R. J. Rushdoony
| Rousas John Rushdoony | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | April 25, 1916 New York City |
| Died | February 8, 2001 (aged 84) Vallecito, California |
| Occupation | Minister, missionary, author, founder of the Chalcedon Foundation, Rutherford Institute board member |
| Notable work | The Institutes of Biblical Law, Chalcedon Report, Journal of Christian Reconstruction |
| Spouse(s) | Arda Gent Rushdoony (m. 1943, div. 1959, d. 1977) Dorothy Barbara Ross Kirkwood Rushdoony (m. 1962, d. 2003) |
| Children | Rebecca (mother, Arda) Joanna (mother, Arda) Sharon (mother, Arda) Martha (mother, Arda) Ronald (adopted) Mark (mother, Arda) |
| Theological work | |
| Language | English |
| Tradition or movement | Christian Philosophy |
| Main interests | Calvinism, Cognitive Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Education, Philosophy of Politics, Psychology of Religion, Predestination, Presuppositionalism |
| Notable ideas | Christian Reconstructionism, Christian homeschool |
Rousas John Rushdoony (April 25, 1916 – February 8, 2001) was a Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian and is widely credited as being the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement. His followers and critics have argued that his thought exerts considerable influence on the evangelical Christian right.
Rushdoony was born in New York City, the son of recently arrived Armenian immigrants. Before his parents fled the Armenian Genocide of 1915, his ancestors had lived in a remote area near Mount Ararat. There are claims that since the year 320, every generation of the Rushdoony family has produced a Christian priest or minister. Rushdoony himself claimed that his ancestors "…would perpetually give a member of their family to be a priest to perform a kind of Aaronic priesthood as in the Old Testament, an hereditary priesthood. Whoever in the family felt called would become the priest. And our family did so. So from the early 300's until now there has always been someone in the ministry in the family." Within weeks of arriving in America, his parents moved to Kingsburg, California, where his father, Yegheazar Khachig Rushdoony, founded an Armenian-speaking Presbyterian church. His father was pastor of a church in Detroit in 1930, though Rushdoony grew up on the family farm in Kingsburg, Fresno County, California. WWII draft registration records and the city directory document, however, state that his father was pastor of Bethel Armenian Presbyterian Church in San Francisco in 1942, though his death occurred in Fresno in 1961.
Rushdoony attended public schools where he learned English. He continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in English in 1938, a teaching credential in 1939 and an M.A. in Education in 1940. Rousas and Arda Gent married in San Francisco the week before Christmas in 1943.
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