Re: Fable telling
George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Thu, 28 Oct 1999 10:04:23 -0400
mortongr@flash.net wrote:
>
> At 07:51 AM 10/27/1999 -0400, George Murphy wrote:
>
> > Education as a discipleship tool is certainly important but this has
> >not, through Christian history, been what "aplogetics" has meant.
>
> I understand that. But in my opinion apologetics doesn't really draw people
> to the Lord. His love and our love for them, does. But, the lack of
> rational explanations for religious/observational conflicts can drive
> people away. Last night Paul seemed to denigrate rationalism and said that
> that was what atheists have a devotion to. But in fact they have a
> devotion to materialism. But hopefully christians believe that the world
> is rational.
"Rationalism" is too vague a term. The problem which "reason" or "philosophy"
poses for both Christian theology & natural science is not rational thought but the
tendency to impose _a priori_ philosophical presuppositions which then shape succeeding
work. E.g., "God cannot suffer", "Space must be Euclidean", &c. It's in this sense
that good theologians have insisted that reason must have a ministerial, & not a
magisterial, role. "He who wishes to theologize according to Aristotle without
losing his soul must first become thoroughly a fool for Christ" (Luther).
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/