 2019
Pages: 184
Edition: 3
Copyright: 2019
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How does the Biblical Christian Worldview, with its institutional and structural emphases, contrast with other worldviews of the Western tradition such as rationalism, Romanticism-Transcendentalism, Marxism-Leninism and Fabian Socialism?
Constitutional Government and Free Enterprise: A Biblical Christian Worldview Approach and Emphasis Interactive Notes is a very manageable course text specifically designed for undergraduate majors in the Helms School of Government at Liberty University, and adapted for all other majors at the University to satisfy the general education requirements of civic and global engagement. Students from across the academies are also encouraged to consider using this textbook as a companion source alongside others emphasizing worldview studies or American constitutional history.
This textbook assumes that biblical Christian truths apply across the academic disciplines and incorporate all relational and institutional constructs. Interested readers are provided with the basic core presuppositions and components of the dominant intellectual traditions of the West with specific focus on the Biblical Christian Worldview and its impact upon societal institutions. Highlighted is its relationship to the rudiments and institutional structure of American constitutional government to secure an ordered liberty.
Each chapter is organized with the novice reader in mind, or those new to worldview studies. Readers are supplied with a generous amount of reverences from leading reformed theologians including seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century political thinkers and intellectuals associated with the various worldviews. Many of these sources are directly linked oto the accessible texts via the VitalSource Ebook edition either through publicly accessible websites, or subscription databases available at most universities. Each chapter concludes with recommended readings, audio podcasts, and video to further enhance the fundamentals stressed.
Constitutional Government and Free Enterprise encourages readers not only to consider that biblical Christianity, and its continuing application throughout the Reformation, represents the dominant religious and intellectual heritage of the civil-social foundations of America and the United States, but to reassert and reaffirm that same constitutional and liberty tradition in our own time.
Constitutional Government and Free Enterprise incorporates:
- Useful illustrations
- Text features
- Sections devoted to enhanced reflections
- Readings from well-known authors and experts in worldview studies
- Lecture audio and online video presentations
Author’s Preface
Epigraph
Introduction
PART I: The Nature and Structure of Worldviews and Their Impact upon the Western Tradition
Text: Dr. Glenn Martin—Prevailing Worldviews of Western Society Since 1500
Chapter 1: Conceptualizing and Constructing a Worldview
Worldview Components and Core Essentials
Back to Worldview Basics
Defining Worldview
Critical Questions Worldviews Address
Possible Solutions and Potential Answers
Back to the Primary Questions
Institutional Consequences and Societal Procedure
Vertical or Horizontal Life Orientation?
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Distinguishing Features of Worldviews
Eight Basic Questions or Propositions
Chapter 2: Implementing and Deploying a Worldview
Worldview Characteristics, Classification, and Conversion
Characteristics of Worldviews
Classification of Application
Conversions and Shifts
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Chapter 3: The Biblical Christian Worldview: The Reformation Heritage
The Reformation (1517–1688): The Bible Applies to the Whole of Life
Aurelius Augustine (354–430 A.D.): Bishop of Hippo
The Reformation and the Translation of the Scriptures
Advent of a New Hermeneutic, or Interpretation of the Scriptures
The Biblical Christian Worldview: The Presuppositional Core
The Kingdom of God Is Spiritual
Man Is Prophet, Priest, and King Under a Sovereign God
There Is No Institutional Interposition between God and Man: Christ Alone Mediates Salvation
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Take Advantage of Subscription Databases and Open Sources
Dr. Martin Luther and the Priesthood of All Believers
Chapter 4: The Biblical Christian Worldview: Covenantal Order and Institutional Arrangement
The Institutional Arrangement of Biblical Christianity: A Holy Commonwealth and Covenantal Order
Abraham Kuyper: Sphere Sovereignty and God’s Authority Over All of Life
Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism, Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, 1898
Covenantal Order
Permanent Presuppositional Realities of God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Depravity
The Basic Essence of the Biblical Christian Worldview: Institutional Structure and Procedure of a Holy Commonwealth
Institutional Separation as to Function and Purpose
Educational Realm
The Realm of Law and Jurisprudence
The Civil-Social Realm
The Realm of Economics: Freedom of Enterprise
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Chapter 5: The Biblical Christian Worldview: Institutional Consequences
Institutional Consequences of the Reformation’s Restatement of the Biblical Christian Worldview
Significant Consequences of the Protestant Reformation
America’s Protestant Reformed Heritage of Liberty
John Adams (1735–1826): Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
The Bible Applied to the Whole of Life and the Standards for Institutional Procedure
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Chapter 6: The Rationalist Worldview: The Enlightenment Heritage of Reason
The Enlightenment (1600–1800): The Reign of Reason, from Faith in God to Faith in the Human Intellect
Epistemological Shift away from Faith in God to Faith in Reason
Presuppositions of Rationalism
Rationalism’s Presuppositional Thrust
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Natural Law Language: Nature and Grace
Christian Theism’s Defense of Christianity
Christian Theist Scientists and Rationalism
Chapter 7: The Rationalist Worldview: The Enlightenment Heritage of Revolution
Consequences of Rationalism in the West
Rationalism and the Inauguration of the Revolutionary West
Academic Alterations: Nature-Based Education
The Consequences of Rationalism in America
The Christian-Rationalist Conglomerate in America
Biblical to Evangelical Christianity
The American War for Independence and the American Constitutional Order and System
The American Constitutional Order and System: Federalism
The Worldview Statement of Rationalism and Institutional Structure and Procedure
Rationalist Worldview Summary Statement
Institutional Structure of Rationalism: Sovereignty of Mankind Leading to Democracy
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Chapter 8: Romanticism-Transcendentalism (1800‒1860s): Reaction to Reason
The Romantic-Transcendental Reaction to Reason
Epistemological Shift: From the Rational to the Non-Rational
Ontological Shift: From Deism to Pantheism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778): From the Chains of the Social State to “Total Freedom” within the Civil State
Romanticism, Reformism, and Revolution
Romanticism-Transcendentalism and American Institutions
The United States Civil War: Shift from Federalism to Nationalism
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Chapter 9: Process Philosophy (1870’s to Present): The Abandonment of the Supernatural and the Advent of Relativity: Rise of Marxism-Leninism and Fabian Socialism
Process Philosophy in Reaction to Romanticism-Transcendentalism
Rejection of the Supernatural
The Intellectual Fallout: The Constantly Changing Nature of Reality
Process Philosophy’s Core Presuppositional Essentials
The Major Intellectual Expressions of Process Philosophy
Darwinism: Nature Acts Evolutionarily
Marxism: Economic Determinism, Class Struggle, and Scientific Socialism
Marxism’s Critical Assumptions
The Dialectic and the Hegelian Synthesis: Revolution in Thinking
Feuerbachian Materialism: The Universe Is Matter in Motion
Dialectical Materialism: Quantitative to Qualitative Change
Historical Materialism: Marxist Analysis of History
Fabian Socialism: Democratic Socialism
Order of Fabian Socialists and Fabian Society, England, 1883
Fabian Socialism’s Penetration into the United States
Institutional Structure and Procedure of Process Philosophy
Concluding Considerations and Chapter Summary
Further Reflections, Recommended Readings, and Viewings
Process Philosophy and Presidential Party Planks
The Hiss-Chambers Case (1948–1950)
Glossary
Bibliography
Index