Introduction

When I had the official kickoff back in September 2022, what I’m writing now about this blog is what I should have written then. But like I do a lot of things, I shoot from the hip without having a clear vision of what my goals for a project might be, and thereby I don’t have a good sense of what I’m trying to do or where I want to take a project on which I happen to be working. I do know that I sought the name change to Faith and Analysis because I want to analyze our culture from the perspective of my faith, a born-again Christian, dare I say a fundamentalist Christian since that word has taken on a derogatory and even evil connotation in our time. Long-range goals are approached by short-range goals a step at a time. What I want to do with this month’s blog is lay out what I see as the over-arching plan for Contemplations to involve.

Order and Dominion

Over the past few months since I changed the perspective of this blog to Faith and Analysis I recognized that I had a sense of my thoughts being scattered, and that I was all over the place in terms of what I wanted as a focus for this blog. On the one hand, I didn’t want the focus of the blog to be too narrow, nor did I want it to be so broad as to have no focus at all. The blog needed tightened up and organized. God is about dominion and order. What I was trying to accomplish with Contemplations needed some order brought to it. My goal is to organize this blog around eight different themes or foci.

An Organizing Structure

The eight themes or foci around which this blog will be built and organized are the following: 1) the blog with its Christian perspective will proffer Reformed Theology, thereby drawing on Calvinism as a framework for discussing theological concerns and the pulse of our culture; 2) as one who holds to Reformed Theology, the sovereignty of God over our lives and His bringing about His Kingdom will be a major theme of exploration for this blog; 3) with that major theme, its corollary, God’s providence in our lives will be a reoccurring discussion within these pages; 4) as Faith and Analysis I will seek to apply a Reformed Christian perspective to current, historical, societal, and cultural events that we face as Christians, particularly those of us who hold to the fundamentals of the faith; 5) as one who promotes Reformed Theology, I will uphold the necessity of Biblical and theological knowledge and sound doctrine, providing discussions of theology and Biblical studies written across history of the church from the early Church Fathers to the present (book reviews, discussions of theological doctrine, highlighting Christian literature and writers; 6) As one who promotes Faith and Analysis, I will not shy away from discussing from a Christian perspective political, economic, and moral concerns; 7) given the emphasis on sound doctrine, I prayerfully hope to emphasize the importance of sound logical thinking in a postmodern age where accurate thought and truth are consistently under attack; 8) the blog will highlight the dominion mandate, Christian Reconstruction, and theonomy as discussed in the writings by R. J. Rushdoony and others (the Chalcedon Organization).

Conclusion

As any casual reader can tell from reading this particular blog, my goals are certainly not too narrow, nor are they too broad given the Christian perspective from which I write. Above all, Jesus Christ will be the center of thought for this blog. My own personal stance aligns for the most part with Reformed Theology. I embrace the dominion mandate that R. J. Rushdoony discusses in his writings. At this point I’m not ready to proclaim that I’m a theonomist or postmillennialist. There’s a lot to organize around this blog as I’ve delineated it here. Perhaps that’s what leads me to a sense of disorganization at times. The dominion mandate calls on us to bring order, not only to our thought lives, but in everything we pursue, taking captive all spheres of endeavor to the name and reign of Jesus Christ.

John V. Jones, Jr./Ph.D./January 14th, 2023

GENERAL ESSAY/CHRISTIAN THOUGHT