In Neo-Calvinism, sphere sovereignty (Dutch: souvereinitet in eigen kring) is the concept that each sphere (or sector) of life has its own distinct responsibilities and authority or competence, and stands equal to other spheres of life. Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is the movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper. Sphere sovereignty involves the idea of an all encompassing created order, designed and governed by God. This created order includes societal communities (such as those for purposes of education, worship, civil justice, agriculture, economy and labor, marriage and family, artistic expression, etc), their historical development, and their abiding norms. The principle of sphere sovereignty seeks to affirm and respect creational boundaries, and historical differentiation.
Sphere sovereignty implies that no one area of life or societal community is sovereign over another. Each sphere has its own created integrity. Neo-Calvinists hold that since God created everything “after its own kind,” diversity must be acknowledged and appreciated. For instance, the different God-given norms for family life and economic life should be recognized, such that a family does not properly function like a business. Similarly, neither faith-institutions (e. g. churches) nor an institution of civil justice (i. e. the state) should seek totalitarian control, or any regulation of human activity outside their limited competence, respectively.
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Historical Background
Sphere sovereignty is an alternative to the worldviews of ecclesiasticism and secularism (especially in its Statist form). Secularism is generally the assertion that governmental practices or institutions should exist separately from Religion or religious beliefs Statism (or Etatism) is a very loose and often Derogatory term that is used to describe Specific instances of state intervention in personal social During the Middle Ages, a form of Papal Monarchy assumed that God rules over the world through the Church. The temporal power of the Popes is the political and governmental activity of the Popes of the Roman Catholic Church, as distinguished from their spiritual God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity.
Ecclesiasticism was widely evident in the arts. Religious themes were encouraged by art's primary patron, the Church. Similarly, the politics in the Middle Ages often consisted of political leaders doing as the Church instructed. In both economic guilds and agriculture the Church supervised. A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture In the family sphere, the Church regulated family procreation, sexual positions, sexuality, and infidelity. Catholic social teaching encompasses aspects of Catholic doctrine relating to matters dealing with the collective welfare of humanity In the educational sphere, several universities were founded by religious orders. This article is about Western European institutions See also Medieval university (Asia and Byzantine university Medieval university
During the Renaissance, the rise of a secularist worldview accompanied the emergence of a wealthy merchant class. Some merchants became patrons of the arts, independent of the Church. Protestantism later made civil government, the arts, family, education, and economics officially free from ecclesiastical control. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. While Protestantism maintained a full-orbed or holistically religious view of life as distinguished from an ecclesiasticism, the later secular Enlightenment sought to rid society of religion entirely. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century
Sphere Sovereignty was first formulated by the Neo-Calvinist theologian and Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper and further developed by philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd. Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is the movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper. The Prime minister of the Netherlands is the Head of government of the Netherlands and is the chair of the Dutch cabinet, and Abraham Kuijper ( Maassluis, 29 October 1837 Den Haag, 8 November 1920 generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a Dutch Politician Herman Dooyeweerd ( October 7, 1894, Amsterdam - February 12, 1977) was a Dutch Juridical scholar by training Kuyper based the idea of sphere sovereignty partially on the Christian view of existence coram Deo, every part of human life exists equally and directly “before the face of God. ” For Kuyper, this meant that sphere sovereignty involved a certain form of separation of church and state and a separation of state and other societal spheres, or anti-statism. Separation of church and state is a Political and Legal Doctrine that Government and religious institutions are to be kept separate Statism (or Etatism) is a very loose and often Derogatory term that is used to describe Specific instances of state intervention in personal social
Criticisms
For Kuyper, because the Netherlands included multiple religious-ideological (or, worldview) communities, these each should form their own "pillar," with their own societal institutions like schools, news media, hospitals, etc. This resulted in a pillarized society. Pillarisation ( verzuiling in Dutch, pilarisation in French) is a term used to describe the denominational segregation of Dutch Kuyper himself founded the Vrije Universiteit, where ministers for the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands would be educated without interference by the Dutch state, because educating ministers lies beyond the sphere of civil government in Kuyper's view. The VU University Amsterdam (in Dutch Vrije Universiteit, literal translation is "Free University" is a University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform clergy functions such as teaching of beliefs The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland abbreviated Gereformeerde kerk) was the second largest Protestant church in the Netherlands Kuyper also helped establish a Reformed political party, several Reformed newspapers, and an independent Reformed church.
Addressing the emergence of pillarization in the context of Kuyper's view of sphere sovereignty, Peter S. Pillarisation ( verzuiling in Dutch, pilarisation in French) is a term used to describe the denominational segregation of Dutch Heslam states that 'Indeed, it could be argued that if Dutch society had been of a more “homogenous” nature --rather than manifesting a roughly tripartite ideological divide between Catholics, Protestants, and Humanists-- sphere sovereignty would still have been practicable whereas verzuiling [i. e. , pillarisation] would not have been necessary. ' [1].
Some see the development of pillarization in the Netherlands as a failure of Kuyper to properly limit the state to its own sphere among other societal spheres, and to distinguish societal spheres from worldview communities. [2].
References
- ^ Peter S. Heslam (Spring 2002) Prophet of a Third Way: The Shape of Kuyper's Socio-Political Vision. Journal of Markets & Morality 5(1).
- ^ James C. Kennedy (Spring 2002) The Problem of Kuyper’s Legacy: The Crisis of the Anti-Revolutionary Party in Post-War Holland. Journal of Markets & Morality 5(1).
See Also
External links
- PDF article on Dooyeweerd's Societal Sphere Sovereignty
- Andrew Basden's Dooyeweerd pages: irreducible ontology
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