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Roots of Western Culture: Pagan, Secular and Christian Options

Courtesy of the Hultink Family Foundation, the Cántaro Institute is now the new home for the Reformational Digital Library (formerly known as the Reformational Publishing Project). All rights reserved.

Document: Herman Dooyeweerd, Roots of Western Culture: Pagan, Secular and Christian Options, trans., John N. Kraay and Bernard Zylstra (Toronto, ON.: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1979).

Excerpt: We acknowledge that the antithesis cuts right through the Christian life itself. Everywhere, in personal life, in the life of the Christian family, in Christian organizations and political groups, even in the Christian church there has been gratifying evidence of genuine vitality. But there have also been alarming symptoms of apostasy, discord, and schism. These are signs of the turbulent spirit of darkness which wages war in the most revolting forms against the spirit of Christ. The antithesis is therefore not a dividing line between Christian and non-Christian groups. It is the unrelenting battle between two spiritual principles that cut through the nation and through all mankind. It has no respect for the secure patterns and lifestyles built by Christians. If the Christian idea of the antithesis is rooted in man, then it is an invention of Satan and a source for hypocrisy and pharasaic pride. But if the impact of the antithesis can still be felt as the battle between the spirit of God and the spirit of darkness, then we must humbly thank God every day for the grace of his continued dealings with the world and confess that Christians themselves are not particularly responsible for it.

Download the Document:
Roots Of Western Culture – H. Dooyeweerd.pdf