A History of Western Philosophy and Theology

by John Frame

Publisher:

P&R

, 2015

Overview

The Western philosophical tradition is diverse and tumultuous, but how did we get to where we are now? Arguing that all philosophical and theological claims must be evaluated by Scripture, John Frame leads readers through a detailed account of how our thought has progressed from Socractes to Jesus, from Jesus to Luther, and from Luther to the postmodern malaise. Providing detailed analysis of the West's best thinkers and their most important ideas, Frame tests each one against the Bible's testimony to Jesus Christ and helps Christians understand their faith in the context of the intellectual unfolding of the West.

Key Features

• Examines Western philosophy and theology through the lens of the Bible
• Challenges Christians to delve more deeply into God’s Word
• Encourages a biblical evaluation of secular intellectual challenges

Contents

• Philosophy and the Bible
  • Why Study Philosophy?
  • Philosophy, Theology, and Religion
  • Subdivisions of Philosophy
  • Relations of the Three Subdivisions
  • Biblical Philosophy
  • Perspectives of Human Knowledge
  • Sin and Philosophy
  • Christian and Non-Christian Philosophy
  • The Antithesis in Metaphysics
  • The Antithesis in Epistemology
  • The Antithesis in Values
• Greek Philosophy
  • Greek Worldviews: One and Many
  • The Greek Way of Worship
  • Philosophy, the New Religion
  • A Survey of Greek Philosophy
  • Conclusion
• Early Christian Philosophy
  • The Apostolic Fathers
  • The Apologists
  • Justin Martyr
  • Irenaeus
  • Tertullian
  • Clement of Alexandria
  • Origen
  • Athanasius
  • Augustine
• Medieval Philosophy
  • Boethius
  • Pseudo-Dionysius
  • John Scotus Erigena
  • Anselm of Canterbury
  • Toward Scholasticism
  • Thomas Aquinas
  • John Duns Scotus
  • William of Occam
  • Eckhart von Hochheim
  • Epilogue
• Early Modern Thought
  • The Renaissance
  • The Reformation
  • Post-Reformation Protestantism
  • Rebirth of Secular Philosophy
  • Continental Rationalism
  • British Empiricism
  • Summary
• Theology in the Enlightenment
  • The Birth of Liberal Theology
  • Biblical Christianity in the Enlightenment
  • Summary
• Kant and His Successors
  • Immanuel Kant
  • Georg W.F. Hegel
  • Arthur Schopenhauer
  • Ludwig Feuerbach
  • Karl Marx
• Nineteenth-Century Theology
  • Friedrich D.E. Schleiermacher
  • Albrecht Ritschl
  • Wilhelm Herrmann
  • Adolf von Harnack
  • The Rise and Fall of Ritschlianism
  • Søren Kierkegaard
• Nietzsche, Pragmatism, Phenomenology, and Existentialism
  • Friedrich W. Nietzsche
  • Charles Sanders Peirce
  • William James
  • John Dewey
  • Edmund Husserl
  • Martin Heidegger
  • Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Other Existentialists
  • Evaluation
• Twentieth-Century Liberal Theology, Part 1
  • Karl Barth
  • Emil Brunner
  • Rudolf Bultmann
  • Paul Tillich
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • The New Hermeneutic
  • New Quests
  • Heilsgeschichte
  • Christian Atheism
  • Secular Theology
  • The Hartford Declaration
• Twentieth-Century Liberal Theology, Part 2
  • Jürgen Moltmann
  • The Theology of Liberation
  • Wolfhart Pannenberg
  • Process Thought
  • Open Theism
  • Postliberal Theology
• Twentieth-Century Language Philosophy
  • G.E. Moore
  • Bertrand Russell
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • Logical Positivism
  • Other Philosophies of Science
  • Ordinary-Language Philosophy
  • Other Analytic Philosophers
  • Ordinary-Language Philosophy
  • Structuralism
  • Poststructuralism, Deconstruction, Postmodernism
• Recent Christian Philosophy
  • Abraham Kuyper
  • Herman Dooyeweerd
  • Gordon H. Clark
  • Cornelius Van Til
  • Alvin Plantinga
  • Other Christian Language-Analysis Philosophers in North America
  • British Christian Philosophers
  • Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
  • Radical Orthodoxy
  • Esther Lightcap Meek
  • Vern S. Poythress
  • Epilogue

Top Highlights

“I define theology as ‘the application of the Word of God, by persons, to every aspect of human life.’^{8” (Page 4)}

“Epistemology is theory of knowledge. It asks: ‘What is knowledge?’ ‘How is knowledge possible?’ ‘How should we go about knowing?’ ‘How do we distinguish truth from falsity, reality from appearance?’” (Page 11)

“The chief benefit in studying Greek thought is to better understand the philosophical and cultural consequences of rejecting biblical theism.” (Page 46)

“My whole idea is to expose the fact that the history of philosophy and theology is nothing less than spiritual warfare in the life of the mind.” (Page xxvi)

“What distinguishes the Greek philosophers from the Greek religions and from other ancient wisdom teachers is their insistence on the supremacy of human reason, what I will call rational autonomy.” (Page 51)

Praise for the Print Edition

John Frame has done it again! In the lucid and comprehensive style of his Theology of Lordship volumes, he here presents a full overview of Western thought about knowledge of God as it must appear to all who receive Holy Scripture, as he does, as the record, product, and present reality of God speaking. And the solid brilliance of the narrative makes it a most effective advocacy for the Kuyper-Van Til perspective that in a well-digested form it represents. It is a further outstanding achievement by John Frame.

—J.I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia

Few in our day champion a vision of God that is as massive, magnificent, and biblical as John Frame’s. For decades, he has given himself to the church, to his students, and to meticulous thinking and the rigorous study of the Bible. He has winsomely, patiently, and persuasively contended for the gospel in the secular philosophical arena, as well as in the thick of the church worship wars and wrestlings with feminism and open theism. He brings together a rare blend of big-picture thinking, levelheaded reflection, biblical fidelity, a love for the gospel and the church, and the ability to write with care and clarity.

—John Piper, chancellor, Bethlehem College and Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Professor Frame unabashedly tries to think through sources and movements out of the framework (bad pun intended) of deep-seated Christian commitments, and invites his readers to do the same. These commitments, combined with the format of a seminary or college textbook, will make this work invaluable to students and pastors who tire of ostensible neutrality that is no more neutral than the next volume. Agree or disagree with some of his arguments, but John Frame will teach you how to think in theological and philosophical categories.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Product Details

• Title: A History of Western Philosophy and Theology
• Author: John Frame
• Edition: 1st Ed.
• Publisher: P&R
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 928
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Christian philosophy › History; Theology › History
• ISBNs: 9781629950846, 9781629950853, 9781629950860, 162995084X, 1629950858, 1629950866
• Resource ID: LLS:HSTWSTRNPHLSPTH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:39:24Z

About John Frame

John M. Frame (b. 1939) is an American philosopher and a Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in epistemology, presuppositional apologetics, systematic theology, and ethics. He is one of the foremost interpreters and critics of the thought of Cornelius Van Til. Dr. Frame formerly taught at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, and Westminster Theological Seminary.