Los diez mandamientos

by Cornelius Van Til

Usted tiene en sus manos una obra inédita de Cornelius Van Til, prepa-rada aproximadamente en 1933. Van Til adicional a su responsabilidad de enseñar Apologética en Westminster Theological Seminary también tenía la responsabilidad de enseñar Ética antes de que John Murray (1898-1975) empezara a enseñar esta materia. Adicional al manuscrito hemos agregado una introducción biográ-fica por un amigo cercano a Van Til, Robert den Dulk (1938-2007). También decidimos agregar dos apéndices, un obituario de su muerte y una carta a Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984). Esperamos que juntos puedan dar una introducción al pensamiento de Van Til de manera cer-cana y personal. Para los que conocen sus libros, reconocerán que su lectura no resulta fácil, sin embargo quien persevera en ellos encuentra muchas riquezas. Con su estilo inimitable, Cornelius Van Til comienza su tratamiento de los Diez Mandamientos recordándonos que la ética debe estar arraigada en el ser y la autoridad del Dios de las Escrituras. La única alternativa, dice Van Til, es fundamentar las supuestas obligaciones éticas en algo distinto de Dios, es decir, en algo finito. Van Til nos empuja a preguntarnos si las obligaciones o valores éticos que se basan en autoridades, esperanzas o motivos finitos rigen realmente el comportamiento ético de alguna manera universal. Es decir, sobre esta base, ¿hay algo -incluso acciones que inicialmente nos pueden parecer bellas o crueles- que esté bien o mal? ¿Hay algo verdaderamente bueno o malo? La conclusión de Van Til es la ética debe tratar primero de Dios y de su justicia, o no trata de nada en absoluto.

146 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2023

About the author

Cornelius Van Til, was a Christian philosopher, Reformed theologian, and presuppositional apologist.

Biographical sketch

Born on May 3, 1895, in Grootegast, The Netherlands he was the sixth son of Ite and Klazina Van Til, who emigrated to the United States when "Kees," as he was known to friends, was 10. He grew up helping on the family farm in Highland, Indiana.

Van Til graduated from Calvin College in 1922, receiving a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1925 and his PhD from Princeton University in 1927. He began teaching at Princeton, but shortly went with the conservative group who founded Westminster Theological Seminary, where he taught for forty-three years of his life as a professor of apologetics.

He was also a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church from the 1930s until his death in 1987, and in that denomination, he was embroiled in a bitter dispute with Gordon Clark over God's incomprehensibility known as the Clark-Van Til Controversy in which, according to John Frame, neither man was at his best and neither quite understood the other's position.

Van Til's thought

Van Til is perhaps best known for the development of a fresh approach to the task of defending the Christian faith. Although trained in traditional methods he drew on the insights of fellow Calvinistic philosophers Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd to formulate what he viewed as a more consistently Christian methodology. His apologetic focused on the role of presuppositions, the point of contact between believers and unbelievers, and the antithesis between Christian and non-Christian worldviews.

Source: Theopedia