As a philosophy student, I often have conversations with friends regarding the place of philosophy in the Church. This week the topic has been on my mind once again after one of my philosophy professors commented in class about the lack of theologians doing philosophy on the academic level today. I was able to bring up the counter example of John Milbank right away, and after some thought Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolferstroff. There are a few others but not many.
Christian today don’t care about philosophy. I hate to say it but it’s true. Have you heard of these three people I mentioned? Have you read anything by them? I’m studying philosophy and although I know a bit about two of them (I know nothing about one of them besides the name), have read a book about Milbank’s Radical Orthodox movement, and listened to an interview with him, I myself don’t know much at all about the current “Christian philosophical scene.”
Reactionary Theology
The only place for philosophy among most evangelicals is when it is proved wrong by Christian apologists. We have more then enough of these in the church; those people who are not willing to give a sympathetic reading to any philosopher, but instead read what other Christians have written about them, and then go on the offensive against them. There have been some good Christian apologists who understand the philosophical systems out there and can interact with them, but walk into a Christian bookstore and the books your likely to see are usually surface treatments of philosophy that take a few potshots at a particular philosopher and then assumes nothing by them (or their followers) could ever be said back in response.
I’m not sure if this is a result of the lack of interest of philosophy in the church, or if the lack of interest in philosophy in the church has caused it’s superficial treatment among Christian academia. One thing for sure however is that if you mention philosophy in many churches you get weird stares.
I don’t bother trying to discuss philosophy with people in my church anymore, it seemed like a loosing battle. When I tell them that one of my majors is philosophy I often hear; “Why would you ever take that?” which in and of itself is not an usual comment as most people in and outside the church don’t understand the allure of a degree that will not directly lead to employment, but when it’s said in the church there is the hint of disgust with the whole discipline.
A similar disgust exists with theology. Although in this case it is less pronounced it is still noticeably there. It manifests itself in comments such as; “Well I don’t care what who and who said, I just know what my bible says.” or “You can believe whatever you want, but I’ll follow the bible on this…” The idea that a well thought out, logical, position on a biblical doctrine doesn’t matter. Somehow if one reads theologians and thinks through biblical doctrines they will cease to take the scriptures seriously and be lead astray by men. Christians should attempt to understand scripture in a vacuum.
I don’t want to get into all the things that is wrong with this view (as if someone can interpret anything in a vacuum) but to point out that this fear of both philosophy and theology is founded on the fact that the church has come to believe that it will lead away from the truth of scripture and to the lies of man. There is a general sense the all “academic” disciplines (theology, philosophy, history, science…etc.) will lead a person away from the truth.
An Anti-Intellectual Environment
This view has lead to the shattering of the church along the academic line. Many who are within these disciplines feel (and likely are) removed from the rest of their church. I’m speaking of philosophy and theology here since they are my areas of interest, but those in the universities who are studying sciences face a similar fate. The Christian who studies biology is continually questioned as to their “orthodoxy” on creation/evolution and is always eyed with suspicion that their science may replace their bible. There is of course reason for the church to be cautious about academia, but it’s gone past caution into full bore paranoia in many cases. Christians should be leaders in all these fields, but instead the church more often then not shows through its attitude that it wants a separation from them.
Because of my studies I have spent a lot of time questioning the Christian faith. Since I began to study theology on my own my theology has been shifting away from the typical baptist theology I began in and toward a more Reformed/Anglican/Emerging Church understanding (when I understand exactly what that means I’ll write about it), and my philosophy classes at University have often caused me to question common Christian answers to really complex problems.
As I’m struggling with philosophical and theological questions I should go to my church and ask for advice, but rarely do I do that anymore. When I do the questions are often dismissed, brushed over, or at worst cause a heated exchange as they don’t understand how I could even be questioning such a thing. This does not hold true for everyone in my church, there are some I can discuss theology with, but I keep the circle of people that I do discuss with small and often shy away from discussing the underlying questions that I struggle with. Sometimes this is to protect myself (if my theology is moving away from what my church teaches) and sometimes this is to protect others (I don’t think they have ever considered this before and have no idea what this kind of question will do to their faith). This all however leads to a real rupture in community. The church is the place where theology should be done, where philosophy should be discussed, and where questions from all disciplines should be looked at. The anti-intellectual environment in many evangelical churches has stopped this.
The Intellectual Divide
I’m not sure how this rupture within the church can be fixed. It’s a question I have spent a lot of time thinking on over the past few years because it’s a personal and practical question. If I feel out of place in the local church, that the questions I am asking are not ones that the local church wants to hear or wants to try to find answers for, will I ever be at home in that church? If the local church wants a “no creed but Christ” attitude, and is willing to look with suspicion on those who embrace academic disciplines that may lead to looking at the world in different ways, can there ever be true community?
There is an intellectual divide in evangelical churches. I know I am not alone in feeling it, others I attend University with feel it as well. After years of thinking on the topic I’m still not sure how to go about trying to fix it. At least the Emerging Church is willing to ask questions and seek answers, even if some in the movement get the wrong ones. If there is one thing evangelicals can learn from the Emerging Church, it’s the importance of asking questions and being able to have open discussions on nearly every subject without passing judgment while the conversation is still ongoing.
Bryan,
No other post on this site has so spoken to my heart as this one. I have been really struggling with this issue to varying degrees over the past four or five years. I’m going through/have gone through all of the things you are describing.
I perceive such venom in the churches I have attended/visited for philosophy. I’m not talking Nietzsche or Hobbes, but merely seeking an abstract consistency and cohesive arrangement in faith. Even the word “philosophy” causes this reactionary divide, like the slamming of an iron door on what may have been an enlightening conversation.
I have had gobs of questions, and I think a lot of people at my church are equipped to work on them with me, but refuse to engage them. However, God has not let me down on this and has heard my questions and answered them every time. I ask Him with patience and with faith that he is God (and therefore all knowing) and he reveals the answer in time.
I guess my encouragement to you is to keep asking the questions, but just ask them of God, and people who can actually deal with the issues (but who have not abandoned God as an answerer of the questions - that is key). I find that my relationship with God has been made very intimate by this. I realize that God is not angered or upset at my questions, even though some of his followers may be. He is willing to answer them.
People go astray when they are let down by their church brethren, but also leave God out as well - and seek the answer somewhere else. So my advice to you, and to anyone who deals with this kind of thing, is to use it as an opportunity to draw closer to God.
God has really shown me how to love people in the midst of this, and given me such a peace about it that it really doesn’t bother me. Also, I have the people on this site, which has really filled in the gap of community where my local body has failed in this.
Obviously, it goes without saying that through this, make sure you study the world daily, if even for a few minutes - and try to keep prayer in the forefront of your mind.
I’ve had similar issues with churches concerning questioning things as well. Many churches do not handle people who are questioning or doubting well at all. Which is really unfortunate since they will then have to look more outside the church.
To be fair, the church struggles with the right balance between allowing honest questioning and fighting heresy. After all, the Bible clearly states that there is no room for false teaching in the church. Where honest questioning becomes false teaching, that is the difficult-to-discern part. I would guess that many traditional evangelical churches need to be more open to honest questioning, while many emerging churches need to be more closed to false teaching.
I’ve got a reading suggestion: Nancey Murphy’s “Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning” (Cornell UP). She got her philosophy PhD at Berkeley under Feyerabend, then got a PhD in theology at Graduate Theological Union and now teaches philosophy at Fuller. The book applies Lakatosian philosophy of science to theology. If you like philosophy of science and theology, it is really worth a look.
Great article, Bryan!
Interesting post, Bryan, and I’m sorry you are not having much success talking with your local church about what is going on in your head. I had a similar experience when I was in college, like others here have also had. Local church leaders are often very threatened by intelligent and intense questions from their congregations.
I’ve been blessed to work in a Christian organization that does not shy away from higher education at all, and I bet you’d have some great conversations with some of my colleagues. These same colleagues often experience reactions similar to those you describe in their own home churches. In some ways trick is using your education and inquisitive mind as a way to learn more about God while not developing an “I’m smarter, more enlightened, tolerant, etc. than all you people there with little minds” attitude.
Colin, it sounds like you’ve thought this issue through very carefully.
I’ve been blessed to work in a Christian organization that does not shy away from higher education at all
That was the most impressive thing to me about them. If I ever did missionary work, theirs would be the first one I would go to just because of this.
Colin, it sounds like you’ve thought this issue through very carefully.
I’ve just had to really wrestle with God on it and he’s supplied answers, not so much my own reasoning. My only premise has been that God says he’s all knowing and that I have access to him through his word and prayer. So I try and take him up on that - and he really has honored it.
This has been one of the greatest things that I have encountered in my relationship with God and has most spoke to me of his personal nature. He knows what I need. He knows my questions and the answer and how to communicate with me.
I think I might get quicker answers, or maybe more seemingly rational answers through men, but they don’t seem to bear out, and they seem to change. Whereas God’s answers have been immutable and reliable, and have spoken to the heart of my questioning.
Yeah, good read Bryan.
I am not personally opposed to philosophy, science, or theology per se, but let me try to address this from a New Testament perspective.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:8,9).
If we believe this verse is just as applicable to Christians today as it was in the first century, there is a very real truth here. If I can paraphrase, Paul is saying, “Don’t be deceived by philosophy resulting from human traditions and the basic principles of this age. Don’t allow these things to lead you astray from Christ.” So philosophy, science, and theology are not bad in and of themselves. But if they lead you away from your faith, that is a problem. Remember that Jesus told the Pharisees that they had nullified the word of God by their traditions. I think the same thing can be true of certain philosophies, sciences, and theologies.
Also, scripture makes it clear that spiritual warfare is partly waged in the thought realm. In order for a person to mature spiritually, he must be “transformed” by the renewing of his mind (Romans 12:2). I think this scripture is also pertinent:
“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4,5).
There are certain ways of thinking that must be rejected altogether because they are “imaginations” that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God. One such imagination is that humans evolved from lower levels of beings and gradually developed into more intelligent beings over the ages. The Bible doesn’t teach that. In fact, if we are to believe the Bible, the opposite is true. Humankind fell from their enlightened state to a darkened state of consciousness.
Another thing which hasn’t been completely grasped is that man is not just a mind and a body, but he is a spirit. And the totality of his make-up is spirit, soul (psyche), and body. I don’t consider myself anti-intellectual. If I were, I doubt I would engage in these kinds of discussions on ZFT. However, I read something a missionary wrote years ago that I agree with 100%. He said (and I’m paraphrasing) “Men have crowned the intellect rather than the inner man.” The inner man, the spirit, is the true Christian nature - the “hidden man of the heart”. So while I value the intellect to a certain extent, it takes a distant second to the real me, the new creation.
There is an excellent, and very brief, piece by Greg Bahnsen called Beware of Philosophy where he discusses those verses from Colossians.
“There is an excellent, and very brief, piece by Greg Bahnsen called Beware of Philosophy where he discusses those verses from Colossians.”
I read the article, and I have to say that I pretty much agree with everything it said. In fact, I was going to mention the fact that philosophy is really in everything. I think there is a philosophical component to language, civics, etc., as well as cultural philosophy. So to reiterate something from my former post, philosophy in and of itself cannot be bad.
In fact, I would venture to say that Paul’s approach to ministering the Gospel took into account the philosophical attitudes of the various people groups he encountered in order to communicate Jesus to them.
20And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you (I Corinthians 9:20-23).
In the first chapter of the same book he makes mention of how the Greeks and the Jews differed in thought (I Corinthians 1:22).
I think what makes me cringe are the horror stories of those who lose their faith at the expense of “education.” This doesn’t only happen in secular universities, but seminaries also. I remember being a freshman in high school, and having to learn about Darwin’s theory of evolution. These days, it wouldn’t bother me a bit. But when I was young and weak in faith, it was really a struggle. I think there is a tendency for educated people to dismiss any kind of religious idea as elementary and sophomoric. The implication often is that if you are educated, you don’t believe in God.
These days, it wouldn’t bother me a bit. But when I was young and weak in faith, it was really a struggle. I think there is a tendency for educated people to dismiss any kind of religious idea as elementary and sophomoric. The implication often is that if you are educated, you don’t believe in God.
I agree with you Chris but is the result simply “being educated” or was there a seed of doubt in the believer before he or she went to get educated? See, I think that many parents (and churches both), can preserve a sense of ignorance in people - where some things are “just bad” and “just good” without any explanation or willingness to discuss why. This creates doubt itself - which is basically unanswered questions. The reality is that the parents know why, they just fear their kids getting the knowledge and running with it. So when a person leaves this highly sheltered environment and is allowed to explore outside of church and Christianity, they are going to go hog wild.
I would argue that people getting educated and leaving God is the spiritual blowback from these measures.
“I agree with you Chris but is the result simply “being educated” or was there a seed of doubt in the believer before he or she went to get educated? See, I think that many parents (and churches both), can preserve a sense of ignorance in people - where some things are “just bad” and “just good” without any explanation or willingness to discuss why. This creates doubt itself - which is basically unanswered questions.”
Well, I would definitely make a distinction between ignorance and doubt. I think a person who is strong in faith can be very comfortable with what he doesn’t know. However, I agree that seeds of doubt often do come from parents and/or churches who, because of intimidation, shy away from addressing certain things. To me, the answer is to embrace what is unknown while rejecting non-biblical explanations. The blowback is very real, and I think that is one reason Christians have openly received “Intelligent Design”, because it is presented as a credible scientific and non-Creationist theory. It seems like this is being done in desperation to fulfill the perceived need to be “relevant”.
Bryan, thank you for this article. I identify with pretty much everything you wrote, and I echo what Colin said in his first post. Keep plugging, man. Keep your zeal for truth.