Here is a link to my lengthier lecture on FAITH & REASON given in Canberra 2006?
Listen at the following: https://tinyurl.com/red4k6a
FAITH & REASON - The Relationship Between Theology & Philosophy
As you consider the sun, the moon, the stars, the
earth, the sea, what have you concluded? As you consider your own
existence, what assumptions have you made? Do you believe that ‘In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth’? Did God put you, and
everything else there is, there? Or, did it all come into being by some other
means? Is reality perhaps all just a projection of your own mind, or a
projection of someone else’s mind for that matter?
To ponder these kinds of subjects is to enter into
the sciences of Theology and Philosophy. Therefore every thinking rational
being is a theologian and a philosopher – at least after a fashion. The crucial
question we need to answer is this: Are Faith and Reason mutually exclusive?
Are Theology and Philosophy autonomous exercises? Or is there a unifying factor
– something that unites Theology, Philosophy, Faith, and Reason?
We shall seek to demonstrate that whilst it is
healthy to make distinctions between the disciplines of Theology and
Philosophy, in order to give an accurate knowledge and a logical sense of
reality, both are dependent upon revelation of and from the Triune God.
The Christian Theologian, Philosopher, and
Apologist Cornelius Van Til says:
Philosophy,
as usually defined, deals with a theory of reality, with a theory of knowledge,
and with a theory of ethics. That is to say philosophies usually undertake to
present a life and world view. They deal not only with that which man can
directly experience by means of his senses but also, and ofttimes especially,
with the presuppositions of experience. In short, they deal with that which
Christian theology speaks of as God. On the other hand Christian theology deals
not only with God; it deals also with the world.[44]
If we have understood Van Til correctly, Philosophy
seeks to present a philosophy of life, i.e., a ‘life and world view.’ And to do
this Philosophy needs to deal with at least three main issues: a) Reality or
the Metaphysical, (i.e., the ‘What is?’) b) Knowledge or the Epistemological,
(i.e., the ‘How do we know what is?’) and c) The Ethical, (i.e., How should we
then live in light of a and b?’)
Philosophy, then, as Van Til has alerted us, in a
nutshell deals with how we should live our lives according to what we know
about reality. Thus we acknowledge that there is a practical aspect to
Philosophy. Philosophy is not all thinking and knowing. It is also doing. Thus
men tend to behave according to their philosophies, i.e., according to their
life and worldview.
Again, thinking of what Van Til has already said,
that which man experiences through his senses necessarily includes what he
presupposes about these experiences. Thus Philosophy builds its life and
worldview upon knowledge gained from information received by and through the
senses. But the subtlety is that man has prior assumptions about the
information he is receiving. Says Ronald Kirk,
Godless education, or rather
indoctrination, is a shipwreck. Godless science rarely admits that its starting
place is not the objective, factual universe it claims. Humanistic science
systematically avoids discussion of its foundational philosophical presuppositions
regarding origins, necessarily religious at root. Instead, the godless merely
assert their materialistic faith as objective science. In fact, it is nothing
more than the sinful, rebellious counterpart to Christianity’s faith in God. If
the materialists forthrightly declared themselves, the rest of us would soon
realize that much of modern science is actually conclusion drawn from mere
humanistic preference.[i]
Christian Theology & Christian Philosophy
Theology, i.e., Christian theology, holds
that that which the Philosopher is directly experiencing through his senses is
revelation of God. Therefore, as far as Christian Theology is concerned, man
experiencing the five senses – seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting
– is man experiencing God. Thus, if there is a difference between Theology and
Philosophy it is that Christian Theology is the science that works to
produce Christian concepts, whilst Christian Philosophy is the science
that reflects upon these Christian foundations and applies them.
The point being made is that there is a sense in
which both sciences (Christian Theology and Christian Philosophy) are dealing
with the same thing. Both are working with revelation of God. Christian Theology
seeks to categorize and systematize that revelation. Christian Philosophy seeks
to ponder and apply it.
Thus we see that Christian Theology and Christian
Philosophy are two distinct but related disciplines. They are distinct in that
Theology produces and categorizes concepts, and Philosophy thinks these
concepts through, and builds a life and worldview upon them. Theology and
Philosophy are related because each is dealing with revelation of God. Yet,
importantly, neither one is subordinate to the other because both are equally
valid ways of dealing with revelation. Indeed, they compliment each other, and
of necessity, must borrow from each other. Whereas Theology deals with man’s
scientific knowledge of the Creator, Philosophy deals with man’s scientific knowledge
of creation.
Thus, though Theology and Philosophy have their own
distinct spheres, they interpenetrate and overlap each other. Van Til notes the
distinction and the relationship where he says:
Philosophy
and science deal more especially with man in his relation to the cosmos and
theology deals more especially with man in his relation to God. But this is
only a matter of degree.[45]
The
theologian is simply a specialist in the field of biblical interpretation taken
in the more restricted sense. The philosopher is directly subject to the Bible
and must in the last analysis rest upon his own interpretation of the Word. But
he may accept the help of those who are more constantly and more exclusively
engaged in biblical study than he himself can be.[46]
C. Stephen Evans also notes the intimate
relationship between the sciences of Theology and Philosophy thus:
Although
some would make a sharp distinction between philosophy and theology, there is
substantial overlap in the questions each treats. One way to distinguish
between the two is in terms of their audiences: A thinker who is speaking to a
religious community and can presuppose the authorities recognized by that
community is doing theology. The same thinker addressing a broader community
may be doing philosophy.[47]
Though we believe in a ‘practical theology’ we believe
John M Frame has gone a tad too far in the following statement:
The best
way to define theology, in my view, is as the application of the whole Bible
to the whole of human life. Theology is not an attempt to articulate our
feelings about God (Schleiermacher), but neither is it merely an attempt to
state the objective truth, or to put the truth in ‘proper order’ (Hodge), for
Scripture already does those things perfectly well. Theology is, rather,
teaching the Bible for the purpose of meeting human needs. It answers human
questions, tries to relieve doubts, applies texts to life-situations.[48]
In this view the hippopotamus of Theology has
swallowed the camel of Philosophy. For we hold that the application of the
whole Bible to the whole of human life belongs to the sphere of Philosophy and
not Theology, for Philosophy, as our definition has already noted, deals with
life and worldviews. Therefore, Christian Philosophy is the thought-through
application of Christian Theology. However, we wholeheartedly agree with Dr
Frame that the whole Bible needs to be applied to the whole of human life.
As already alluded to, there is also an added and
real danger that if we adopt the view of Theology as stated by Dr Frame we will
have subordinated and subsumed Philosophy to Theology. Thus Philosophy simply
becomes Jonah reflecting in the belly of the great fish of Theology. The flaw
in this view is that it implies that we are to build our life and worldview
solely upon God’s written revelation.
Though at first blush this sounds noble and pious,
the subtlety is that it would seem to ignore and discard the revelation God supplies
to all men through the things He has made. Man experiences this revelation of
God through his senses. This is what Calvin calls man’s ‘sense of deity.’ To be
sure, God’s Word is the spectacles through which man needs to look in order to
clearly see God in nature (to use another of Calvin’s terms). Yet men do know
and do learn about God through the things God has made (Psalm 19; Romans
1:20&21).
The Bible, for example, mentions the rainbow, but
does not explain what colours to mix to make green. The Bible mentions bronze,
but not what metals to mix to make bronze. To talk of mixing colours to paint
and mixing metals to sculpt is to talk about art and metallurgy. Aesthetics and
engineering are just two areas cultural man needs to continue to explore. And
as he explores these and other areas, he will be confronted with revelation of
God at every turn.
Thus empirical knowledge is still revelation of God
needing to be philosophically pondered. Theology does the cataloguing, putting
it, as (Frame above says that) Hodge says, in its ‘proper order,’ and
Philosophy does the pondering and applying. They must work together. The reason
being is that if you separate them or subordinate or subsume one to the other,
Christian man runs the risk of granting non-Christian man autonomy from God.
For fallen men readily uncouple the railway carriage of Philosophy from the
railway carriage of Theology and sideline and the latter – intending Theology
for the scrapheap.
We see this in our own age in the way that Faith
has been separated from and even divorced by Reason.
[i]
Ronald W. Kirk, Thy Will Be Done: When
All Nations Call God Blessed, Nordskog Publishing Inc, Ventura, California,
2013.
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