101 Key Terms in Philosophy and Their Importance for Theology

by Kelly James Clark, Richard Lints, James K.A. Smith

Written by two philosophers and a theologian, this book provides easy access to key terms in philosophy and how they are understood and used in theology. The focused entries discuss what the terms have meant in classical and contemporary philosophy and then shift to what these philosophical understandings have meant in the history of Christian theology to the present day. The result is a unique volume that clearly shows the interplay of these disciplines and how theology has been influenced by the language and vocabulary of philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Reference, Nonfiction, Christianity

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Kelly James Clark is an American philosopher noted for his work in the philosophy of religion, science and religion, and the cognitive science of religion.

He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame where his dissertation advisor was Alvin Plantinga. He has held professorships at Calvin College, Oxford University, University of St. Andrews, Notre Dame & Gordon College. He also served as Executive Director for the Society of Christian Philosophers from 1994 to 2009.

He is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Professor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Michigan.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was excellent and is probably the best of its kind. It aims at showing how certain philosophical terms affect theology. Below is a sampling followed by my criticisms of key parts. The sampling is not word-for-word from the text but my reflections on it.

Good section on apologetics. what is considered as “rational” is always conditioned by pre-rational beliefs and assumptions (7). Is this similar to Dooyeweerd’s “pre-theoretical thought?” They note elsewhere that “what goes under the name ‘reason’ depends on religious commitments” (28).

Epistemology: the standard question was phrased around justified true belief: a person p knows x if and only if p believes x and p belief in x is justified and p is true. Plantinga has replaced and bettered this model with “a belief is warranted if it is produced by our cognitive faculties working in accord with their design (20).

Human nature. What makes us human? The options are usually functionalistic (define by what people do) or some form of essentialism. Both accounts are inadequate, as any good text on the imago dei will make clear. Recent discussions suggest that God’s Triune relationality is an analogy. Humans are not seen as static individuals but humans-in-a-relationship. This isn’t perfect, but it is a good way forward.

Rationality. Measures how one believes, not what. It is person- and situation-specific. We trust the beliefs produced by our cognitive faculties unless we have good reason to reject them.
the problem with the evidentialist’s demand is that such evidence cannot be provided in a large number of cases with the cognitive faculties with which we have to work.

If we were required to prove everything, there would be an infinite regress of provings.
“We have been outfitted with cognitive faculties that produce beliefs we can reason from” (80).
the sensus divinitas is one such reasonable belief. a) most of our cognitive faculties produce beliefs immediately, without reasoning or evidence. b) belief in God is more like belief in a person than a scientific hypothesis.

Criticisms:

They seem to link Barth with the Social Trinitarians and the stressing of plurality of persons over unity of essence (89), but this is false. Barth is usually accused of being a modalist! In any sense, Barth preferred tropos hyparchos over “person” as a Trinitarian category.

Smith begins his section on aesthetics with a good discussion of Platonism’s rejection of art as a category of knowledge. That’s fine but then he projects that understanding forward to modern-day Reformed, and then ties in the Reformed with 8th century iconoclasts. While many Reformed are gnostic platonists, the main reformed objection is not that beauty is bad and the divine can’t be imaged, but what has God said for his worship? Smith writes, “appeal is often made to the liturgy...where all of the senses are engaged in order to communicate the truth of grace” (1). Maybe so, but that is no safeguard. Any Baalist in ancient Israel could have made the same argument. “We aren’t worshipping the image, you silly Jew; we are worshipping God through the Golden Calf.” Nadab and Abihu could rightly claim, then, that we were creatively re-dramatizing the Beauty concept. God fried them as a result.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading through this. It's fairly short and not entirely comprehensive but nonetheless a judicious selection of philosophical terms, names, and ideas that are important to know. They attempt to tie each term to its place in historical theology which is also helpful.

[Anderson Rhom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful!

[David Goetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful little volume that does what the authors wanted done.

You can tell when it was written by the frequent references to Radical Orthodoxy and postmodernism and deconstruction, but it's far from dated. As the authors note in the intro, they generally "avoid discussions that are merely trendy" and craft definitions that are "deeply rooted in history; the most cited terms are Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, and the Enlightenment" (viii). They strike a good balance on the analytic / continental front, introduce important figures and situate them historically, introduce important terms and clarify their meanings, organize each particular entry so as to maximize lucidity, avoid being reactionary, and generally do a bang-up job of showing the relevance of these 101 Key Terms to the work of theology.

[Bojan Tunguz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a useful resource and a reference work. The book is a compendium of 101 philosophical terms that are of particular relevance for anyone who is interested in theology. It is probably not the most comprehensive list of those terms, but all the references are very well written and intelligible. I think it will be particularly useful to people who study and read theological works on their own. Even in the age of Internet and easy access to information, it is still good to have all the terms covered in a single accessible book.

[Eric Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading theology, this book was extremely helpful. Most theology that I read involves some involvement with philosophical concepts and this book lays out many of those key terms that I continue to run into again and again. The three authors involved in compiling and editing these definitions serves to provide a helpful range of terms as well. Highly recommended for beginning theology students and for philosophy students with an interest in theology.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exactly the most interesting book for those who don't like to think about philosophy, being of that mind compels me to extol any book that hybridizes all of my undergraduate and graduate studies.