Por qué el cristiano NO debe rechazar la filosofía (parte II)

By Xavier Gonzalez

In Part I the author addresses the common objections presented by some Christians who consider philosophy to be anti-biblical.

Consequences of denying philosophy

In an article by FreeThinkingMinistries (FTM), he mentions about 5 problems of theology “ without philosophy” [1] , I will summarize the 5 points he mentions and focus on 3 given their importance. According to the article, the problems would be:

1) The belief that one can engage in theological practices having divorced oneself from all one’s philosophical presuppositions is itself a philosophical presupposition. That is, self-defeating/self-refuting.

2) Saying that we should do theology without philosophy really only means that we should interpret the scriptures without reasoning about them or without having reasoned about how we are going to apply the interpretation assigned to them . In other words, it leads to irrationalism and would lead us to extreme relativism.

3) With that in mind, given the exclusion of philosophy that the “Without-Philosophy” view assumes, it simply remains without any other resources available to the theologian, inferential or otherwise, that can be used to assess the truth value of a theological claim since any resources given to the theologian will be, at root, philosophical. That is, even though we may know various doctrinal concepts, it gives us no guarantee of their truth or falsity or for that matter their philosophical implications.

4) In short, it is through reflection on the prior philosophical commitments that underpin a doctrine that it helps to weigh its plausibility. That is, it helps us to reject false and misleading ideas (yes, as Paul would warn us).

5) If Christians exemplify more seriousness in their beliefs in terms of being able to recognize their own presuppositions, the cultural perception of them will change. That is, we will not be mocked by society and Christianity will be seen as blind belief.

The 3 points I want to emphasize in the 5 that FTM mentions, is that if we are constant in a theology without philosophy, we would be in the middle of a dangerous and catastrophic web. Imagine the following, you are listening to the radio and the station gives a program on Christian doctrines, the announcer begins to talk about the attribute of divine eternity, he exposes several verses about God being eternal, and someone calls the announcer of the program, and the user begins to ask difficult questions, about how God would relate to time? How is God not affected by time? If God is timeless, does he know that it is 4:00 am in Dubai? What is an eternal Being?… And you are attentively listening to the user’s questions and then listening to the announcer’s answers, and the announcer says: “I’m sorry friend, I only abide by what is said in the word and not by philosophical speculations,” you are shocked by such questions and even more so without having answers from the announcer, then you begin to meditate on the user’s questions and without finding an answer, you ask yourself, What do I believe?

Well, this is the problem, that if you are ignorant of philosophical problems and reject philosophy, you will be deceived, you will not have tools to help you evaluate the proposals and ultimately you will have bad theology. And to give a very common example, this has happened a lot by those who support scientism.

The philosophical necessity in Christianity

As we have seen, the consequences of a Christianity without philosophy are harmful, although we should not stop there, and the other side of the coin points out to us many contributions that philosophy has made to Christianity and the philosopher Paul M. Gould & James K. Dew Jr. give us 3 reasons, which are:

1) Philosophy is strategic for evangelism. As Christians we are called to be faithful witnesses for Christ. We want every person on the face of the earth to ask and answer the question, “What do you think about Jesus Christ?” Unfortunately, in our day and age it can be difficult to get people to seriously consider this question. Philosophy helps us understand the collective mindset, its value systems, and the emotional response patterns of the culture. Christian philosophy can help expose the false ideas that keep people from considering Christianity as a genuine option. God has given us minds, and He wants us to use them to help others see the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus and the gospel. He wants us to use philosophy (and more so theology) to show that Christianity is faithful to the way the world is and the way the world should be.

2) Second, philosophy prepares us for ministry. I (Paul) can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had students—usually as a prospective pastor or even a doctoral student of theology or some aspect of Christian ministry—ask me why they should take logic. How would logic help them become better preachers or church leaders or Bible students? At first, when I was asked this question, I was dumbfounded. It seemed obvious to me that God wants us to be good thinkers, and logic is one of the tools that will help in that area. Now, when I’m asked to justify the need to take logic, I simply invite them to “come and see.” Fortunately, I’ve found that these same students become the most ardent advocates of the use and benefit of logic for preaching, ministry, and Bible study.

3) Philosophy plays a key role in our spiritual formation toward Christ. Christians are commanded to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2 ESV) and to love God with all our minds (Matt. 22:37-39). Part of this process is seeing Jesus for who He is: the source of all wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). Jesus is beautiful, and we rightly worship Him as such. But Jesus is also brilliant—the smartest person in history. As Dallas Willard presses, “Can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if He weren’t smart?” The obvious answer is no! As followers of Jesus, we too must cultivate moral and intellectual virtue. God has given each of us a mind. He wants us to use it for His glory. He wants us to live life rightly related to reality and to God, to each other, to ourselves, and to our purpose. Philosophy can help in all of these areas. [2]

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that the scriptures do not say that we should emphatically reject philosophy, and as we saw in the section on the problem of a theology without philosophy and its necessity, on the one hand the Christian must embrace philosophy, but be attentive to bad philosophy, as CS Lewis would say: Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. And the Christian philosopher Peter S. Williams invites us to philosophy with the following words:

Philosophy is an artistic discipline, and for the Christian it should be a spiritual discipline. After all, Jesus supported the idea that true spirituality requires one to love the Lord one’s God with all one’s heart, with all one’s mind, and with all one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. [3]

References:

[1] https://freethinkingministries.com/cuales-son-algunos-de-los-problemas-con-la-teologia-sin-filosofia/

[2] Philosophy: A Christian introduction pages 18-21

[3] A Faithful Guide to Philosophy page 18

Recommended resources in Spanish:

Stealing from God ( Paperback ), ( Teacher Study Guide ), and ( Student Study Guide ) by Dr. Frank Turek

Why I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist ( Complete DVD Series ), ( Teacher’s Workbook ), and ( Student’s Handbook ) by Dr. Frank Turek

Xavier Gonzalez is from Venezuela and is dedicated to the study of philosophy, early Christianity and theology. He converted to Christianity at the age of 15. He managed the Me Lo Contó Un Ateo website and is in charge of the apologetics section of the Iglesia Cristiana la gracia website ( http://www.iglesialagracia.org ).