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Varieties of Christian apologetics / Bernard Ramm
Book by Ramm, Bernard L
199 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
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February 6, 2019
Whew. Finally done with this. A lot of this book was over my head. I'm not even sure where we picked this book up but I kind of went into it blind. By "apologetics" the author means "the strategy of setting for the truthfulness of the Christian faith and its right to the claim of the knowledge of God." However, it seemed that a lot of the men whose systems were examined weren't Christians in the orthodox sense of the word so I think "Theistic Apologetics" might be a more appropriate title.
I struggled to read this for several reasons. One, I'm not very good with abstract thought. The philosophies espoused by many of these thinkers were often hard to grasp. Two, this is not an entry level book. The author references LOTS of people and ideologies with no explanation or introduction throughout each essay as a means of description and comparison/contrast and since I wasn't familiar with them, it wasn't really helpful. Three, I might not be remembering the intro adequately, but the author isn't neutral in his summary of these men and there would be some subtle and some blatant value statements attached to some of the thoughts that seemed out of place. I'm so happy to finally be done that I just can't make myself go back and re-read the intro, but I don't remember the author indicating his views up front in a way that made his value statements make sense. Four, the author would suddenly get very casual with his reactions to certain thoughts that abruptly changed the tone from detached/academic to opinionated/judgmental and I thought that was annoying. After reading How to Read a Book I resolved to make my way through this book despite the difficulty because, from Adler, I learned the value of reading things above my head, but it was tough.
I did, however, pick up some things about apologetics in general and about the philosophies/theologies of the men summarized. The summarizes I followed easier than others tended to be heavier on orthodox theology than classic philosophy (although the distinction between theology and philosophy was one of the matters examined so it's kind of a false dichotomy). It was interesting to me to read about the many ways that people have approached knowing God and knowing truth (which some would say is the same thing) and it's also interesting to see how these men have impacted each other (and millions of others) over time.
The book is divided into three categories, each comprised of the summaries of three different men: those whose systems stress subjective immediacy, those whose systems stress natural theology and those whose systems stress revelation. For my own reference I'm including some highlights from each person examined (for anyone reading, take my observations with a grain of salt; they're not summaries of their thinking, they're just things that stood out to me to help me distinguish one from another).
Stressing subjective immediacy:
Blaise Pascal
-You can't reason your way to faith; the heart must experience God.
-He denies Descartes' rationality as not really dealing with faith and life.
-Hidden God/Depraved Man
-Man is both the pride and the refuse of the universe (up/down)
-Christ-centric
Soren Kierkegaard
-Faith is passionate; knowing is transformative
-God is eternal and wholly other; man is finite and sinful
-Three stages of experience/living: immediacy/pleasure, ethical, religious
-Goal of man is happiness
-Subjective experience (inwardness)
Emil Brunner
-God is Savior, not philosophical
-Against Roman Catholicism and Fundamentalism
-Focus on revelation (self-manifestation of God), "the whole divine activity for the salvation of the world"
-Encounter/conversation
-Christ is the Word of God, the Bible is the Word of God where it speaks of Christ (uninspired otherwise)
-Rational knowledge and revealed knowledge (faith) are separate, but on a continuum
-Guilt is what prompts man to understand his need of a confrontation with God
Stressing Natural Theology:
Thomas Aquinas
-Everything consists of matter and form
-Knowledge comes from senses
-The being of God is easier to argue than his essence (qualities)
-God gives reason
-Independent modern philosophy can stand alone because man's power to reason is separate from theology (this is common ground with the heathen)
-Reason is limited (so we need revelation)
-The existence of God is known by his effects; his essence is known by all that he isn't (successive abstractions); he isn't in time so he is eternal, etc.
-Reason is superior in how it knows, but faith is superior in what it knows.
Joseph Butler
-Knowledge (including religious knowledge) is obtained by probability (as every man proceeds through life he collects hundreds of such similarities and forges them into rules of conduct).
-God acts the same in all his domains so we know things by analogy (he is Governor of nature, Lord of religion and Giver of revelation)
-Reason is circumscribed by the senses
-The critic has no right to ask more from the Scripture than the Scripture promises and the Christian scholar is not to commit the Christian faith to that which the Scriptures are not committed.
-Reason judges revelation ("Let reason be kept to: and if any part of the Scripture account of the redemption of the world by Christ can be shown to be really contrary to it, let the Scripture, in the name of God, be given up.")
-We must see the universe from the apex down and not from the base up, even though in our order of knowing we must work from the base to the apex
F. R. Tennant
-Much of the universe is inexplicable
-Profundity of experience does not prove its reality
-Psychology deals with the problem of knowledge within us; history deals with it in the universe
-Senses need the mind for guidance and the mind needs the senses for data
-Proof of soul: awareness of being aware
-Proof of God: science/nature and teleology
Stressing Revelation:
Augustine
-Quest for certainty
-Truth is located within the self (not within the senses)
-Progression moves from doubt to knowledge (doubt implies that there are things that can be known) to truth to God (where truth is, God is)
-All truth (secular and sacred) is an illumination of the mind by God
-Faith is to think with assent
-Faith precedes, intellect follows (a friendly disposition is the prerequisite for all learning)
-The universe is the greatest miracle of all
John Calvin
-Christian faith is autonomous (it doesn't rely on philosophy)
-Man has knowledge of God
-We understand ourselves after understanding God
-Knowing God has implications (if we truly know God we will love, worship and trust him)
-Our depravity requires special revelation through the Spirit and the Word
-The Word's authority is superior to the Church's authority
Abraham Kuyper
-Christianity calls for a total life perspective
-Calvinism harmonizes pretty much all of life
-Faith is a structural part of universal human nature (all people experience faith in some way)
-It's not faith vs. reason, but faith vs. demonstration (faith is the presupposition of all demonstration)
-There is seven-fold corrosion of the mind because of sin (interesting list)
-Revelation may exist as tradition
-A true theologian must be regenerated (just as deaf men can't lecture on music so unregenerate men cannot treat theology)
-Logic is free from the damage of sin, but divine things need illumination
In the end, the book is helpful for getting an introduction to these men and an overview of their philosophy/theology. It might be a good reference. It has broadened my awareness of the many ways to conceive of knowledge, reason, truth, God, miracles, science, self, and a whole host of other topics. It was good for me to try to wade through it, but there was a lot that I couldn't grasp. It will be interesting to come back to this in several years and see if any more of it makes sense (I'd love to think it will, but abstract thought has always been a weak point).
I struggled to read this for several reasons. One, I'm not very good with abstract thought. The philosophies espoused by many of these thinkers were often hard to grasp. Two, this is not an entry level book. The author references LOTS of people and ideologies with no explanation or introduction throughout each essay as a means of description and comparison/contrast and since I wasn't familiar with them, it wasn't really helpful. Three, I might not be remembering the intro adequately, but the author isn't neutral in his summary of these men and there would be some subtle and some blatant value statements attached to some of the thoughts that seemed out of place. I'm so happy to finally be done that I just can't make myself go back and re-read the intro, but I don't remember the author indicating his views up front in a way that made his value statements make sense. Four, the author would suddenly get very casual with his reactions to certain thoughts that abruptly changed the tone from detached/academic to opinionated/judgmental and I thought that was annoying. After reading How to Read a Book I resolved to make my way through this book despite the difficulty because, from Adler, I learned the value of reading things above my head, but it was tough.
I did, however, pick up some things about apologetics in general and about the philosophies/theologies of the men summarized. The summarizes I followed easier than others tended to be heavier on orthodox theology than classic philosophy (although the distinction between theology and philosophy was one of the matters examined so it's kind of a false dichotomy). It was interesting to me to read about the many ways that people have approached knowing God and knowing truth (which some would say is the same thing) and it's also interesting to see how these men have impacted each other (and millions of others) over time.
The book is divided into three categories, each comprised of the summaries of three different men: those whose systems stress subjective immediacy, those whose systems stress natural theology and those whose systems stress revelation. For my own reference I'm including some highlights from each person examined (for anyone reading, take my observations with a grain of salt; they're not summaries of their thinking, they're just things that stood out to me to help me distinguish one from another).
Stressing subjective immediacy:
Blaise Pascal
-You can't reason your way to faith; the heart must experience God.
-He denies Descartes' rationality as not really dealing with faith and life.
-Hidden God/Depraved Man
-Man is both the pride and the refuse of the universe (up/down)
-Christ-centric
Soren Kierkegaard
-Faith is passionate; knowing is transformative
-God is eternal and wholly other; man is finite and sinful
-Three stages of experience/living: immediacy/pleasure, ethical, religious
-Goal of man is happiness
-Subjective experience (inwardness)
Emil Brunner
-God is Savior, not philosophical
-Against Roman Catholicism and Fundamentalism
-Focus on revelation (self-manifestation of God), "the whole divine activity for the salvation of the world"
-Encounter/conversation
-Christ is the Word of God, the Bible is the Word of God where it speaks of Christ (uninspired otherwise)
-Rational knowledge and revealed knowledge (faith) are separate, but on a continuum
-Guilt is what prompts man to understand his need of a confrontation with God
Stressing Natural Theology:
Thomas Aquinas
-Everything consists of matter and form
-Knowledge comes from senses
-The being of God is easier to argue than his essence (qualities)
-God gives reason
-Independent modern philosophy can stand alone because man's power to reason is separate from theology (this is common ground with the heathen)
-Reason is limited (so we need revelation)
-The existence of God is known by his effects; his essence is known by all that he isn't (successive abstractions); he isn't in time so he is eternal, etc.
-Reason is superior in how it knows, but faith is superior in what it knows.
Joseph Butler
-Knowledge (including religious knowledge) is obtained by probability (as every man proceeds through life he collects hundreds of such similarities and forges them into rules of conduct).
-God acts the same in all his domains so we know things by analogy (he is Governor of nature, Lord of religion and Giver of revelation)
-Reason is circumscribed by the senses
-The critic has no right to ask more from the Scripture than the Scripture promises and the Christian scholar is not to commit the Christian faith to that which the Scriptures are not committed.
-Reason judges revelation ("Let reason be kept to: and if any part of the Scripture account of the redemption of the world by Christ can be shown to be really contrary to it, let the Scripture, in the name of God, be given up.")
-We must see the universe from the apex down and not from the base up, even though in our order of knowing we must work from the base to the apex
F. R. Tennant
-Much of the universe is inexplicable
-Profundity of experience does not prove its reality
-Psychology deals with the problem of knowledge within us; history deals with it in the universe
-Senses need the mind for guidance and the mind needs the senses for data
-Proof of soul: awareness of being aware
-Proof of God: science/nature and teleology
Stressing Revelation:
Augustine
-Quest for certainty
-Truth is located within the self (not within the senses)
-Progression moves from doubt to knowledge (doubt implies that there are things that can be known) to truth to God (where truth is, God is)
-All truth (secular and sacred) is an illumination of the mind by God
-Faith is to think with assent
-Faith precedes, intellect follows (a friendly disposition is the prerequisite for all learning)
-The universe is the greatest miracle of all
John Calvin
-Christian faith is autonomous (it doesn't rely on philosophy)
-Man has knowledge of God
-We understand ourselves after understanding God
-Knowing God has implications (if we truly know God we will love, worship and trust him)
-Our depravity requires special revelation through the Spirit and the Word
-The Word's authority is superior to the Church's authority
Abraham Kuyper
-Christianity calls for a total life perspective
-Calvinism harmonizes pretty much all of life
-Faith is a structural part of universal human nature (all people experience faith in some way)
-It's not faith vs. reason, but faith vs. demonstration (faith is the presupposition of all demonstration)
-There is seven-fold corrosion of the mind because of sin (interesting list)
-Revelation may exist as tradition
-A true theologian must be regenerated (just as deaf men can't lecture on music so unregenerate men cannot treat theology)
-Logic is free from the damage of sin, but divine things need illumination
In the end, the book is helpful for getting an introduction to these men and an overview of their philosophy/theology. It might be a good reference. It has broadened my awareness of the many ways to conceive of knowledge, reason, truth, God, miracles, science, self, and a whole host of other topics. It was good for me to try to wade through it, but there was a lot that I couldn't grasp. It will be interesting to come back to this in several years and see if any more of it makes sense (I'd love to think it will, but abstract thought has always been a weak point).
September 14, 2022
This book is really solid. I love the concept of categorizing methods by what each one “stresses”. However I think there are other methods that have distinct stresses that this work doesn’t cover.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews