Christian Philosophy, edited by Thomas P. Flint

In reading a book like this, one can have several purposes.  For one, a book like this can demonstrate the scope of Christian philosophy, demonstrating to the reader what it is that that demonstrates a particularly Christian approach to philosophy that can appeal to Christians who do not check their intellects at the door of the church as is the habit of some.  The book itself demonstrates Christian approaches to philosophy as well as philosophical approaches to Christianity, both of which are legitimate places for a Christian philosophy to exist, particularly within those traditions where philosophy is appreciated and well-regarded within the larger Christian world.  In addition to that, a book like this can help one recognize the sorts of problems that a Christian philosopher would wrestle with, perhaps with the goal of determining if one’s own personal research questions could be considered as aspects of Christian philosophy, whether or not one is well-known in any particular community.  In reading this book I certainly found some questions that are not so different from some of the ones I ponder, but it should not surprise anyone if someone who willingly reads a book like this would find themselves to be a philosophical Christian if not necessarily a Christian philosopher.

After a discussion of the contributors to this book, the editor provides an introduction that defends the legitimacy of Christian philosophy and some of its more distinctive areas of research and approach.  After that, Norman Kretzmann provides a discussion of the relationship between faith and understanding in Augustine’s writings that provides the charter for Christian philosophy for the Hellenistic Christian (1).  After this there is an essay by Richard L. Purtill that deals with the questions of justice, mercy, supererogation, and atonement that looks at the legitimacy of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins (2).  After this comes an essay by Eleonore Stump on providence and the problem of evil (3).  Following this there is a defense of the rationality of the Nicene Creed by Alan Donagan.  After this there is a discussion of temporality as it relates to the Christian and Jewish liturgy by Nicholas Wolterstorff.  This leads to a discussion of love and absolutes in Christian ethics by J.L.A. Garcia.  The book then concludes with an essay that seeks to “take Paul seriously” by viewing sin as an epistemological category by Merold Westphal that takes this book to a modest length of a bit over 200 pages.

Admittedly, there were a great many areas where I found myself to have very distinct understanding than the authors, who all seem to value a great deal of traditional authorities are far more helpful and authoritative than I would when it comes to questions of Christian philosophy.  For example, the fact that the Reformed tradition comes close to viewing sin as an epistemological category but does not quite do so or the nature of Augustine’s view of the relationship between faith and understanding is not particularly interesting to me.  That said, there were essays I found deeply enjoyable here and I thought it was interesting that the writers wrestled with questions about the legitimacy of Christ’s sacrifice as well as the importance of sharing in the experiences of previous generations of believers by participating in worship on Holy Days as part of a deliberate effort of commemoration.  These were areas of deep personal interest as they relate to my own practice as a thinking Christian.  And really, even if one does not find that all of the essays here are equally interesting or equally valid, it is nice to read material that validates one’s general position as a thoughtful Christian and as a Christian thinker, because there are a lot of anti-intellectual approaches that one must deal with in the present age.