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There’s No Need to Be Afraid of Philosophy: A PSA for Christians
This original version of this post was aired in 2011 at the blog ThinkingThroughChristianity.com, which sadly is no more.
I occasionally hear things like, “How do you manage to be both a Christian and a philosopher; aren’t they incompatible?” A year or two ago my sister-in-law mentioned me to a Christian acquaintance—someone from her church, I believe. As I remember hearing the story, the person replied: “And he’s actually a believer?”
The worry that Christian faith and philosophy are mutually exclusive is nothing new. In a book on Augustine, Carol Harrison explains the different attitudes of the Church Fathers toward philosophy (page 16). Some, such as Minucius Felix, embraced philosophy; but there were also those like Tertullian, famous for asking “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Many, including Augustine and Ambrose, took a balanced view, treating philosophy as a thing different from Christian piety but not fundamentally opposed to Christianity: something useful to the Church if studied properly.
The reason for this post is to provide TTC Ricochet readers with a few loosely connected remarks suggesting that there is no need for Christians to be afraid of philosophy, and that there is even reason for Christians to study it.
We have to define philosophy first. I have nothing against the dictionary definition of philosophy, but my favorite definition of philosophy is the oldest: Philosophy is the love of wisdom. As Socrates explains in Plato’s Apology and Symposium, this means the seeking of wisdom.
In other words, the story of philosophy is the story of the human quest for wisdom. So naturally it has everything you would find in the story of beings who were created in the image of G-d, fell into sin and rebellion against G-d, and then tried to rediscover the wisdom they had rejected. The story of philosophy involves sin and rebellion against G-d. It also involves the tragic hubris of noble pagans, who reached for divine wisdom using the power of their own intellects, finding great and useful insights but failing to achieve wisdom in the end.
I know “Lactantius” sounds like a breed of dairy cow. But he’s actually a Church Father. He wrote this.
But the story of philosophy also involves not a few philosophers who were, and are, believers in Jesus Christ. Some of my favorite characters in the history of philosophy are those like Anselm, who believe in Christian orthodoxy and, believing, make an effort to understand what they believe. Faith in Christ and the continuing search for wisdom are harmonious for these philosophers. So there need be no conflict between the practice of philosophy and the Christian faith.
In the past, there were other Christians besides Felix, Ambrose, Augustine, and Anselm who practiced, or at least studied, philosophy. To name a few: Lactantius, Boethius, Aquinas, John Calvin, Oswald Chambers, and C. S. Lewis. Nor are Christians and philosophy strangers in our own day. I have seen, in the early 2010s, a lecture hall packed for a lecture by atheist philosopher Daniel Dennet; I have also seen a much bigger room packed to hear Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga deliver the keynote address at an annual meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.
It is also significant that those of us who are Christians like to think we have some answers for the world; well, we might as well know what the questions are! There is no better place to explore those questions than the study of philosophy. For example, Socrates wonders about the health of the soul: What is a healthy soul like? How can I have a healthy soul? Is there an expert somewhere who can tell me how to have a healthy soul—is there a doctor for the soul? Christians know the answer is Jesus Christ. Why should we be afraid of the questions?
Published in Religion and Philosophy
Didn’t Kierkegaard manage to be both a Christian and a philosopher?
Yes.
As someone who was a philosophy major St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas to name just two philosophers that were also theologians are well worth your time whether you are a Catholic Christian or a Protestant Christian.
During my time at a Catholic university, we studied the ancient Greek, Roman, Dewey, German, English, and the Marxists. One of my theology professors was a Lutheran bishop, another was a Rabbi in addition to my professors that were Catholic priests.
The ideas of today have their roots in philosophy so if you think they are new you are mistaken. Exposure to the so-called new ideas can and should be examined with where they come from if you wish to defeat them.
A fine Baptist Christian co-worker of years past, a WWII veteran I held in high regard, used to say something along the lines of “If it’s true, it isn’t new. If it’s new, it isn’t true. “
Sorry. Obligatory Lutheran bishop joke.
I smiled at the painting that the EPS chose to head up their blog page. It is one of my favorites. It shows (the beardless and thus heretofore unrecognizable) Jesus revealing Himself at the inn at Emmaus in the blessing and breaking of the bread.
In undergrad, Dr. Bell’s line was as follows:
Philosophy is key to understanding and expanding the application of theology. Many areas of practice did not exist in biblical times. For example, the concept of science was unknown. So many elements of philosophy are involved with science, and many of them interact with theology. We are capable of doing things scarcely imaginable thousands of years ago. For example, what level of genetic modification of humans is acceptable? What defines someone as a person – could a brain in a vat still be human?
In my experience, many people who argue that theology and philosophy are incompatible are looking for an argument to deny theology as valid knowledge. They act like the only reliable knowledge is something we’ve directly experienced, which is just wrong. As the author of an excellent book I’m reading points out, if that’s your view, to accept science you would have to personally conduct every experiment that has gotten science to this point.
Sure wish I had had that argument when I was in college; I would have gotten much better grades.
One of the great philosophers of our age, St. Pope John Paul II, loved to use the phrase “Be not afraid”.
Fides et Ratio.
The capacity to pursue wisdom is such a gift.
How does philosophy differ from theology?
I think that for a Christian believer, wisdom comes from God. There is no other source of wisdom. Looking elsewhere is foolishness, I think, at least according to Christian teaching.
If this is correct, and if we use your definition of philosophy as the “love of wisdom,” then true philosophy is Christian theology. Anything else is false teaching.
I think that Paul is quite clear about this in 1 Corinthians 3:
If this is correct, then we must be cautious about philosophical teachings that depart from accurate theology. They are false teachings. To address the question at the end of the post:
We should be concerned because false teaching is a bad thing, which leads people astray.
One can argue that we shouldn’t be too concerned about this. One of the relevant quotes about false teaching is Matthew 24:24, where Jesus says: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
I don’t think that it’s possible to deceive the elect, by definition. The elect are those who are saved by the choice, and grace, of God. I believe that the teaching of election (or predestination) is true, and many professed Christian believers disagree with this. If the doctrine of election is not true, then we must be very careful about false teaching.
I do think that there’s utility to something that could be called “philosophy,” but with a different definition. The rules of logic and reason are part of “philosophy,” I think, and I think that these are accurate. These ideas are more akin to mathematics than to theology.
A year or two ago my sister-in-law mentioned me to a Christian acquaintance—someone from her church, I believe. As I remember hearing the story, the person replied: “And he’s actually a believer?”
Clearly that person wasn’t a Catholic. I think this fear of philosophy is largely a Protestant thing.
I don’t see how any of these issues relates to “philosophy” at all, as distinguished from theology.
Your comment raises moral questions. If one is a Christian, then moral questions are answered by theology.
Did I miss a memo? I thought this was resolved 800 years ago.
My fourth grade teacher, a wonderful tough-talking nun, told us that if we did not continue to develop both our secular and theological understanding that we would either look down on faith or be stupid and incomplete.
Sister Theresa made it pretty clear that a Christian has a obligation to grow intellectually, confident in the unity of truth.
Don’t forget St Augustine’s (the original) famous analogy-Christians can take pagan knowledge & philosophy like the Jews took Egyptian gold to aid them as as they journeyed to the promised land- b/c all truth & knowledge comes from the Lord.
More like 17 hundred.
I still don’t have the definitions down. But I’m pretty sure Kant is doing philosophy, Luther is doing theology, and Thomas Aquinas is doing both.
Etymologically, yes, Christian theology is philosophy, or else it’s better than that–it’s the fulfillment of the quest, the having of wisdom and not just the seeking of it.
And anything against is false teaching. But something else may be ok. Look at Solomon, studying many things. “To conceal a matter is the glory of G-d. To find it out is the glory of kings.”
(I hope I quoted that right!)
Is there something wrong with Socrates’ question? Jesus is the answer, isn’t he?
Oooo. Are we gonna talk about Calvinism here? I am so OK with that. Or should we do another post some other time directly focused on Calvinism?
Jolly good. And that’s a good example of something else that’s not biblical theology and not opposed to it.
More like some other people missed it!
(And Painter Jean is probably more or less correct in categorizing those people as Protestants!)
Well, some of those people. Most of the North American Christians ones.
I daresay there are some atheists out there who think Christians have a need to be afraid of philosophy. Probably, they have some of the worst cases of bad philosophy themselves.
It is often said that knowing a little philosophy is dangerous for your faith- but that knowing a lot of it is good for your faith.
You are giving your boy Augustine credit. He pegged the issue correctly but it was not until the rediscovery of the Greeks, the response of scholasticism that the launch of a continuous Western tradition began.
You’re probably right about something here, and wrong about something else.
Part of the reason for the “rediscovery” of the Greeks is because Augustine made favorable mention of them and his works were still extant.
We don’t need to fear philosophy, but I’m not going unarmed among philosophers. Just one might be OK, but beware when they travel in packs.
We’re safer in packs; that’s when we fight each other.