Christian Philosophy

Christian philosophy is a catch-all expression for a two-millennia tradition of rational thought that attempts to fuse the fields of philosophy with the religious teachings of Christianity.

How one can "reconcile" Christianity with philosophy, or not

As with any fusion of religion and philosophy, the attempt is difficult because classical philosophers start with no preconditions for which conclusions they must reach in their investigation, while classical religious believers have a set of religious principles of faith that they hold one must believe. Indeed, due to these divergent goals and views, some hold that one cannot simultaneously be a philosopher and a true adherent of a revealed religion. In this view, all attempts at synthesis ultimately fail.

Others hold that a synthesis between the two is possible. One way to find a synthesis is to use philosophical arguments to prove that one's preset religious principles are true. This is known as apologetics and is a common technique found in the writings of many religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but is not generally accepted as true philosophy by philosophers. Another way to find a synthesis is to abstain from holding as true any religious principles of one's faith at all, unless one independently comes to those conclusions from a philosophical analysis. However, this is not generally accepted as being faithful to one's religion by adherents of that religion. A third, rarer and more difficult path is to apply analytical philosophy to one's own religion. In this case a religious person would also be a philosopher, by asking questions such as:

What is the nature of God? How do we know that God exists?

What is the nature of revelation? How do we know that God reveals his will to mankind?

Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted literally?

Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted allegorically?

What must one actually believe to be considered a true adherent of our religion?

How can one reconcile the findings of philosophy with religion?

How can one reconcile the findings of science with religion?

The above outlines how some Christian philosophies conceive their task. Others do not conceive the task of Christian philosophy in this way. For instance, some think that proving the existence of God is a meaningless endeavour since God's existence is not put in question by Christian faith, but assumed. A Christian philosophy which does not seek to prove the existence of God, but assumes it as an ultimata out of which it forms its specific logic and interest, is more apt to address a far different set of tasks in order to reflect on the God-provided creational structures of existence in their diachronic processes of change over time. For such Christian philosophies most of the questions above belong instead to theology (if legitimate at all), whether the subdivision of theology involved is philosophical theology or apologetics. Neither of these are disciplines of philosophy proper, even though they may borrow methods from outside theology as such. What's more, those Christian philosophies that prioritize creaturely existence with its God-lawed modalities and societal spheres for daily life, do not accept the idea of separate fields "religion" vs "philosophy" that then must be "reconciled." On this alternative view of the Christian philosophical task, philosophy is just one activity among many in a differentiated society, an activity that is entirely appropriate to creaturely human existence, and it may be pursued directly out of the depth of the Christian religion without the mediation of some extraneous reference. All religions, including the atheisms, have ultimate values and therefore a religious depth-dimension of their own. The problem of philosophy arises for them as something other than a task given by God in Christ to humanity, and so theirs is the problem of reconciling their activity as a deontological imperative insofar as they deny that philosophy is inherent in the creational ensemble as one task-activity among the many given by God.

Interaction between Christian and non-Christian philosophers

There has been considerable interaction between Christian philosophy, Jewish philosophy and Islamic philosophy. Many Christian philosophers are well read in the works of their Jewish and Islamic counterparts, and arguments developed in one faith often make their way into the arguments of another faith.

Some modern day Islamic philosophers explore issues in common with modern Catholic philosophers. Reformational philosophy dialogues across acknowledged differences with many other approaches to philosophizing - with Christian synthetist views of many kinds, also with some Jewish schools of philosophical thought, as well as some secular philosophies such as Neo-Marxism along with other atheist philosophical schools; whereas the dialogue with Islamic philosophies is just beginning.

It's important to note there is not one single philosophy embraced by all philosophers in any of the great religious traditions, not all are dialogical, and atheist-humanist schools are as much in conflict among themselves as are Christian and other self-acknowledged religious schools of philosophizing.

Origins of Christian philosophy

Jesus: The life and teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels form the basis of Christianity.

In the case of Reformational philosophy the law-idea of Creation in relation to Fall and Redemption clarifies the understanding of the exceptional role of Jesus the Christ in Creation through the law-modalities that set the conditions of existence for all creatures. There is no record of any writing by Jesus, nor of any systematic philosophy or theology in the formal sense. Several accounts of his life and many of his teachings are recorded in the New Testament, and form the basis for some Christian philosophies.

St. Paul: Saul of Tarsus was a Jew who persecuted the early Christian church and who was responsible for the martyrdom of St Stephen, a Greek-speaking Jewish-Christian. Saul underwent a dramatic conversion and his name was changed to Paul. He became a Christian leader who wrote a number of epistles, or letters, to early churches, in which he taught doctrine and theology. In some ways he functioned in the manner of the popular marketplace philosophers