Monday Thoughts: Christian Philosophical Positions

I have until July 1st to finish a philosophy textbook, so I'll probably use some of my blogging time this semester to write some sections of chapters. Today I am writing a section entitled, "Christian Answers to Philosophy's Questions," which is in the second chapter, "Is Philosophy Christian?"
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Christian Answers to Philosophy's Questions
In the first chapter, we boiled down the basic issues of philosophy to nine basic questions. Even though some Christians have argued that philosophy is not Christian, Christians throughout history have addressed these questions in one way or another. For some of these questions, the Christian answers to the questions are clear cut. For others, various Christians have answered in different ways. In those cases we might be able to identify a range of possible answers rather than a distinctly Christian position on that issue.

Before we run through these basic philosophical questions with Christian eyes, it is important to clarify what we mean by the word Christian. Here we distinguish strongly between "historic" Christianity and what we might call "cultural" Christianity or social groups that identify themselves as Christians. A person might be a Christian in terms of their social identity and yet hold to none of the beliefs or practices of historic Christianity.

For example, the twentieth century saw a great deal of conflict between Irish Catholics and Protestants, and much of this conflict took place with at least a veneer of Christian rhetoric attached. However, neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Anglican Church sanctioned such violence, and the actions of such groups often stood definitively outside the boundaries of historic Christianity. When we speak of Christian answers to these questions, we mean answers that are in the flow of historic Christianity. While many Christian groups disagree on many things, Christians share a good number of core beliefs and practices in common and have since the earliest days of Christianity.

Further, almost all Christian groups have worked out these beliefs in dialog with the Bible, the Christian Scriptures. Even the Roman Catholic Church, despite what Protestants sometimes think, holds that its beliefs and practices are the inspired working out of biblical teaching in the Church. Thus the Bible also plays a significant role in identifying a belief or practice as Christian.

1. Does God exist and, if so, what is God's nature?
This question provides us with a good example of a "historic" Christian belief. Many people in the world are "Christian" by social group--some even go to church--yet do not believe that God exists or have serious questions about His existence. A group in England known as the "Sea of Faith" movement styles itself a group of "non-realists" when it comes to talk about God. They do not believe that God actually exists as a person, but think the idea of God is real and accomplishes good things in the world.

Nevertheless, the historic belief of Christianity is clearly that "God exists and is someone who rewards those who seek him" (Heb. 11:6). The "orthodox" Christian belief is that God is a Being who exists apart from the existence of any human being. Indeed, historic Christianity believes that while there is only one God, He has always existed as three distinct persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Christians further believe that God created the world and have historically held that the world is distinct from Him. They have traditionally believed that God has "all power" and "all knowledge" in relation to the creation. They believe that God is good and loves what is created, and that God is just. We will discuss some variations on these basic themes in the unit on the philosophy of religion, but these beliefs are some of the most commonly held of all Christian beliefs.

2. What is the nature of the other things that exist?
If we find virtual unanimity by Christians on the first question, we have a variety of Christian positions on the second. On the one hand, we have individuals like George Berkeley (1685-1753) who believed matter did not really exist and that we were thoughts in the mind of God. The Christian School of Alexandria also included individuals like Origen (ca. AD200), whose Platonist leanings made him see our spiritual side as more real than our physical bodies.

Yet some Christian thinkers today--while affirming basic Christian beliefs about the afterlife--have argued that we do not have "souls" apart from bodies. In that sense, they would argue that there is no such thing as a non-physical existence apart from material of some sort or another. We will discuss their ideas in our unit on the philosophy of the psyche.

Most Christians today, however, are dualists. A dualist today would believe that reality consists of both the material and the non-material, the natural and the supernatural realms, if you would. When we get to the unit on the philosophy of science, however, you may just be surprised to learn how recent this kind of dualistic thinking is!

3. What constitutes good thinking?
We have already seen in the first part of this chapter that a number of significant Christians like Tertullian and Kierkegaard have questioned the possibility of "good thinking" on the basis of reason alone. While most Christians accept the basic rules of logic, it is essential for the Christian thinker to have a place for faith in their thinking as well. We will argue in the next section that faith need not be contrary to reason, but it does imply a lack of evidence.

As we look at Christian history, we find some variety of thought about the proper formula for faith in relation to evidence. On the one hand, we have thinkers like Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) or C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), who have seen faith in highly rational and evidentiary terms. On the other end of the spectrum are people like Søren Kierkegaard who have seen faith more along the lines of "blind" faith.

4. How do I know what is true?
The next unit in this book is titled, "What is Truth?" In addition to the subject of good thinking, which we just mentioned, it will ask what the proper sources of truth are. Clearly reason and experience play a significant role in the way we arrive at what we think is true. Accordingly, there have been Christian rationalists like René Descartes (1596-1650) who have seen reason as the key to truth. Yet we could also mention Christian empiricists like John Locke (1632-1704) who thought our experiences were the path to truth. Others like Immanuel Kant have seen a combination of the two essential (1724-1804).

However, Christianity introduces other very important elements into this equation, sources of truth revealed by God. Evangelical Protestants see the Bible as the most important source for truth about the most important aspects of life. "Catholic" traditions like the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox traditions have further argued that the Church is essential as well as an interpreter of the Bible. Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions, including holiness traditions, have generally seen direct revelation from God (as the "Holy Spirit") as a regular part of Christian life as well.

5. What is a human being?
Christians do not believe that humans are simply biological machines or merely the product of mindless evolution. Certainly we are biological machines and some Christians do believe that God directed an evolutionary process. But historic Christians believe that humans are much more than highly sophisticated animals. Christians believe that human beings are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and thus intrinsically valuable.

Most Christians, though not all, have also affirmed that humans have a "detachable" part of them that continues to exist at death. The Bible, in the few places where it mentions such things, usually refers to this part of us as our "spirit." Historically, however, Christians of the ages have more often called it the "soul." We will discuss this issue in more detail in the unit on the philosophy of the psyche.

6. How should I live in the world?
We can speak of a fundamental Christian ethic which boasts the teaching of Jesus, Matthew, Paul, James, and John in the New Testament. That ethic is love of God and love of our fellow human. The New Testament treats these two commands as its foundational, rock bottom ethic, and Christianity has followed suit. To be sure, many Christians and Christian groups throughout history have endorsed hatred, but we can question to that existent whether they have been properly Christian at that point.

However, as we will see in our unit on philosophies of living, we would be wrong to restrict questions of living to action. The ancient world, and Christianity as a part of it, more emphasized proper character and virtue than proper action. So we find some Christian groups that have emphasized proper action (sometimes becoming somewhat legalistic in the process), and we find others who have emphasized a proper relationship with God. Some groups--such as the Lutheran tradition--have actually tended to de-emphasize ethics because such a focus tends to focus us on our own "works" rather than on God's work in us.

7. How do humans best live together in the world?
We cannot speak of a common Christian belief on how society should be organized or on what economic system would be most Christian. Some Christians argued for the "divine right" of kings in the 1600's, yet many American Christians would probably say democracy is most Christian. We similarly find among Christian ranks both pacifists and those who believe in St. Augustine's "just war" theory. Further, we find ardent Christian supporters of the capitalistic system and others who believe a communist society would be most Christian in nature. We will discuss these ideas as well in our unit on philosophies of living.

8. What makes something beautiful?
We probably cannot speak of any distinctly Christian position on this question either, except perhaps to say that whatever is truly beautiful will no doubt cohere with God. Certainly there have been Christians who have argued that art can only be "true" if it is representational and thus actually looks like something in the real world. Perhaps most Christians today would consider this view to be impoverished. Christians do debate over whether some material of questionable content can be considered art. We will discuss these issues in the chapter on the philosophy of art.

9. Where is history headed?
Historically, Christians have affirmed with the "Apostle's Creed" that Christ "will come again to judge the living and the dead." Although some have questioned whether we should take Christ's second coming as a literal event yet to come, Christianity has traditionally believed that Jesus will return to earth one day and will set the world straight. At that time the dead will rise and evil will be banished forever.

However, we do find significant pockets of Christianity that question whether Christ will come to interrupt human history in this way. On a popular level, for example, most Christians today operate as if judgment is a matter of dying and then either going to heaven or hell. Further, we find among those who affirm the second coming some variety of perspective in the events that will lead up to it. Some see the world getting better and better in preparation for Christ's return. Others think the world will get worse and worse. We discuss these perspectives in greater detail in the chapter on the philosophy of history.

We can see from the preceding sketch that, while there are certain core beliefs on certain issues, we cannot really speak of a single Christian worldview that encompasses all the philosophical questions. On most of the questions of philosophy, we find a variety of Christian responses throughout the ages. The chapters that follow will explore these issues in greater detail and give you an opportunity to work through the questions yourself!