Toward a Creative Transition

First Quarter 1998

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With this issue of the Public Justice Report we begin a year-long transition to something new. The transition period includes the change to a quarterly publication. It means a periodical larger than before, with some longer articles and opportunities for creative experiment.

What will be the outcome of this transition? The answer to this question lies ahead of us. The Center for Public justice, which publishes the Report, is now engaged in creative, long-range planning. We are evaluating our programs and plans for the future in the light of a number of new opportunities. We are reexamining our publications and asking where each fits in to our overall purpose. As regards this publication, we look forward to presenting something new at the start of 1999. In the meantime, we warmly invite your suggestions and criticisms throughout the year.

This first quarterly issue intentionally does not have a theme. Nevertheless, there is an important thread that runs through it. The lead essay that begins on page three represents a summing up of what the Center for Public justice is and what it stands for as it begins its 21st year. Part of what defines the Center is its indebtedness to the Kuyperian tradition of political thought and practice. It was for Abraham Kuyper that we named our special annual lecture, which was inaugurated in 1995.

We also include in this issue some excerpts from the 1997 Kuyper Lecture by Senator Dan Coats. And following that are excerpts from our second Kuyper Lecture book—Caring for Creation, by Calvin DeWitt and three respondents—which will come off the press in March. Inside you will also find a final announcement of the international conference at Princeton Theological Seminary February 25-28, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Kuyper's 1898 Stone Lectures at Princeton.

Is this too much Kuyper for one issue of the Public Justice Report? You be the judge. There is, of course, much more to the Center for Public Justice than the Kuyper legacy. We are a creative community of Christian citizens working for justice in the United States at the end of the 20th century. The variety of sources on which we draw will be evident in this and future issues of the Report. Our mission is not to regurgitate the past or simply to maintain a legacy Our calling is to draw Christians together into a more persistent and coherent fulfillment of civic responsibility for the good of all our neighbors.

One of the things Kuyper said was that the fellowship of Christians is not something that "closes the door and shuts windows; but, throwing doors and windows wide open, it walks through the four corners of the earth, searches the ages of the past, and looks forward to the ages to come." As all of us prepare to enter the 21st Century, not knowing what the future holds but knowing who holds the future, the Center for Public justice and its Public Justice Report want to be at the service of a maturing Christian contribution to public justice both here and abroad. We want to be part of that body of believers which is throwing doors and windows wide open in order to expose the dead ends of contemporary politics to the full light of God's judgment and grace. We hope you will enjoy this issue of the Report and will take part in helping us make it an even better tool of public service in the future.

—The Editor