The Rx To Cure Those Who Have The R2K Impulse

“… there was a dialectical (P and not P) tension between the Pietist impulse to flee the world into a new monasticism and its opposite, to identify the Christian faith with present social concerns.”

R. Scott Clark

Let’s get this straight. On one hand Scott is telling us that it is surrender to the “Pietist impulse” when Christians retreat from the world. On the other hand Scott is telling us that at the same time it is to surrender to the “Pietist impulse” when one insists that Christians must champion the idea of Christian culture. So, per Scott, when one retreats one is giving in to the dreaded Pietist impulse, and when one engages the culture in a uniquely Christian fashion one is afflicted with the dreaded Pietist impulse.

But wait … there remains hope in shedding ourselves of Scott’s boogeyman Pietist impulse. We can embrace Scott’s R2K and go all schizophrenic. Scott would have us shed this Pietist impulse by splitting our selves in half in order to pursue the hyphenated life. Scott’s prescription is for us to withdrawal, per monasticism, in our grace realm living while we should be fully engaged in our common realm living. According to Scott’s Escondido R2K theology the answer to the Pietistic impulse is to become schizophrenic.

My prescription for Scott is pharmacological. In order to cure his schizophrenia I recommend either a return to Biblical theology or, failing that this good Dr. prescribes some Thorazine in order to cure the schizophrenia that ails the R2K of its gnostic hyphenated life.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane

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