Christian Philosophy

Abstract

The thesis to be entertained here can be set forth simply. To address the question, Is there Christian philosophy?, it is necessary, first, to acknowledge that there is no such thing as Christiainity. As a sociological category may have some content. People the world over profess to be Christian. But, when we look to the content of belief we find so little in common between professed Christians that the designation becomes almost meaningless. Professed Christians subscribe to a multiplicity of faiths with varying degrees of sophistication; they adhere to tenets many of which are contradictory, many irrational, many unexam ined. Orthodox Christianity is difficult to define even within the Roman Catholic community where a premium is placed on universality, unity, and apostolic mandate. That is my first observation: the lack of unity in Christianity that might give meaning to the term 'Christian philosophy'. The second is that, logically and chronologically, philosophy is prior to Christianity. The type of philosophy one espouses, implicitly or explicitly, either opens one to faith or closes it as an intellectual option. Furthermore, the type of philosophy one espouses determines the kind of Christianity one embraces. Classical Greek and Roman intelligence gave rise to, and forever will lead to, the institution shaped by the Fathers and Doctors of the early and medieval Church. If one starts with modern philosophical nominalism or epistemology, one will not end up in the belief system which shaped Aquinas and to which the Parisian master contributed. The differences be tween Plato and Aristotle, for example, or between realism and nominalism, are carried through history as Christians attempt to under stand their faith. Ancient skepticisms and Pyrrhonism have their modern counterparts which make belief as impossible today as those outlooks made it impossible in antiquity. The third thesis, which is likely to meet with no dissent from the or thodox, but will nevertheless be challenged within the group that may be called, sociologically described Christians, is the belief that Christianity is based on divinely revealed truths inaccessible to human reason. Such truths consist of propositions such as, Christ is God, Christ redeemed mankind by his sacrificial act on the cross, eternal beatitude consists in union with in a life hereafter, God has revealed himself as triune,