A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
by Fred G. Zaspel
In his Redeeming books, Vern Poythress has long set out to provide a Christian view of all the varied departments of learning (see titles below). Here he takes up that basic department of study given to investigate the foundations of learning and knowing and to answer life’s most important questions. He surveys the varieties of Western philosophy and sketches the Christian view of God, humanity, morality, and the meaning of life.
Poythress, always characterized by superior depth and breadth of learning yet remarkable simplicity of presentation, provides a uniquely helpful introduction to Christian worldview.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Basic Issues in Exploring Big Questions
1 The Big Questions about Life
2 The Bible as a Resource
3 Opposite Approaches to Philosophy
Part 2: Metaphysics: What Is There?
4 Inadequate Philosophies
5 Christian Metaphysics
Part 3: Perspectives
6 Introducing Perspectives
7 Multiperspectivalism
8 Perspectives on God
9 Perspectives on the World
10 Perspectives through Language
11 Implications for Theology
Part 4: Examples of Metaphysical Analysis
12 Metaphysics of an Apple
13 Metaphysics of Walking
14 Metaphysics of a Bookmark
15 Perspectives in Combination
Part 5: Other Subdivisions of Philosophy
16 Ethics
17 Epistemology
18 The Soul, the Mind, and Psychology
19 Logic
20 Aesthetics
21 Specialized Branches of Philosophy
Part 6: Interacting with Defective Philosophies
22 The Challenge of Philosophies
23 Immanuel Kant
24 Edmund Husserl
25 Analytic Philosophy
Conclusion
Appendix A: Cosmonomic Philosophy
Appendix B: Perspectives on the Trinity
Appendix C: The Structure of a Bookmark
Selected Quotes
- “Believers think that the present state of affairs, including the state of human minds, is abnormal. It is ruined by the fall into sin, and the effects of sin. Unbelievers, by contrast, think that the present state of the human mind is normal.” (28)
- “Human beings are supposed to find out and learn much more about God and his world than they knew at the beginning. Ideally, they do this exploration in service to God, with love for God (Deut. 6:5) and in communion with God.” (46)
- “There can be no other ultimate foundation for perspectives than in God himself. God alone is absolute.” (91)
- “Because God plays a leading role in our knowledge, and because our knowledge of God involves mystery, all our knowledge includes mystery at every point. Only God’s knowledge of himself is nonmysterious.” (104)
- We conclude, therefore, that the metaphysics of the world is just what the Bible says, in all its multiple genres, multiple subject matters, multiple discussions of these multiple subject matters, and multiple paragraphs, which interlock with multiple human beings, whom the Bible presents with multiple opinions and multiple points of view (not all of which, of course, are approved by God!). (107)
- “If we believe, on the basis of Scripture, that God has designed all the perspectives, multiperspectival metaphysics describes from a human point of view what God has done and is doing.” (158)
- “Our exploration of metaphysics also has implications for logic. Logic must reckon with the multiperspectival character of the world and of human knowledge of the world, rather than trying to reduce truth to one dimension. How does this reckoning change our view of logic?” (222)
- “The basic idea of Christian philosophy is simple: in whatever you are thinking about, pay attention to God and to what he says in the Bible. Receive its instruction as God’s instruction, giving you wisdom.” (237)
More titles from Vern Poythress:
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- Redeeming Reason: A God-Centered Approach [Paperback | Kindle]
- Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach [Paperback]
- Redeeming Mathematics: A God-Centered Approach [Paperback | Kindle]
- Redeeming Sociology: A God-Centered Approach [Kindle]
- Redeeming Our Thinking about History: A God-Centered Approach [Paperback | Kindle]
- Philosophy, Science, and the Sovereignty of God [Paperback | Kindle]
- Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought [Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle]
- Knowing and the Trinity: How Perspectives in Human Knowledge Imitate the Trinity [Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle]
- In the Beginning Was the Word: Language–A God-Centered Approach [Paperback | Kindle]
- Chance and the Sovereignty of God: A God-Centered Approach to Probability and Random Events [Paperback | Kindle]
- Making Sense of the World: How the Trinity Helps to Explain Reality [Hardcover | Kindle]
- Making Sense of Man: Using Biblical Perspectives to Develop a Theology of Humanity [Hardcover | Kindle]
- Making Sense of Creation and Fall: How Themes in Genesis 1–3 Help Us Understand the Bible, God, and Ourselves [Hardcover | Kindle]
- God-Centered Biblical Interpretation [Paperback]
- Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning [Paperback | Kindle]
- Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible [Paperback | Kindle]
- Inerrancy and the Gospels: A God-Centered Approach to the Challenges of Harmonization [Paperback | Kindle]
- Translating Truth: The Case for Essentially Literal Bible Translation [Paperback | Kindle]
- The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy: Muting the Masculinity of God’s Words [Paperback]
- Reading the Word of God in the Presence of God: A Handbook for Biblical Interpretation [Paperback | Kindle]
- The Mystery of the Trinity: A Trinitarian Approach to the Attributes of God [Hardcover | Kindle]
- Mediator: A Biblical Theology [Paperback | Kindle]
- Biblical Typology: How the Old Testament Points to Christ, His Church, and the Consummation [Paperback | Kindle]
- Interpreting Eden: A Guide to Faithfully Reading and Understanding Genesis 1-3 [Paperback | Kindle]
- What Are Spiritual Gifts? [Paperback]
- Christian Interpretations of Genesis 1 [Paperback]
- Did Adam Exist? [Paperback]
- The Miracles of Jesus: How the Savior’s Mighty Acts Serve as Signs of Redemption [Paperback | Kindle]
- Theophany: A Biblical Theology of God’s Appearing [Kindle]
- The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses [Paperback | Kindle]
- The Lordship of Christ: Serving Our Savior All of the Time, in All of Life, with All of Our Heart [Paperback | Kindle]