Redeeming Philosophy: A God-Centered Approach to the Big Questions

by Vern Sheridan Poythress

Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I find meaning?

Life is full of big questions. The study of philosophy seeks to answer such questions. In his latest book, prolific author Vern Poythress investigates the foundations and limitations of Western philosophy, sketching a distinctly Christian approach to answering basic questions about the nature of humanity, the existence of God, the search for meaning, and the basis for morality.

For Christians eager to engage with the timeless philosophical issues that have perplexed men and women for millennia, this is the place to begin.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Christian

304 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2014

About the author

Vern Sheridan Poythress was born in 1946 in Madera, California, where he lived with his parents Ransom H. Poythress and Carola N. Poythress and his older brother Kenneth R. Poythress. After teaching mathematics for a year at Fresno State College (now California State University at Fresno), he became a student at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he earned an M.Div. (1974) and a Th.M. in apologetics (1974). He received an M.Litt. in New Testament from University of Cambridge (1977) and a Th.D. in New Testament from the University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa (1981).

He has been teaching in New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia since 1976. In 1981 he was ordained as a teaching elder in the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod, which has now merged with the Presbyterian Church in America.

More information about his teaching at Westminster can be found at the Westminster Seminary website.

Dr. Poythress studied linguistics and Bible translation at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Norman Oklahoma in 1971 and 1972, and taught linguistics at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in the summers of 1974, 1975, and 1977. He has published books on Christian philosophy of science, theological method, dispensationalism, biblical law, hermeneutics, Bible translation, and Revelation. A list of publications is found on this website.

Dr. Poythress married his wife Diane in 1983, and they have two children, Ransom and Justin. He has side interests in science fiction, string figures, volleyball, and computers.

The family lived on a farm until he was five years old. When he was nine years old he made a public commitment to Christ and was baptized in Chowchilla First Baptist Church, Chowchilla, California. The family later moved to Fresno, California, and he graduated from Bullard High School in Fresno.

He earned a B.S. in mathematics from California Institute of Technology (1966) and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University (1970).

Reviews

[Annie Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a classically educating homeschool mom, I regularly encounter philosophies of all sorts. Now, it is fairly easy to find resources about the history of philosophy, and we have read some of them as part of our homeschool. At a certain point, however, one needs to read some real philosophy and to thoroughly explore the world of ideas from a Christian point of view.

So I picked up Redeeming Philosophy by Vern Poythress, a challenging book that took me many months to absorb. It is not primarily about the ideas of others, which is what I expected, but more about a newer Bible-based approach to philosophy developed by the author and his colleague John Frame.

Poythress’s main idea is that, yes, we really can know real knowledge because God has revealed it to us, but each of us can only see a bit of this real knowledge based on our own perspective (influenced by our past, our personality, our gifts, etc., and, ideally, sifted through a careful study of the Bible). What we individuals know is true, although it will always be tainted with sin to some degree, but it can never be the whole truth. We can learn more of the truth about any topic by examining the perspectives of others....

Read the rest of my long review, analysis, and related resource list at http://anniekateshomeschoolreviews.co...

[Raí Fajardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro bastante denso para entender pero excelente.

[Felipe Sabino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice.

[Laurent Dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a summary of Van Til's philosophy. Poythress gives distinctives of christian metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Very easty to understand. You will see through and through Fram's triperspectivism applied to philosophy subjects.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you want to learn about a biblical approach to the discipline of philosophy? In this book, author Vern Poythress explores the biblical worldview as the foundation for philosophy. I began reading this along with a brother in Christ who is pastoring and wants to grow in apologetics and I found this work helpful for discussions and Christian intellectual growth. Poythress has previously written book length treatment on a biblical worldview of various academic discipline such as science, sociology, linguistics and even more recently, history. Similar to his other books, in this book Poythress draws out implications from the contents of Scripture to discuss about the field of philosophy. Arguing in the way of Cornelius Van Til’s Presuppositional Apologetics, Poythress also advocates that only the Triune Christian worldview can give an account of philosophy in a way that makes it intelligible and meaningful.
The book has twenty-five chapters grouped into six parts that is followed by a conclusion and three appendices. Part one has three chapters that focuses on basic issues in exploring big questions that lays the foundation for the rest of the book. Chapters four and five makes up part two which is on metaphysics while chapters six through eleven is grouped under part three on perspectives. Part four is titled “Examples of Metaphysical Analysis” and consists of four chapters while part five is on subdivisions of philosophy with six chapters. Finally in part six the author interacts with defective philosophies. Appendix A covers Cosmonomic Philosophy that is a movement of Dutch Reformed Christians attempt to have a Christian philosophy that has key motifs such as sphere sovereignty and is helpful in critiquing the dualism of Western philosophy. Appendix B is on perspectives on the Trinity while appendix C is on the structure of a bookmark.
I might not have learned as many new things from this book compared to other titles from the author but this book was great in laying out a biblical approach to philosophy. The book is heavy on being biblical, which is great. Poythress in the book also employed the Triperspectivalism that John Frame develops and I think this is helpful especially since unbelieving philosophy can be reductionistic which Frame’s Triperspectivalism provide a framework to critique unbelieving philosophical systems while also allowing the Christian to be balanced with accounting for all the sides of things. For example in the history of ethics philosophers can be reductionistic and unbelieving ethical system can over-emphasize the situational or the existential or the normative, to the neglect of the other two dimensions. Yet a good ethical system should recognize the role of the normative, situational and existential and also the inter-relationships of these perspectives (I prefer to call it dimensions rather than perspectives, in light of how some people have confused the author and his mentor John Frame is talking about perspectives in terms of something like subjectivism).
Overall I do recommend this book and think this can be an introduction to philosophy for a general reader Christian lay person where the drive of the work is biblical and knowledgeable about the academic discipline of philosophy.

[Zach Barnhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

“the question of God makes a big difference. And even answers to more specialized questions can influence our view of the world as a whole.” (18). Vern Poythress realizes the weight of such questions – about our past, purpose, future, and the implications of these things. In Redeeming Philosophy, Poythress uses the studies of metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and other branches of philosophy to argue for a creating, omnipresent, Trinitarian God ally fits in the discussion of philosophy.

Poythress, a student at Westminster Theological Seminary and a proponent of the well-renowned John Frame, is not merely offering a “new take” on the apologetic case for Christ, nor does he seek to give new perspective on age-old questions. Instead, the focus of Poythress’ Redeeming Philosophy is to do just that; it wants to revive a philosophical approach to God based on Scripture, and give Christians a foundation for philosophically understanding not only how God can be, but why. “Would it not be presumptuous for an ordinary Christian to try to outdo centuries of philosophy, conducted by some of the brightest minds in the Western world?
It would be presumptuous if a Christian proceeded to work by the same ground rules as everyone else. But we do not have the same ground rules. We can go and study the Bible” (50). This is the plumb bob Poythress builds his book against.

There are things about this book I really enjoyed, yet also some things I wish were presented differently. I will start with what I liked. Poythress does a masterful job of explaining and illustrating the Trinity, through a lens of multiperspectivalism. It is one of the best explanations of this phenomena as he explains how the Trinity represents the balance of unity and diversity (97).

I also really enjoyed Poythress’ treatment of metaphysics in relation to perspectives. Perhaps his most compelling chapter on this subject is Chapter 12. Poythress uses a single apple to draw out a detailed web of using perspective to understand how we can look at not only apples, but humans, the world, and even God Himself. He uses, for example, contrast, variation, and distribution to make his point (256). “We do not come to know generalities about apples without some observations and experiments with particular apples and particular soils and particular apple trees. We use those particulars, of course, to arrive at the generalities. But the generalities make sense only when we understand that they apply to particulars. The two are inextricably related” (264).

“the question of God makes a big difference. And even answers to more specialized questions can influence our view of the world as a whole.” (18). Vern Poythress realizes the weight of such questions – about our past, purpose, future, and the implications of these things. In Redeeming Philosophy, Poythress uses the studies of metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and other branches of philosophy to argue for a creating, omnipresent, Trinitarian God ally fits in the discussion of philosophy.

Poythress, a student at Westminster Theological Seminary and a proponent of the well-renowned John Frame, is not merely offering a “new take” on the apologetic case for Christ, nor does he seek to give new perspective on age-old questions. Instead, the focus of Poythress’ Redeeming Philosophy is to do just that; it wants to revive a philosophical approach to God based on Scripture, and give Christians a foundation for philosophically understanding not only how God can be, but why. “Would it not be presumptuous for an ordinary Christian to try to outdo centuries of philosophy, conducted by some of the brightest minds in the Western world?
It would be presumptuous if a Christian proceeded to work by the same ground rules as everyone else. But we do not have the same ground rules. We can go and study the Bible” (50). This is the plumb bob Poythress builds his book against.

There are things about this book I really enjoyed, yet also some things I wish were presented differently. I will start with what I liked. Poythress does a masterful job of explaining and illustrating the Trinity, through a lens of multiperspectivalism. It is one of the best explanations of this phenomena as he explains how the Trinity represents the balance of unity and diversity (97).

I also really enjoyed Poythress’ treatment of metaphysics in relation to perspectives. Perhaps his most compelling chapter on this subject is Chapter 12. Poythress uses a single apple to draw out a detailed web of using perspective to understand how we can look at not only apples, but humans, the world, and even God Himself. He uses, for example, contrast, variation, and distribution to make his point (256). “We do not come to know generalities about apples without some observations and experiments with particular apples and particular soils and particular apple trees. We use those particulars, of course, to arrive at the generalities. But the generalities make sense only when we understand that they apply to particulars. The two are inextricably related” (264).

I think Redeeming Philosophy is overall a great resource, but there a couple of things I did not love about the book. My biggest concern was that I felt Poythress made more mention of his esteemed teacher and friend John Frame than Christ, or the Scriptures. Frame’s teachings are of immense value and I am thankful for them, but I felt overall that he superseded Christ’s teachings. I know there is limited apologetic and philosophical analysis Jesus left us, but in some places it personally felt like a campaign letter for Frame’s theology than Scripture-fueled points. I wanted to see Christ at the center clearly, but sometimes all I could see was Frame.

In some places of the book I also felt that there was a level of assumption that readers were already relatively familiar with philosophy’s championed figures and flows of thought. As someone who wouldn't consider himself an astute student of philosophy, I felt lost sometimes in trying to wrap my head around what certain philosophers believed, or what certain world views mean, and perhaps more importantly, how to address these ideas. I would not advise this book to be of primary importance to someone that doesn't have at least some relativity with various philosophies and philosophers. It is not a light read, which is certainly a compliment to Poythress’ writing ability and breadth of knowledge.

For a deeper look at metaphysics, and epistemology, this is an intermediate, but not overwhelming read for you. Poythress also conveniently provides plenty of resources to further study in his book, which is a great help. Great job from Crossway, Poythress, Frame, and everyone else involved in providing a solid resource for academic Christian study.

(I was provided this book by Crossway in exchange for my honest review)

Stars: 3.5/5.0

[James Horgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poythress shows how presuppositionalism applies to philosophy as a discipline. Where you start from determines where you go, and philosophy that tries to understand fundamental questions of life ignoring the existence of God and his revelation in the Bible can only go in a circle.

He focusses mainly on metaphysics and shows how perspectivalism provides a richer way of analysing the world around us than reductionalistic philosophies that try to ground the world in a first principle. There is a first principle, God, yet his perspective on all that is does not limit itself to one approach.

Poythress illustrates his approach looking at the metaphysics of an apple, walking and a bookmark. Various triads are used, such as Frame's normative, situational and existential perspectives, to show the richness and connectedness of reality.

If I have one criticism it is that the other areas of philosophy are addressed very briefly in comparison, and there are three short vignettes of how to view the philosophies of Kant, Husserl and Russell, which would have been better fleshed out.

Everything Poythress writes is helpful and worth pondering. And there are plenty more books after this one! It would be helpful background reading for Christians beginning their study of philosophy, or who have some philosophical experience.

[Mark Sparks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I think Poythresss sets out a meaningful attempt to construct a postmodern Christian philosophy that balances subjectivity and objectivity in substantive form. It is evident that the conception is well thought out in its opposition to reductionism, which is the core contention of Poythress, but finds itself underdeveloped in application and explication of its own attempt at a synthetic framework. The most substantive concern in my estimation is the flux in which Poythress sets knowledge. It is not clear how a finite person can have knowledge or be able to judge truth from error given the complex ontology that has been proposed. Nevertheless, Poythress does give a thoughtful account of Christian philosophy in the current ideological context and he does it without collapsing too hard into re-presentations of untested and unrecognized philosophical presuppositions baptized in pious language which is commendable. If there were further develops on his thought, especially on epistemogy, I would certainly take the time to engage with it.

[Nate Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introduction to concepts within philosophy. Pairs well with John Frame’s History of Western Philosophy and Theology.(Frame notes this as well) Soaked with Scripture and an uncompromisingly Christian approach to philosophy. Particularly what drew me in was the depth of perspectives. Now I have more reading to do!!! Will be a first recommend along with Frame’s book for anyone interested in the subject.

[Joe Beery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly a primer for the uninitiated; would recommend for the lay person seeking to engage with philosophical content or the trained philosopher who has gotten a bit rust, but a brushed-up philosopher who is a follower of Christ likely won't find herself stretched by Poythress here.

[Michele Morin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why does anyone exist?

How do we come to know what we know?

Where do commonly held moral standards come from?

Do any of these questions matter to ordinary people in our “sleeping, eating, going to work, walking around life”? Vern Poythress, professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, has taken on the task of smoothing the uneasy relationship between faith and philosophy — of “redeeming” philosophy, “the love of wisdom.” By definition, this would involve “compensat[ing] for the faults or bad aspects of” philosophy.

Because The Big Questions eventually find their way back to God (or require His conscious exclusion), Poythress examines philosophy through the lens of theology. What makes his approach unique is that he uses the three perspectives of John Frame, professor of systematic theology and author of numerous books, most notably The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, which presents Christian epistemology and the three perspectives which Poythress borrows:

(1) The normative perspective which “focuses on the norms, namely, God’s commandments. It asks, ‘What does God command us to do?'”

(2) The situational perspective which “focuses on the situation. It asks, ‘Given my situation, what actions of mine can best promote the glory of God and blessing for my fellowman?'”

(3) The existential perspective which “looks at the person. What are my motives? What attitudes and actions are driven by love?”

The author’s frequent use of John Frame’s work gave me the pleasant feeling that I was getting “two for the price of one.” It was also helpful and admirable that when Poythress referred in passing to a topic which he knew he could not cover thoroughly and stick to his outline, he pointed his readers to additional books which would provide deeper discussion on the subject.

Poythress utilized Frame’s three perspectives like a magnifying glass over each of the major subdivisions of philosophy in order to demonstrate its ultimate purpose. This multiperspectivalism has its roots in the Trinity in which there is perfect unity alongside the diversity of three personal perspectives. This, for me, was one of the most intriguing discussions in the book, for Poythress employs another of Frame’s triads (authority, control, presence) to explain how one’s view of God leads one either away from truth or toward it. For example, with regard to God’s presence, there is a “non-Christian transcendence” that over-emphasizes God’s otherness to the point that humans cannot expect to have personal communion with God. Using apples, bookmarks, and the act of walking as homely examples, Poythress models for his reader the manner of thinking that explores ideas or objects from various perspectives. This is not a meaningless exercise in a vacuum, but rather a beam of light along which we may view the glory of God.

Although his explanation of metaphysics consumes a generous portion of the book, Poythress demonstrates that ethics, epistemology, psychology, logic, and aesthetics, and the more specialized branches of philosophy all harmonize. Redeeming Philosophy is an excellent overview of the divisions of philosophy and is accessible even for a persevering high school student who wants to get a head start on the fascinating interplay of philosophy and theology. Harnessing philosophy as a tool of theology, Poythress accomplishes the purpose that Redeeming Philosophy sets forth by facilitating the development of a “distinctly Christian approach to doing philosophy” and by encouraging believers to delight in the Truth and to think deeply about the Giver of Truth who alone holds the answers to all the Big Questions.

This book was provided by Crossway in exchange for my honest review.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never have I simultaneously so much loved aspects of a book as I have equally disliked it!

I am confused.

This book seeks to provide a God-centred approach to the big questions in philosophy: epistemology, metaphysics and ethics. To do this, Poythress utilises Frame's formulation of earlier articulated examples (in the works of Pike and Sawyers) of multiperspectivalism which beautifully reflects the triune nature of God in teasing out three perspectives to knowing each thing, person or event. These perspectives can include contrast, variation and distribution, as well as authority, control and presence, amongst others. He shows us how ectypes reflect the archtype of God, and how there can be unity and diversity in how we perceive objects, events and persons without having to withdraw to skepticism or relativism in the pursuit of true knowledge, due to the Trinitarian nature of God.

This book shines forth with beautiful, illuminative gems on the reality of nature through Poythress' worked examples of multiperspectivalism on apples, walking and his bookmark.

What frustrated me about this work was that - I understand this was written in a particular community and perhaps for a particular community - Poythress drew predominantly upon Frame to explicate everything he was articulating. I found this mildly disingenuous and particularly vexing when at one point he wrote:

'The mainstream of twentieth century analytic philosophy has found attractive one formulation in particular: knowledge is "justified true belief". What do we say about this formulation? This particular formulation can be seen as a kind of formulation of Frame's triperspectival discussion of knowledge.'

Not only does this completely undermine (and overlook!) Plantinga's unique contribution of warrant to the debate by reducing his contribution to Frame's synthesis, but it also a shoe horning in and tailoring of discussions to suit this particular triperspectivalism. Whilst there is much merit in this contribution, and I really enjoyed considering its implications, I felt as though Poythress over simplified issues and didn't draw upon the vastly significant contributions of the wider Christian scholarly corpus. One may say this book is merely meant to serve as an introduction to how one can - Christianly - approach philosophy, however, it feels as though what he seeks to gain in articulating multiperspectivalism he loses in detail, nuance and depth.

I'm personally very disappointed with this book. Of course it's still worth reading but personally I found it lacked the nuance and rich variety a wider community can supply, as well as the detail necessary to provide a robust overview of the issues at hand.

This book would be better titled: Redeeming Philosophy - Frame's triperspectival approach and why it matters. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had known it's very specific trajectory beforehand. Still, this doesn't really diminish my aforementioned comments.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Largely derivative from ideas initially proposed by John Frame, so that part is a bit repetitive/quoty. However, the chapters that give examples of what a multiperspectival approach to an object, idea, or event might look like are brilliant and beautiful, and there is a lot of food for further thought in the notes I took.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good