The Old Renewal

Eight years ago in 1974 a new magazine appeared, published in Sioux Center, Iowa under the name Renewal. In a concluding editorial in its last (August 18, 1982) issue Rev. B. J. Haan recalls how it was begun “to preserve and promote good Kuyperian Calvinism, also among the Dordt alumni.” Over the years the magazine printed much good material in pursuit of this laudable aim and we have, on occasion, reprinted some of it.

The editorial, in recalling the paper’s origin and history also reveals a certain less commendable animus, charging “There were no publications in the USA devoted to the promotion of a sound Kuyperianism. In fact, the publications which did claim

loyalty to the Reformed faith seemed to help, by their opposition to the AACS (the Toronto based Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship) an anti–Kuyperian, anti-covenantal-kingdom, anti–world and life attitude.” The charge of being “anti-Kuyperian, anti-covenantal-kingdom, anti-world and life” leveled obviously at our over 30-year old publication must come as a surprise to many of our readers as it does to me. I recall no articles to which it can properly apply. What can account for this irresponsible caricature? The answer to the question obviously is that we dared to expose some of the anti-Biblical views of some AACS leaders and their writings. Although Dordt’s ex-president recalls the problems that that movement produced on the college campus and has had to concede the AACS had “provoked a great deal of legitimate opposition,” he at the same time gives as a reason for the new publication that “those recklessly and irresponsibly opposing the AACS had to be silenced.” The articles written at the request of the OUTLOOK board, which exposed especially the faulty views of the Bible which the writers in question were promoting, were all carefully documented and their accuracy was never challenged. To describe them now, after a decade of history, has been further revealing. The mischievous results of views against which they warned, as “reckless” and “irresponsible” is itself irresponsible.* Perhaps the major weakness of Renewal was the at times failure to distinguish authentic from counterfeit Kuyperianism and Kingdom ideas and enterprises. At any rate, the paper, despite some excellent articles, did not gain wide interest and support.

The New Venture

Now Renewal gives way to a new publication, Christian Renewal twice as large, to be published by The Abraham Kuyper Christian Citizen Foundation in Canada at Jordan Station near Hamilton, Ontario. Its aim as stated in an editorial is to address the entire Christian family, to “strike a deliberately Reformed note” and to set the Christian faith off against the common Marxist and secular humanist alternatives and the “horizontalism” which is creeping also into Christian circles. It begins with an article of Abraham Kuyper on “The Dominion of Christ’s Kingship” and features a variety of interesting materials.

L. Praamsma writes on “The Gold that Grew Dim.” Articles appear on the United church of Canada, on the Moonies, and on “The Soft Voice of America” (this written by Solzhenitsyn). We read of the career of Albrecht Durer as “God’s Artist,” and there is an extensive picture story of the opening of Redeemer College. The subscription price is $15.00 in the U.S. and Canada for 22 issues (U.S. address: P.O. Box 770, Lewiston, NY 14092; Canadian address: P.O. Box 777, Jordan Station, Ont. 10R 1SO). With a larger organization and staff of editors and writers the new venture is making a promising beginning.

In Canada–the new publication appears to be more of a position paper than the older Calvinist-Contact and will likely give some competition to the 1–year-old Winnipeg-based Reformed Perspectives, which continues to provide remarkably good materials. It seems significant that soon after the left-lean ing Vanguard has gone out of business because of financial difficulties, turning over its remaining subscriptions to The Reformed Journal Christian Renewal appears on the Canadian scene promising to promote a more Biblically Reformed line. This new venture to promote the Reformed faith is one which we can welcome to the field of Christian journalism.

*The articles to which I refer appeared in OUTLOOKS at the end of 1973 and ran through the July issue of 1974. Later in response to requests arising out of the problems about the AACS to which Rev. Haan referred, I was asked to prepare a booklet for the Reformed Fellowship, Some Questions and Answers About the AACS which is still available from our Fellowship office (40¢ per copy, 8 for $1, 10 for $2, 100 for $15). The issues raised in this discussion, especially that of the authority of the Bible, continue to trouble us. Although the differences within the AACS movement have become more apparent, as recently as August 1981, James H. Olthuis, professor at the Toronto Institute, writing in the RES Theological Forum (pp. 29, 30) warned, “we are not to stare ourselves blind by focusing exclusively on the Scriptures to discern the Word of God for our lives.” “It is in living the married life, not in reading the Scriptures, that we discern the specifics of the Word of God for our marriage.” His emphasis is the same at this point as it was a decade ago.