Understanding and Owning Christian Theology

Week 1 (Aug 7): Right, Biblical Thinking – Why it matters

 Intro:

I grew up in a Christian home and was taught the Christian faith all my life. When I went to college I was confronted with really smart people that believed things I had never thought of and I didn’t know what to think. I thought evolution was just something to laugh at and only unthinking people believed in – I was wrong and became somewhat disoriented. I talked to people that believed that there is no God to depend on, and there is literally nothing that, given time, man could not accomplish (e.g. unaided flying). I talked to other Christians that didn’t believe the same things I did, and didn’t know how to answer them.  This may have been your own experience. In my case it was the beginning of a period of significant rebellion – not because I didn’t know things about the faith, but because I allowed my confusion to sidetrack my fundamental belief and trust.

My purpose in this class is not to provide full instruction on any of the subjects we will talk about. Rather, my goal is to provide some simple tools for knowing what it is that we teach here at RCC, and then have open discussions about the various topics so that together we can know why it matters what we believe. You are encouraged to ask questions, make assertions, and help each other both believe and understand the Christian faith.

Credo ut intelligam vs cotito ergo sum

Credo ut intelligam (alternatively spelled Credo ut intellegam) is Latin for “I believe so that I may understand” and is a maxim of Anselm of Canterbury, which is based on a saying of Augustine of Hippo (crede, ut intelligas, “believe so that you may understand”) to relate faith and reason. It is often accompanied by its corollary, intellego ut credam (“I think so that I may believe”), and by Anselm’s other famous phrase fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”).

The modern world had an auspicious beginning with the words of Rene Descartes (1596-1650): cotito ergo sum “I think, therefore I am.” With these words man’s scientific conquest of nature apart from God began. From it sprang incredible scientific progress, but also the most profound apostasy from God. For over 1000 years the church in the west had developed a Christian worldview, which in fairly short order was rejected in favor of a man-centered worldview.

The tool I want to provide today for thinking rightly is the ability to see the Christian world view in opposition to every other way of viewing the world. This tool is the use of the three great questions in philosophy: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics

Ideas Have Legs and they walk – sometimes they run away from you: Presuppositionalism 

Tags: Bible Classes, epistemology, Metaphysics, RCC, Reformation Covenant Church, Sunday School