Philosophy & the Christian Faith
After finishing Philosophy & The Christian Faith, by Colin Brown, I was surprised to see that the book is almost forty years old. Covering the history of the relationship between Christianity and philosophy from the Middle Ages to the mid-60's, this book touched on many issues we, today, struggle with. The tension between faith and philosophy has never been so well-focused for me before.
Starting with Medieval philosophy, Brown illuminates a tale of the endless quest for a philosophic harmony with sacred scripture. From Anslem's ontological argument (God was that which no greater can be thought), and Aquinas' cosmological and teleological arguments (God is the cause of the cosmos and the ultimate designer) we move through to Martin Luther, Pascal, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, until we reach Tillich, Buber and Schaeffer. Brown covers the 20th Century (until the time of the writing of the book) in fine detail.
For those of us who have a fair understanding of the history of philosophy, the final chapter (Postscript: The Christian and Philosophy) is the most illuminating and useful. While the Bible does not attempt to explain everything, nor does it tell us everything there is to know about God, it does raise innumerable philosophical questions. What does a Christian do with over a thousand years of thinking? How does that effect (or not effect) our lives today? For each of us, we have certain philosophical assumptions in our Christianity. We may even tenaciously defend our faith on philosophical grounds, despite the obvious observation that philosophical systems always turn out to be incomplete. The danger comes when we too closely ally our Christianity to these philosophies.
Sometimes when a philosophy is too closely wedded to Christianity, and that philosophy goes out of fashion or become inadequate, it is easy to fall into the mistake of believing that Christianity itself has been disposed of (p. 36).
In the end, this is what makes philosophy so interesting. Philosophy claims to posses the tools for explaining everything in a rational manner, to prove or disprove anything. But our faith, it seems to me, is beyond our ability to understand philosophically. Philosophy can only serve as an underpinning, not a substitution for our faith in God.
For someone who is interested in knowing where our current philosophic arugments for Christianity come from, this book would be an amazing read. It makes no pretense at going into any depth on any one subject, movement or philosopher, but instead it gives the reader a quick glance at the philosophic currents and cycles through the ages. It can be a bit dry (what philosophy book isn't?!?), but you might be surprised at how much you find familiar without even knowing its source.
Labels: books, faith, philosophy
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