By: Justin Wishart
Alvin Plantinga is one of
Christianity’s greatest living philosophers. He is perhaps most famous for
developing the “Free-Will Defence” to the Problem of Evil. However, he has contributed
greatly to philosophy in other areas, particularly Christian philosophy. He
even helped develop a branch of apologetics called ‘Reformed Epistemology’
along with the ‘Modal Ontological Argument’ and the ‘Evolutionary Argument
Against Naturalism’ to name a few
contributions. So, when he writes giving sage advice to up and coming Christian
philosophers, it is probably a good idea we heed his words.
So,
what is his advice? The last sentence of his
article sums it all up. “We [Christian philosophers] must therefore pursue our
projects with integrity, independence, and Christian boldness.” However, what
he exactly means by this must first be unpacked. First, we must outline the problem Plantinga is trying to
address. He provides this illustration:
“Consider
a Christian college student — from Grand Rapids, Michigan, say, or Arkadelphia,
Arkansas — who decides philosophy is the subject for her. Naturally enough, she
will go to graduate school to learn how to become a philosopher. Perhaps she
goes to Princeton, or Berkeley, or Pittsburgh, or Arizona; it doesn’t much
matter which. There she learns how philosophy is presently practiced... It is
then natural for her, after she gets her Ph.D., to continue to think about and
work on these topics. And it is natural, furthermore, for her to work on them
in the way she was taught to, thinking about them in the light of the
assumptions made by her mentors and in terms of currently accepted ideas as to
what a philosopher should start from or take for granted, what requires
argument and defense, and what a satisfying philosophical explanation or a
proper resolution to a philosophical question is like. She will be uneasy about
departing widely from these topics and assumptions, feeling instinctively that
any such departures are at best marginally respectable. Philosophy is a social
enterprise; and our standards and assumptions — the parameters within which we
practice our craft — are set by our mentors and by the great contemporary
centers of philosophy.”
Our new philosopher exercises her profession, with the subjects and approaches she
has learned. This does not seem to be a problem for the Christian philosopher
right? Plantinga disagrees.
“Christian
philosophers, however, are the philosophers of the Christian community; and it
is part of their task as Christian philosophers to serve the Christian
community. But the Christian community has its own questions, its own concerns,
its own topics for investigation, its own agenda and its own research program.
Christian philosophers ought not merely take their inspiration from what’s
going on at Princeton or Berkeley or Harvard, attractive and scintillating as
that may be; for perhaps those questions and topics are not the ones, or not
the only ones, they should be thinking about as the philosophers of the
Christian community. There are other philosophical topics the Christian
community must work at, and other topics the Christian community must work at
philosophically.“
Plantinga
insists that the Christian philosopher must become a servant of the greater
Christian community. We must not be sucked into the pull of our secular
institutions, but must focus on issues that are pressing for Christians.
Plantinga is equally emphatic that we do not close ourselves from the
surrounding philosophic community; we learn from them and interact with them.
It would be arrogant and foolish not to. But, we do so in service of the
greater Christian community instead of the greater philosophic community.
So,
when Plantinga talks about “integrity”, he isn’t meaning things like not
stealing or loving your neighbour, although I am very confident he would whole
heartily agree with those things. But, what he means is the Christian
philosopher must be honest with his Christianity; that we are Christians first,
and we submit our philosophic training and skills to Christianity. “Christian
philosophers must display more integrity — integrity in the sense of integral
wholeness, or oneness, or unity, being all of one piece.”
Secondly,
Plantinga says that it’s important that the Christian philosophic quests remain
“independent” from the overall philosophical community. “Christian
philosophers and Christian intellectuals generally must display more autonomy —
more independence of the rest of the philosophical world.” We have our own needs
and questions. This is not to say that there will be no interactions with the
general philosophic community, there will be overlap and defenses of the faith
that will have to be made. But, we must not forget our “integrity” to the
Christian community. Many think that this is a problem, that one must do
philosophy on secular philosophic terms. Plantinga disagrees. He explains why integrating our faith with
our philosophy is not only the right thing to do, but that it is also
intellectually possible to do.
“But
we come to philosophy with pre-philosophical opinions; we can do no other. And
the point is: the Christian has as much right to his prephilosophical opinions
as others have to theirs. He needn’t try first to ‘prove’ them from
propositions accepted by, say, the bulk of the non-Christian philosophical
community; and if they are widely rejected as naive, or pre-scientific, or
primitive, or unworthy of “man come of age,” that is nothing whatever against
them. Of course if there were genuine and substantial arguments against them
from premises that have some legitimate claim on the Christian philosopher,
then he would have a problem; he would have to make some kind of change
somewhere. But in the absence of such arguments — and the absence of such
arguments is evident — the Christian philosophical community, quite properly
starts, in philosophy, from what it believes.”
Thirdly,
Plantinga insists that Christian philosophers have “Christian boldness”. We
should have “Christian courage, or boldness, or strength, or perhaps Christian
self-confidence. We Christian philosophers must display more faith, more
trust in the Lord; we must put on the whole armor of God.” We should not, and
have no reason to, be timid in our philosophic endeavors as Christians.
Plantinga uses an example of an outdated philosophy called the “verifiability
criterion” that at one time caused much concern for the Christian philosopher.
However, it is very simple for the Christian to see that this criterion is
false.
“What
was needed here was less accommodation to current fashion and more Christian
self-confidence: Christian theism is true; if Christian theism is true, then
the verifiability criterion is false; so the verifiability criterion is false.”
Of course, Plantinga is not here saying that
this is the argument one should necessarily use if someone insists on the
verifiability criterion; other arguments should be developed and used. However,
what he means here is that if some philosophic concept comes about that seems
to trouble the Christian philosopher he needn’t be troubled by it. He can
boldly examine the concept and find its error because it contradicts the truth (if Christianity is true).
There is one last major component to Plantinga’s
presentation. What does it actually mean to be a Christian philosopher? How is
one to service the Christian community? I will give Plantinga the final word
here and allow him to answer these questions.
“I
said earlier that it is a matter of systematizing, developing and deepening
one’s pre-philosophical opinions. It is that; but it is also an arena for the
articulation and interplay of commitments and allegiances fundamentally
religious in nature; it is an expression of deep and fundamental perspectives,
ways of viewing ourselves and the world and God. The Christian philosophical
community, by virtue of being Christian, is committed to a broad but specific
way of looking at humankind and the world and God. Among its most important and
pressing projects are systematizing, deepening, exploring, articulating this
perspective, and exploring its bearing on the rest of what we think and do.”
[i] Plantinga’s article
‘Advise for Christian Philosophers’, and all quotes attributed to him here, are
found in: Chad V. Meister & Khaldoun A. Sweis, Christian Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources, Zondervan,
2012
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