19 November 2014
The relevance, significance, and implications of the question regarding the relation of Christianity to philosophy in general, Greek and specifically Platonic philosophy in particular, is well known and requires little description.[1] The issue is by no means resolved by the fact that the scriptures have remarkably little to say about it. If one is interested in the ritual laws of purity or the genealogies of certain families or mythical accounts of creation, one can find numerous references to these topics in the scriptures. On all manner of things the scripture has a good deal to say, often a good deal more than one is disposed to deal with, but on the topic of philosophy, it remains recalcitrantly silent. As some have pointed out, there is a single reference to philosophy in the scripture.[2] In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the elemental spirits of the universe and not according to Christ.”[3] But is it not precisely the maddening variety of scriptural quotations on so many issues that makes them difficult to interpret? Should not the fact that there is a single reference to philosophy in the scriptures settle the whole matter once and for all? If only theologians were known to be of a single undivided opinion on all the important matters of faith. For as we will shortly see, the very passage we have quoted has lent itself to two vastly different interpretations, and we should by no means be surprised to find that they say almost exactly the opposite of each other. If, owing to the variety of its interpretation, scripture alone cannot settle the issue of the relation of philosophy to the Christian faith, then the task falls to theology. Continue reading
Essays 