Thinking to Believe

I have recently read some of the papers presented at the 2008 Urshan Graduate School of Theology Symposium.  Notable was David Norris’s response to Patrick Dotson’s paper arguing that the Oneness movement must move beyond the King James Version if we hope to reach our modern generation with the Word of God.  While others surely have done so, Norris is the first Apostolic minister I have encountered who has advocated for the use of other English translations, and made a case for the superiority of the Alexandrian text-type over the Byzantine text-type that undergirds the NT of the KJV.

Many see philosophy and theology as dichotomous—like oil and water.  The only dichotomy, however, is between false philosophy and good theology, or between good philosophy and false theology.  Everybody has a philosophy.  It’s unavoidable.  The only question that remains to be answered is whether our philosophy is good or bad, right or wrong.

Philosophy provides us with the tools of rational thought.  As such, philosophy is essential to the task of Biblical interpretation and systematic theology.  In terms of the knowing process, philosophy actually precedes theology because we cannot discover the meaning of the text unless we first learn the principles of rationality required for interpretation.  That is why the content of our philosophy is so important, and the presuppositions of our philosophy need to be exposed and examined to determine their validity, for if we come to the Biblical text with a bad philosophy, it will ultimately lead to a bad theology.

We often use words like reality, belief, and truth without thinking much of what we mean by them.  With some inspiration by J.P. Moreland I have devised a brief definition of each that makes it clear how they differ from each other.

Reality is the way the world really is independent of our beliefs about it.

Beliefs are what we think reality is like.

Truth is the corresponding relation between our beliefs and reality.  If our beliefs about reality correspond to the way the world really is, truth is obtained.  As J.P. Moreland says, truth puts us into contact with reality.  We have truth when we have true, justified beliefs about reality.

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