Jonathan McIntosh - Common Grace vs. Political Presuppositionalism

<p>The Reformed doctrine of common grace is a crucially important one for a properly Christian understanding of culture and the very possibility of such sciences as economic and politics. Yet despite being a uniquely Reformed concept, the idea of common grace has had a somewhat ambivalent history in the last hundred years. In 1924, for example, the Protestant Reformed Church, led by theologian Herman Hoeksema, split from the Christian Reformed Church in opposition to the doctrine of common grace, and even today, amongst those who affirm the doctrine of common grace, it is by no means clear that everyone means the same thing by it. Is common grace really grace, and if so, just how gracious is it? This paper will attempt to identify a fateful ambiguity behind the Reformed doctrine of common grace and, relying heavily on St. Augustine, who was himself arguably of two minds on the topic, will suggest that there is a wrong way and a right way to think about common grace.</p>