Category: Philosophy

This is a great resource. The Gospel Coalition has one purpose; and they write “Our desire is to serve the church we love by inviting all of our brothers and sisters to join us in an effort to renew the contemporary church in the ancient gospel of Christ so that we truly speak and live for him in a way that clearly communicates to our age.”

One of their best resources is an online academic journal titled ‘Themelios’.

“Themelios is an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well.”

Check it out here!

A Brief Outline of the ‘Apology’ by Tertullian

Part 1: Chapters 1-9

In these chapters Tertullian argues that the experienced hatred of Christians is unjust, moreover that the judicial procedures involving persecution of Christians is unjust, seeing that the first accusation is simply bearing the Christian name. Tertullian then argues on account of Christian blamelessness and raises questions regarding the origin of laws that permit Christian persecution (An argument from Antiquity, “consider your roots, rulers”). He states that Christians are persecuted on ungrounded charges, and to search for the truth among rumors. Lastly, he gives an eternal perspective, ‘we are all men’.

Part 2: Chapters 10-16

These chapters are dedicated to refuting the accusation of sacrilege and treason, why worship pagan gods who are made from the dead? The insufficiency of such a religion is evident. This is why pagans must ‘prostitute their gods!’ Even when one reviews the ‘sacred rites’, the author argues, “Your gods have more to complain of you than of Christians.” There are no grounds for comparison when one looks at the offense of the cross, and the worship of other shapes.

Part 3: Chapters 17-23

Tertullian argues that there is only one true God; the Christian object of worship. This God reveals himself in the scriptures. The antiquity and majesty of the scriptures point to his Glory. But His glory is revealed even more fully in Christ: where God (divinity) and man (humanity) unite. Tertullian ends this section speaking of angels and demons, the proof of facts in spiritual matters, and the truth of Christ

Part 4: Chapters 18-35

Tertullian’s writing shouts, ‘your gods do not exist, your gods are unworthy!’ The Christian God is the dispenser of kingdoms! While Christians refuse to give in, the pagans fear amounts to hatred. It is in this section that Tertullian expounds upon the second ground of accusation; ‘treason against Caesar’. Claiming to the pagans, ‘you search for safety in Caesar’. A Christians safety is found in the one true God. In fact Christians even pray for Caesar and a delayed ending for Rome, because it is their God who appoints all things! While Caesar might be lord, he is not Lord. This is why Christians will pay no vain homage to Caesar.

Part 5: Chapters 36-50

In the last section Tertullian paints a picture of true Christianity, ‘we treat all men the same’, he argues, ‘we even love our enemies!’ He argues that there is nothing wrong with Christians rejecting what pleases pagans, and pagans rejecting Christian delights. He asks, what wrong have Christians done, ‘See how we love one another?’ He then explains that the sources of trouble are to be found in pagan human affairs. Christians are being charged on grounds of the name not wrong deed, Christians are without crime! Tertullian then issues a challenge to review the charges against Christianity based on reality, not on the speculations of poets and philosophers. But, what ever the end may be, Christians would rather be condemned that apostatize from God. In fact, he argues that in continuing to persecute Christians, the pagans must understand that ‘the blood of Christians is seed!’

Tertullian’s Argument

Tertullian’s Apology is formally addressed to the ‘rulers of the roman empire’. The Apology is primarily an account of the Christian experience of hatred and injustice at the hands of the Romans. Tertullian strives in his argumentation to demonstrate the absurdity of pagan religions in comparison to the truths of Christianity.

The Apology is well argued at most points. One of the purposes of Apology seems to be exposing the absurdity of pagan religions. Tertullian does this well. But his argumentation is not well balanced with a call to action in refuting the Roman governments cause for persecuting the Christians. While aggressively attacking the logic behind persecuting Christians, Tertullian takes a passive stance when it comes to action in ending this injustice. He basically ends the Apology like this, go ahead “kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent.” Tertullian leans so hard on the divine providence of God in these situations of persecution that he presents the Romans as playing their ordained role in the drama of the early church. While this may be true from a ‘divine’ perspective it places Christians as passive targets of injustice from a human perspective, and empowers the Romans to continue justified in their hatred towards the church. Tertullian calls the pagan poets and philosophers ‘sublime speculators’, no doubt the Roman officials saw the Christians in the same light (this is also true of Tertullian in the section on spirit’s having wings). While is it true for Christians that “The oftener we (Christians) are mown down by you (pagans), the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.” (53) The implementation for action on the part of Christians seems lacking. This is illuminated by the escapism further heightened in the statement, “only one thing in this life greatly concerns us, and that is, to get quickly out of it.” (45)

Now, Tertullian’s Apology does have strengths, especially in regards to a model for Christians in civil affairs. While Tertullian argues in the same vain of ‘Jerusalem having nothing to do with Rome’, he well establishes that the essence of religion is voluntary worship not government alliance. In fact, it is mentioned that Christians render to Caesar what is his without paying vain homage like the pagans. Tertullian’s case is built upon the experiential evidence of ‘how the Christians love one another.’(42) This provides an excellent model of civil engagement, Christians “do not hesitate to share…earthly goods with one another.”(42) Tertullian then adds to his argument with a question grounded in experience, “who has ever suffered harm from our (Christian) assemblies?”(43).

It is important to note, Tertullian highlights that the unjust persecution of Christians is more explicit in a society that champions ‘freedom in religion’. He makes it quite clear that it is Christians, and Christian’s alone who are “forbidden to say anything in exculpation of themselves.”(2) Tertullian eloquently paints a picture of Roman officials fearing that the truth of Christianity (9), and the absurdity of their charges against Christians will somehow work against their own power in society. This is one of the strongest points of the Apology, Tertullian probes the minds of the Roman rulers exposing the logic behind their thoughts. In the end I feel that Tertullian had made a full exhibition of the Christian’s case for innocence and being mistreated on wrong grounds. He then asked the most poignant of questions, “Why, then, are, we not permitted an equal liberty.”(48) The answer could be found, I believe, in the profound statement, “truth and hatred come into our world together. As soon as truth appears, it is regarded as an enemy.” (9) This might be the only explanation that fits.

I am currently reading a collection of articles on evangelizing postmoderns called “Telling The Truth“, edited by D.A. Carson. In a section called ‘critical topics’ Mark Dever writes a chapter called ‘Communicating Sin in a Postmodern World’. He starts by making some clear observations of our current social situation.

In our day it is quite evident that there is an overall spirit of evasion when it comes to responsibility, an academic atmosphere of relativism, and with science holding the monopoly on ‘truth’ there is much supernatural skepticism. John Milton painted a wonderful picture of the ‘postmodern mantra’ in Paradise Lost;

“The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven hell, a hell of heaven”

This is what Dever called ‘refined relativism’ at its finest, the idea that “offhand affirmations of self expression” have been set “over and against a standard outside ourselves”. (140) We live in a world where taste triumphs over truth. In postmodernity there is no ‘metanarrative’ (overall meaning), moreover the postmodern mentality asserts that there is not a ‘metanarrator’- or God (141-142). After establishing a context for our current barriers to the Gospel, Dever offers four basic ideas as a solution of communicating the vanishing idea of sin to a postmodern generation. Here are some thoughts and notes on what Dever had to say;

1. Communicate God’s Truth Carefully

In our culture it would be advantageous to assume that everyone means something different when using the term ‘God’. “This is a time of special opportunity for Christians to lean more about being careful with the gospel, to weed out some of the cultural assumptions that have wedded themselves in our minds to the gospel, and learn to listen more carefully to those who talk with us. (143)

Therefore, we need to communicate the truth about God that has been revealed. As Calvin wrote, “nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern.” (1.1.1)

2. Pure Christian Community should be Guarded with Accountability

The Christian life is to be lived, in part, by folding yourself into a series of committed relationships united around faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the local church and the nexus of committed relationships there, the boundaries of our identity are set by the interactions with others. (146-147)

In recovery of the importance of community, don’t ever think that it replaces the vertical relationship with God. The role of community is to supplement and reflect this relationship. (148)

3. Show that Our Conscience Exposes Sin

“We think of community as providing the external boundaries of the self, as that which helps to make ourselves obvious to ourselves. The community is the circumference of the self” but we also must consider the ‘center’. (148)

People not only need to grasp the “theoretical concept of evil and wrong, but the fact that they are evil and wrong.” People need to consider their own consciences, this is difficult since postmodernism encourages “the evacuation of the responsible self”. More than that, it is not in their self interest to do so. People do not like to hear that they are accountable to their actions. Often people will dismiss us as Christians because they equate our beliefs with our biases.

4. Point to God as the Active Agent in Conversion

More than anything, the truths explained above illustrate that man cannot ‘save’ himself. Therefore, all conversation should “highlight the truth that conversion is only by God’s Spirit.” (149) We cannot bring that which is dead to life, it must be God who brings forth salvation.

Concerning our role, “we simply need to be faithful messengers. We don’t have to understand everything.” (150) While the Bible does not explain things exhaustively, it is sufficient for saving faith through Christ Jesus.

More than just an author (which is how most of us know him today), C.S. Lewis was an avid reader. More than that, he was an avid reader of books on Christian doctrine. He always pointed to books of doctrine over ‘devotion’. In Lewis’ introduction to a particular translation of Athanasius work ‘On the Incarnation’ he wrote,

“for my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”

I think this points us to an important idea pertaining to good writing, it requires hard thinking.

I agree with Lewis, my own experience attests to this. Even when it comes to subjects other than Christian theology, I would rather be challenged than spoon fed. But…I have always been curious to what books made Lewis’ heart sing?

Well, we might have one source. In 1962, The Christian Century magazine published C.S. Lewis’s answer to the question, “What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life?” While some of the books listed are not solely focused on the subject of Christian theology, we can gleam something about the life and mind of Lewis.

Here is C.S. Lewis’s list.

1. Phantastes by George MacDonald.
2. The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton.
3. The Aeneid by Virgil.
4. The Temple by George Herbert.
5. The Prelude by William Wordsworth.
6. The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto.
7. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.
8. Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell.
9. Descent into Hell by Charles Williams.
10. Theism and Humanism by Arthur James Balfour.

One of Schaeffer’s classic works is “The God Who Is There”. In it Schaeffer looks forward through the lens of culture and defends historic Christianity against the modern religions which find roots in existentialism and the popular ‘anti-philosophy’ movements of the day. Though this book was first published in 1968 it would seem that Schaeffer was writing for our generation, I would recommend every Christian thinker become familiar with his work. I have only recently become aware of Schaeffer’s writing and have benefited greatly.

Here is one sample. At the end of a chapter in this book Schaeffer makes a great point about the Christian faith; this is very simple…but very profound. He is comparing the modern ‘inward faith movements’ (nihilism) to Christianity;

“In Christianity the value of faith depends upon the object towards which the faith is directed. So it looks outward to the God who is there, and the Christ who in history died upon the cross once for all, finished the work of atonement and on the third day rose again in space and time. This makes Christian faith open to discussion and verification.”

Of note: There will be a conference on Francis Schaeffer in November at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary titled, “A Mind and Heart for God”. Click here to find out more!