Philosophy for Understanding Theology
Overview
Philosophy for Understanding Theology has become the classic text for exploring the relationship between philosophy and Christian theology. This new edition adds chapters on postmodernism and questions of the self and the good to bring the book up to date with current scholarship. It introduces students to the influence that key philosophers and philosophical movements through the centuries have had on shaping Christian theology in both its understandings and forms of expression.
Top Highlights
“The two main sources of Christian theology are the Bible and Hellenic culture, especially Greek philosophy.” (Page xv)
“Timaeus, who proceeds to describe the creation of the visible world. He asks rhetorically, ‘What is that which always is and has no becoming?’ (28).1 The contrast between what is unchanging or ‘being,’ on the one hand, and ‘becoming,’ on the other, is fundamental to Greek philosophy. It is a contrast between what is fundamental, primary, or ultimate and what is dependent and derivative. Timaeus’s question is thus a request for what is ultimate.” (Pages 2–3)
“Here Timaeus makes a cryptic remark that reverberated powerfully in the Christian reader’s ear: ‘The father and maker of all this universe is past finding out, and even if we found him, to tell of him to all men would be impossible’ (28c).” (Page 3)
“As a result of this particular attitude, which led to the very notion of a ‘discipline,’ the ancient Greeks became the founders of many of our traditional disciplines, including theology itself.” (Page xviii)
“Three other existentialists should be mentioned. First is Martin Buber (1878–1965), a Jewish philosopher who focused on the ‘I-Thou’ relation. He singled out dialogue as the prime reality, in contrast to the solitary self. This deeply influenced Protestantism, especially in developing a new approach to revelation. The revelation of God is no longer seen to be primarily propositions or statements. God is said to be one who is always a subject in relation to us. God is not an object of knowledge but one who is known only in encounter.” (Pages 195–196)
- Title: Philosophy for Understanding Theology
- Authors: Diogenes Allen, Eric O. Springsted
- Edition: Second Edition
- Publisher: Westminster John Knox
- Print Publication Date: 2007
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Philosophical theology; Philosophy › History; Christianity › Philosophy
- ISBNs: 9780664231804, 0664231802
- Resource ID: LLS:PHLSPHYNDRS2DTN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:13:07Z