BOOK REVIEW
Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, J P Moreland & W L Craig, Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 2003, 670 pages, $39
For a copy of the original article written in Spanish click here
Introduction
Content
Usefulness for the Latin American pastor or student
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
Introduction
This book is a winner of two book prizes and is an unusual publication. It is a full and, at times, complex description of the philosophical framework for Christian thinking and will stretch the minds of most readers to enter into new areas of thought. As its authors claim, “You are about to embark on an exciting and fascinating journey – the philosophical exploration of some of life’s most important ideas, ideas about reality, God, the soul, knowledge and truth, goodness, and much, much more. Make no mistake about it. Ideas matter. The ideas one really believes largely determine the kind of person one becomes. Everyone has a philosophy of life”
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Content
The publication covers the main areas of philosophy relevant to Christianity: ethics, science, logic, truth and scepticism; and issues concerning the philosophy of religion, ontology, religious epistemology and metaphysics. As this description indicates, the range of material covered is quite encyclopaedic. There are 31 chapters divided into 114 main sections. Each chapter contains an explanation of the significant areas of the discipline.
An example of the complexities of the issues dealt with can be seen in the chapter on Argumentation and Logic, which has two main sections: Deductive Arguments and Inductive Reasoning. Under the Deductive Arguments section there are explanations of True Premises, Plausible Premises and Logically Valid arguments, which include Sentential Logic, First-Order Predicate Logic, Modal Logic, Counterfactual Logic and Informal Fallacies. The section on Inductive Reasoning explains Bayes’ Theorem and the Inference to Best Explanation approach.
Or, for instance, the treatment of the philosophy of science explores areas of scientific methodology, the realism-antirealism debate, the integration of science and theology and the subject of space and time.
Usefulness for the Latin American pastor or student
Within the Roman Catholic Church, its clergy are usually trained with four years philosophical study prior to the study of theology. Within evangelicalism, at best, its leaders are trained with a few classes in philosophy mixed in with their study of theology. Moreland and Craig’s publication provides help on issues of philosophy that will strengthen the pastor in his or her evangelical apologetic while working within a Catholic society.
Also, the publication will enable Christians to realize what is important in shaping their views of the world. How we are to respond to trends in society, technology and city life? Here are principles to think through such issues.
Mainly and most importantly, Moreland and Craig help us to develop our own Christian worldview by causing us to think through the basic issues of our existence.
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
1.
Coverage of modern day philosophical issues that are important to the Christian.
2.
Encyclopaedic information on logic and philosophy.
3.
Provides the philosophical foundations of a Christian worldview.
Weaknesses
1.
Not an easy book to read. The readability indices provided by Amazon.com all indicate that it has a notable level of difficulty.
2.
The publication is prone to describe in detail issues in logic and philosophy and their relevance to the Christian worldview is not made clear.
3.
It deals with the philosophical foundations of worldview, rather than exploring worldviews. Readers will need to go to other books, for example written by James Sire to compare the different worldviews today.
David E.C. Ford
Professor of Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology
Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia