Christian Thought and Classical Philosophy

1
Christian Thought and Classical Philosophy

• Some Concluding Suggestions

2
Aspects of Christian Thought that We Have
Addressed

• Epistemology
• Hermeneutics
• Theology
• Apologetics

3
Epistemology

• How do we know what we know?
• by pure reason?
• by reasoning about experience?
• or by faith, recognizing the authority of Gods
  Word

4
Epistemology

• Then what is the role of reason?
• To help us (under Gods guidance) to explore that
  which we believe through faith in Gods Word
• faith seeking understanding
• The validity of honest questions
• The attitude of the questioner

5
Epistemology

• Then what is the role of experience?
• To corroborate what we know of Gods workings
  with his people
• To link our lives to the lives of Gods people
  previously
• To bring us into relationship with God

6
Hermeneutics

• How do we read our authoritative text?
• as dispassionate, objective observers reading an
  objective text?
• as we would read any other book?
• as a book about experiences?
• as a book about feelings?

7
Hermeneutics

• How do we read our authoritative text?
• or as committed believers, reading a text that
  was written to certain time periods, but that
  speaks to all cultures and historical periods
• With both careful historical-grammatical exegesis
  and (especially) conscious theological exegesis

8
Theology

• How does theological thought proceed?
• from the bottom-up?
• or from the top-down

9
Theology and Christian Life

• What does a top-down approach look like in
  preaching and teaching?
• If you want to communicate, you have to start
  where people are.
• If you want to minister, you cannot be content
  to leave them where they are.

10
Apologetics

• How do we interact with a world that is radically
  self-absorbed, bottom-up, and largely
  relativistic?
• There is truth.
• We cannot grasp it completely through either
  reason or experience.
• Christianity offers an interpretation from
  above, a way of making sense of life on the
  basis of faith/authority/Scripture.