Op het kruis ligt het zwaard. Over de spanning tussen theocratie en secularisatie in het oudere werk van A.A. van Ruler

Samenvatting

This paper discusses how A.A. van Ruler (1908-1970) reacted on the post-war situation.
In the years after the Second World War, Van Ruler unfolded his theocratic theology.
The state had to play an important role in society, but in a close connection with
the church. He developed his political theology in opposition to A. Kuyper's neo-calvinist
theology, which accepted the neutrality of the state. The central question in this
article is: Was Van Ruler’s theocracy really an answer to the concrete post-war situation
of the Netherlands (and of Europe) or was his project from the beginning doomed to
fail because of the rising power of secularization? In this article I confine myself to the
early work of Van Ruler, namely the second part of his ‘Religie en Politiek’(Religion
and Politics): basic ideas of theocracy; and his book ‘Droom en Gestalte’ (Dream and
Manifestation). In these publications, Van Ruler outlines a theory of society that is guided
by God’s law as revealed in the Old Testament, but modified by the cross of Jesus
and placed in the light of God’s Kingdom.