In the current month at Christ Over All, we are exploring the question of Christian Platonism. It is fair to say that we are a tad cautious about it. Christian Platonism is one way of speaking to the perennial question or issue of how to relate theology and philosophy. Is it a helpful way to relate theology and philosophy?
Theology or Philosophy?
I have taught theology for over twenty-five years, and have taught philosophy as well. One of my main interests going back to doctoral studies is Augustine (A.D. 354–430), the great Western church father and author of such seminal works as Confessions and City of God. I often broach the question of theology and philosophy by turning to Augustine. I tell students that if you were to ask Augustine, “Do you consider yourself more of a theologian or more of a philosopher?”, he would probably scratch his head and say something like: “Well, now that I am a Christian I am really more interested in knowing God and seeking truth. That is my interest. I am not all that concerned whether you call that ‘theology’ or ‘philosophy.’ In fact, I am not all that sure I would separate the two in some kind of hard and fast way.”
Now, the reader may suggest I am engaging in special pleading here. Perhaps. But I do think he would have chafed a bit at the suggestion that theology and philosophy can be distinguished in the way we—including many Christians—tend to do today. Augustine would have chafed—and I think we should chafe—at the tendency one often sees of saying something like the following: “Theology starts with faith and revelation; Philosophy starts with reason and seeks truth on that basis.” That is, there can be a tendency for Christians to think of theology as a kind of faith-centered, revelation-based endeavor, and there can be a tendency to think of philosophy as a kind of reason-centered exercise that more or less works things out intellectually in an essentially neutral way.
Can Christians Be Philosophers?
In the course of Western philosophy itself some have said forthrightly that any notion of Christian philosophy is a complete non-starter from the get-go. For example, Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), in his Introduction to Metaphysics, says that the traditional Christian cannot really engage in true philosophy. Why? Because the traditional Christian believes in a trustworthy Bible which is divine revelation, and because the Christian already has an answer to a key question in philosophy: “Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?” The Christian has this answer “before it [i.e., the question] is even asked.”[1] So, as Heidegger sees it, “true” philosophy must not engage in the intellectual endeavor (the philosophical quest) if one already has certain key convictions in place (e.g., there is a God, the Bible is His trustworthy word, etc.).
1. Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics, translated by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000), 7.
But we should pause here and reflect: Why should the Christian play by these artificial rules? In fact, has Heidegger “snuck in” his own dogmatic and “faith-based” convictions? Indeed, his own faith commitments allow him to box out the Christian’s faith-rooted convictions simply by asserting the “true” philosophy cannot begin with faith commitments? In short, is Heidegger actually a dogmatic theologian—just in his own particular way?
And all that discussion begs a very important question: Where does one “start” in one’s intellectual work? Let us turn to the Apostle Paul, and his letter to the Romans. In Romans 1:18–23 Paul instructs his readers that every person who has lived knows God and has (at least until conversion) suppressed this knowledge. Indeed, Paul can say in four different ways emphasized below that all persons—based on God’s revelation in and through the created order—know God:
- For what can be known about God is plain to them (Rom. 1:19)
- “God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:19)
- “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived” (Rom. 1:20)
- “[T]hey knew God” (Rom. 1:21)
So, for Paul, every person who has ever come into the world knows God—not necessarily savingly—but really knows God. So, Heidegger knew God, and like all persons who have not bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus, he suppressed this knowledge—for all persons “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18). So, what do we say to Heidegger? Suppose I lived in mid-century (last century) Germany, and bumped into Heidegger at the local coffee shop, and we began to talk—he in his German, and I in my very rough German. At some point in the conversation Heidegger learns that I am a Christian and that I sometimes teach philosophy. The conversation at that point might proceed as follows:
Heidegger: “Nein! [no!] You cannot teach philosophy, for you are a Christian. You are starting with your belief in God!”
Green: “Oh Professor Heidegger, you are starting with your belief in God too.”
Heidegger: “Ah, but I do not believe in God.”
Green: “I actually think you do ‘believe’—for you know God. If you say you do not believe savingly, or have not trusted in Christ, I am happy to believe you. But I think you are mistaken to say you do not know God—if in fact you are saying that you don’t really trust in Christ.”
Heidegger: “Of course I do not trust in Christ. I am no Christian.”
Green: “I understand that, and I do pray you will come to Christ. But, as I see things, we both engage in philosophy with certain fundamental commitments, and these commitments are a kind of ‘faith.’”
Heidegger: “But I do not start with any sort of ‘faith’ commitments!”
Green: “I actually think you do. Where did you get the assumption that one must begin the philosophical endeavor apart from, or without any, faith commitments?”
Heidegger: “Isn’t that obvious?
Green: “Not to me. For I think we both start by living in a world in which God has truly revealed Himself to us. I have responded in faith to this God, by trusting in his Son. It sounds like you have not.”
And so the conversation goes.
If we are to trust the Apostle Paul, all persons “start” their thinking (including their philosophizing) already as “theologians” of a sort. That is: every person who philosophizes “starts” their thinking having either:
- bowed the knee to the God who has efficaciously and truly revealed Himself to all persons in and through the created order,
or - having suppressed the knowledge of that same God who has efficaciously and truly revealed Himself to all persons in and through the created order.
Conclusion
My own conviction is that when one starts with Paul and Romans 1 in mind, this changes the contours of the question of the relationship between theology and philosophy. We begin all of our thinking as creatures—creatures living in God’s world, living on His terms, and living in a world in which God has efficaciously revealed Himself to all persons. Thus, there is no true “neutrality” in the intellectual endeavor. We all philosophize as theologians—whether it is at the “top” of our minds or not—and as creatures who are either bowing our knees to the Lord Jesus or not.
