Political Economy of a Christian Society

0-9522058-3-1

Contrary to much popular opinion, economics is not a subject that is religiously neutral. The way the economy works is intimately bound up with fundamental issues of right and wrong, and what one judges to be right or wrong is itself intimately bound up with one's religious perspective. Furthermore, the Christian Scriptures give specific and abiding rules about how men are to behave economically. It is the calling and duty of the church to address all areas in which God has revealed ethical norms for human behaviour. God has given laws to mankind governing both realms of activity. It is necessary therefore that the church should bring the moral teaching of the Bible to bear on the economic issues that face modern society. If Christians are to do this effectively, however, they must be informed. Ognorance of the economic realities upon which so much of life depends will vitiate the church's ability to speak prophetically in this area and call the present generation back to gaithfulness to God's word.

The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the subject of Christian economics. Its aim is twofold: first, to give a general overview of the field of economics; to elucidate the general principles of economic concepts and the basic structures of economic institutions, and to provide a perspective that will enable the reader to assimilate the details of our modern economic system into an overall understanding of how the economy has developed and currently functions. Secondly, the book aims to indicate in what respects the economy needs to be reformed if it is to conform to Christian standards and so point the way to what the political economy of a Christian society should be like.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 420 pages | £14.95, plus postage | ISBN: 0-9522058-3-1

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Common-Law Wives and Concubines

Essays on Covenantal Christianity and Contemporary Western Culture

0-9522058-7-4What is the nature of Christianity? Is it a religion or a cult, i.e. a personal worship hobby? This question goes to the heart of the modern Church's failure to exercise a world-transforming faith. The antidote to this failure is the rediscovery of Christianity as the true religion, i.e. as an overarching structure to human life that anchors both the individual and the society of which he is a part in God's will for man in Christ. This religious structure the Bible calls the covenant, and it embraces the whole of human life including politics, education, science, art, welfare, health care, marriage, family life, Church, business, economy.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 272 pages | £13.95, plus postage | ISBN: 0-9522058-7-4

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A Defence of the Christian State

0-9522058-2-3 Principled Pluralism is the belief that the State should be a religiously neutral institution and that all religions should enjoy civil liberty and equality. In recent years this belief has gained much ground among Christians in both America and the United Kingdom. This book provides a detailed critique of the principled pluralist position. The author sets out to show that religious neutrality in the political sphere is impossible, that all States are, including so-called secular States, are religious institutions. The author argues that the evangelical case for principled pluralism fundamentally misunderstands the issues at stake and consequently misconceives the proper Christian attitude to the political sphere. He then provides an exposition of the Christian doctrine of the State.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 240 pages | £12.95 plus postage | ISBN: 0-9522058-2-3

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The Christian Philosophy of Education Explained

0-9518899-0-7 The deterioration of academic standards and discipline in state schools in the last twenty-five years has finally forced the issue of education upon the consciences of many Christians who would not otherwise have considered it. There is both good and bad in this. The crisis in education has led some to reconsider the whole issue of education and the place of Christian children in a state system that promotes secular humanism and multi-culturalism as a virtue, and discourages the traditional Christian world- view and its code of morality. This is surely good. Yet the fact that it has taken such a crisis to awaken Christian parents to their responsibilities as Christians in this areas is indicative of serious failure in the church's understanding of its calling in this world. It is a sad indictment upon the church's ministry, in particular, that this issue needed to be forced upon the consciences of Christians at all, but especially by a crisis in the practice of an alien religion, with which the church has compromised itself. In this situation there are many voices offering many different solutions to the problem. Some Christian pressure groups and parliamentary lobbying groups have tried to introduce measures into the law aimed at Christianising the state education system, others at securing state funding for so-called independent Christian schools. A few advocate the withdrawal of all education, Christian or otherwise, from the orbit of state authority and funding. In this situation it is important that all the relevant issues should be considered carefully in the light of biblical teaching. Only when this has been done are we in a position to make an intelligent decision about the correct Christian response. The aim of this book is to explain the Christian philosophy of education and thereby help those who read it to make that Christian response. 

"One of the most thorough and biblical discussions of this topic available. Perks develops a clear Christian theory of knowledge, while repudiating subtle idolatries. It comes all the way from England, though no one appears to appreciate it there much yet." (Canon Press)

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 169 pages | £8.95, plus postage | 0-9518899-0-7

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The Great Decommission

ISBN: 978-0-9522058-8-3The dominant contemporary view of the Christian faith as a subjective, private, devotional faith has led to the overturning of the Great Commission, i.e. the de-commissioning of the nations as Christian nations. This modern understanding of the faith is in stark contrast to view of the faith presented in Scripture and accepted as orthodox by previous generations. Until modern times the Church has always proclaimed, and Christians have believed, that the Christian faith is public truth; and public truth is religion. Very many Christians today, however, deny that Christianity is a religion. And it has to be recognised that for these people it is not a religion. It is merely a worship hobby. But in denying that Christianity is a religion Christians have unwittingly denied it the status of public truth, with dire consequences for the life of the nation as a result. The Bible does not see the faith in terms of a personal worship hobby, but rather as a religion that overcomes and transforms the world. The purpose of the Christian faith is not merely to transform the believer’s personal life and make him more holy. It is to glorify God by transforming the world, by bringing the world under the discipline of Jesus Christ and his word. The Christian faith is a political and social faith as well as a personal faith; its mission does not terminate on the individual but on the whole world, which is to be brought into subjection to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are to win the world for Christ we must take the Great Commission seriously as a commission to bring the nations of the earth under the discipline of Jesus Christ not only by preaching the gospel of personal salvation through faith in Christ but also by baptising the nations and teaching the law of God to the nations.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 40 pages | £3.50 plus postage | ISBN: 978-0-9522058-8-3

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The Problem of the Gifted Speaker

ISBN: 978-0-9522058-5-2

One of the problems facing the Church in the Western world today is the problem posed by the “ministry” of those who are considered “gifted speakers” and consequently idolised by the Church. Stated in its most simple form this is the problem posed by the prioritising of the personality, charisma, “profile,” popularity, stage presence and ability of the speaker as an orator and entertainer over the content of the message being delivered—in short, the triumph of style over content, the consequence of which has been the creation of an intellectually feeble-minded and theologically malnourished generation of churchgoers who are over stimulated by sentimental and mindless entertainment worship masquerading as spiritual edification.  The problem has a long history, but it is made particularly problematic today by the intellectual dumbing down process that currently afflicts British culture generally and has produced a semiliterate society. That the Church should also have fallen into this ditch is particularly problematic because her role in providing spiritual, moral and intellectual leadership for society is vital to the health of the nation. Without the leadership of the Church the nation cannot recover from its present descent into cultural degeneration and the neo-paganism that is its inevitably accompaniment. While the Church is obsessed with the mindless prioritising of style over content that is vitiating the cultural life of the nation as a whole she will remain useless and irrelevant to society, and therefore unable to provide the leadership that the nation so desperately needs.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 28 pages | £3.50 plus postage | ISBN: 978-0-9522058-5-2

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Post-Hippocratic Medicine: The Problem And The Solution—How The Christian Ethic Has Influenced Health Care

ISBN: 978-0-9522058-9-0

The “Golden Age of Medicine” was built upon the foundation of the Judeo-Christian ethic and the Hippocratic tradition. It flourished because of this foundation. Whenever and wherever this foundation has been abandoned, medicine has given way to barbarism and superstition. The modern age is no different. You can read all about babies being treated like a crop of potatoes in the new science of fetal harvesting; you can read all about women serving as breeders in surrogate motherhood programmes; you can read all about the “new growth industry” of genetic manipulation in test tube baby experiments; you can read all about how the poor serve as guinea pigs in bizarre particle bombardments; or read about handicapped patients facing compulsory sterilisation; or the latest in genetic engineering; or—probably the most frightening of all—the revival of the racially motivated eugenic programmes; and finally, how two Wall Street Journal reporters revealed a tale of deceit and manipulation by the government, the media, and the Centre for Disease Control in order to gain political support for the billions being spent on AIDS research and prevention. The “Golden Age of Medicine” may be coming to an end. The medical profession is gradually abandoning its Hippocratic tradition and its Judeo-Christian ethical foundation. It is vital that this foundation should be restored.

Author: Hugh Flemming

Paperback | 45 pages | £3.95 plus postage | ISBN: 978-0-9522058-9-0

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Baal Worship Ancient and Modern

ISBN: 978-0-9522058-6-9

In the period following the death of King David the people of Israel became deeply entrenched in a syncretistic form of religion that fused elements of the worship of Yahweh with the ancient fertility cults of Canaan, identifying Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with the pagan god Baal. This corrupt form of worship, which predated the monarchy but had again become ingrained in the religious practices of the people following Solomon’s own example of idolatry, lasted up until the exile. Reforms instituted by good kings barely touched the religion of the people, whose cultic practices operated at the syncretistic folk-religion level, not in terms of the religious practices of the temple and the priesthood established in the Mosaic law, which was frequently forgotten, at times even completely lost. In large part it was this corruption of the worship of Yahweh that precipitated the Babylonian captivity. What lesson can twenty-first century Christians learn from this period of biblical history? Are there any similarities, at any level, between the mind-set of the ancient Hebrews of this period and the world-view of modern Western society that can help us to understand the spiritual blindness that overwhelmingly dominates modern Western Churches? This essay seeks to provide answers to these questions and thereby provide some guidance for the way out of the present spiritual and moral failure that is leading to the ruin of contemporary Western society.

Author: Stephen Perks

Paperback | 37 pages | £3.50 plus postage | ISBN: 978-0-9522058-6-9

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