Monday, January 2, 2023

Gordon Clark: Activism (Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics)

1973. In Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics. Carl F.H. Henry, ed. Washington D.C.: Canon Press. [Reprinted in 1988 by Baker Book House.] Activism

ACTIVISM. See also Quietism. Activism like its opposite, Quietism, comes in degrees. In its extreme form Quietism advocates the cessation of all volition and desire. "Absorption by God" is virtually Buddhist Nirvana in Christian dress. The extreme form of Activism would be a life all of action and volition minus any knowledge of what one is doing or should do. Obviously Christianity is neither the one nor the other. Disagreement concerning proportions oscillates between ivory-tower intellectuals and non-intellectual activists. In general European evangelicals are more intellectual while American evangelicals, even though they do not engage in the liberal's noisy demonstrations, are strongly activist. 
Gordon H. Clark

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