Monday, May 14, 2012

The need for the hour

" ... contrary to the steady stream of criticism since the nineteenth century, the categories and terms that philosophy has given to theology to aid in the latter's expression of the truth of Scripture, though not always completely perspicuous, have been immensely helpful in warding off heresy and in helping the church to confess and confirm what is given to her in Holy Scripture. Railing against such terms as hypostasis or ousia or persona has done nothing to help the church better express truth. It has only fed a (now) postmodern mind-set that assumes newer to be better and older to be dead. This mind-set is not only forced to ignore the depth and breadth of scholarship that has been handed down to us, but it also is intent on setting the focus of one's work strictly on oneself. Thus, it remains bot historically uninformed and almost irrationally self-absorbed. This way of thinking will never serve the church. The need for the hour is not for the new and the different divorced from the past, but for a deeper, fuller, elucidation and application of what God has taught the church for two millenia. Philosophy can be extremely useful in that regard.

( Oliphint, K. Scott. Reasons [for Faith]: Philosophy in the Service of Theology. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 2006. Print.31-2)

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