One Good Reason for Developing a Philosophical Mindset

For all you Liberty students taking PHIL201 and finding this page by googling one form or another of your second discussion board topic, if you find this post helpful, take the time to drop a comment.  I'd love to hear from you and where your going with school. KLS.

One good reason for developing a philosophical mindset is that, philosophy helps us to define and clarify what we and others believe. Moreover, I have three reasons to believe this is a sufficient cause to culture a philosophical mindset.

First, for Christians, there is eternal significance in defining and clarifying one’s beliefs. In creation, God, whose mind is the final residency of the real, rationality, unity, coherence, et cetera, created humans in his image to reflect his rationality and glory in the world and so view it aright. Adopting and engendering a view of God, the world, and ourselves as his creatures, is a fundamental step in correctly reflecting God’s image. However, since man’s fall, our natural tendency is to throw of God’s view of things and create false epistemological constructs and pseudo-realities, wherein we ourselves become the ultimate authorities in predicating the real, the right, and the reasonable. Through the redemption in Christ, we are rescued from the futility of our self-idolatry; we are renewed in true knowledge after the image of him that created him (Col 3:10), given the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), and are thus enabled to again love the Lord our God with all our minds, thinking God’s thoughts after him (Mk 12:30). Finally, for the Christian, developing a philosophical mindset is an integral part of continually growing in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18); it is a discipline within the sanctification process.

Secondly, with respect to others, be they authors, movie producers, bloggers, or the next door neighbor, defining and clarifying the beliefs of others is critically important. Regarding beliefs and entire belief systems, there is no neutrality in one’s relation to God (Lk 16:13). Christ is the ultimate dilemma, one is either for him or against him; neutrality and middle ground are excluded (Matt 12:30). Everyone’s beliefs are therefore covenantally conditioned by their relationship to God. One will have either Christ speaking in his self-attesting word as their ultimate epistemological authority or will surrogate himself or herself as that authority. A philosophical mindset helps the Christian examine and systematize the corollaries and consequences of the innumerable non-Christian worldviews, which make up the philosophical ambiance and spirit of our age.

Third, then, is the profit of a philosophical mindset in the relation of the two antithetical views expressed in the two points above. By aiding us to define and clarify both our own and the beliefs of others, developing a philosophical mindset helps to detect and avoid the temptation of syncretism, the dangerous admixture of humanistic, materialistic, or otherwise antagonistic beliefs incompatible with Christian presuppositions. We hereby avoid the sin of “double mindedness” (James 1:8; 4:8; cf. Ps 119:113). Furthermore, on the one hand, by being enabled to define and clarify beliefs, Christians are in a much better position to defend and commend the gospel and the worldview in terms of which the gospel makes sense. On the other hand, we are better equipped to understand and deconstruct the non-Christian worldviews that are raised as strongholds against the knowledge of God in Christ (2 Cor 10:4, 5). Cultivating a philosophical mindset equips Christians to answer the folly of competing worldviews without becoming foolish themselves (Prov 26:4, 5).

The Ultimate Lex Talionic Judgment!

“The devil was conquered by his own trophy of victory. The devil jumped for joy, when he seduced the first man and cast him down to death. By seducing the first man, he slew him; by slaying the last man, he lost the first from his snare. The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ came when he rose, and ascended into heaven; then was fulfilled what you have heard when the Apocalypse was being read, ‘The Lion of the tribe of Judah has won the day’ [Rev 5:5]…The devil jumped for joy when Christ died; and by the very death of Christ the devil was overcome: he took, as it were, the bait in the mousetrap. He rejoiced at the death, thinking himself death’s commander. But that which caused his joy dangled the bait before him. The Lord’s cross was the devils’ mousetrap: the bait which caught him was the death of the Lord!”

— Augustine, Sermons, 261

Physical --> Spiritual Description of Isaac

AUTHOR’S DESCRIPTION OF ISAAC IN GEN 27

A character study of Isaac in the twilight of his life can be summed up in one word, “sense-less,” and that on all levels. Explicit in the text of Gen 27 is Moses’ description of Isaac as “old” (though Isaac lived another 43 years) and that “his eyes were dim so that he could not see” (v 1). Despite the physical infirmities that come with a goodly age, Isaac is describe as still having a strong appetite for the venison table fare produced by his eldest son, Esau (vv 3—4). As said, Isaac suffered from “sense-less-ness” on all levels, lacking both the empirical sensitivity required to distinguish between his sons’ persons and the cognitive and spiritual perception to distinguish between his two sons’ character. Isaac presented a five-fold test to Jacob, only one of which Jacob’s craftiness was unable to pass unscathed. There was the test of logic (v 20), of touch (vv 21—22), of hearing (v 22), of integrity (v 24), and of smell (v 27). Only the middle test, that ‘of hearing,’ was efficacious; this suspicion, however, was supplanted (pun intended) by the results of the second, that of touch.

AUTHOR’S INTENTION WITH HIS DESCRIPTION OF ISAAC IN GEN 27

Sailhamer suggests that Moses’ description of Isaac as old and blind is “perhaps an attempt to ease Isaac’s culpability” in the matter. Too many other factors weigh against Sailhamer’s charity, however. Isaac could not have been ignorant of Yahweh’s word to Rebekah, that “the elder shall serve the younger” (25:23c). Yet in chapter 27 Moses highlights a key factor in the blessing that, for all intents and purposes, would have made Esau “lord over [his] brothers” (27:29b; cf. vv 37, 40a). Neither could have Esau’s crassly pragmatic disregard for his birthright been a secret beyond Isaac’s knowledge (25:29—34). Finally, Moses uses parallel language to describe Jacob/Israel’s death-bed blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh (27:1 // 48:10). Jacob, in this case, was even “ill” (48:1), and actually died the moment he finished the blessing of the patriarchs (48:21; 49:33). Moses, therefore, explicitly tells the reader of Isaac’s age and optical challenges in order to lead them to implicitly perceive his spiritual infirmities. The explicit description of Isaac’s physical blindness was intended by Moses to lead the reader to perceive Isaac’s spiritual blindness.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barker, Kenneth L., John R. Kohlenberger editors, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Abridged Edition: Old Testament. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan (1994)

Davis, John J., Paradise to Prison. Sheffield Publishing Company: Salem, Wisconsin (1998)

Ellicott, Charles J., Ellicott’s Bible Commentary, One Volume. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan (1971)

Walton, John H., Genesis in The NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan: Grand Rapids (2001)