James Davison Hunter appears to be setting the environment to destroy the argument made by culture-warriors like the late Chuck Colson. But in the process (beginning in chapter two) he is explaining the rationale of world-view thinkers and their desire to redeem the culture. Colson argues that there are four ways. The fourth is particularly striking:
Fourth, the church must act as the conscience of society, as a restraint against the misuse of governing authority.
This sums up the case for The Church-Friendly Family, where I argue in my editor’s introduction that unless the biological family joins the mission of the Church as the conscience of a society, the family itself will lose her own conscience and submit to another institution or to no institution at all.
My first dip into the book seems like a good dose of Dutch Calvinism, but from conversation I see a “but” coming in the next few pages.
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