R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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If you would, allow me to repeat a few comments here.
1. As far as the role of the institutional church is concerned, the principle of sphere sovereignty is virtually synonymous with the doctrine of the spirituality of the church. Nobody who believes or teaches that social charity is an ecclesiastical matter is Kuyperian or neocalvinist. It’s just that simple.
2. Ironically, the erroneous belief that the institutional church should run social programs partially resulted from the way neocalvinist thought was rejected at conservative reformed seminaries in the 1970’s in favor of a more “church (and theology) friendly” (but sociology/anthropology-driven) contextualist missiology. This was done in the name of centrality of the church by Ed Clowney and others.