Faithful Learning in Philosophy

Back in the mid-1980s when I was cutting my teeth as a student of philosophy, it was common to hear Christians worry aloud about the wisdom of studying in that area.  Why expose yourself to so many godless thinkers and dangerous ideas?  And isn’t philosophy about relying entirely on your own ability to reason rather than on the wisdom of God?  I recall how as a college student I would sometimes struggle to defend what I was doing, though it seemed clear to me at the time that I was essentially following a divine call into the field.  Now, three decades hence, it is gratifying to see the impact that Christians have had in the field of academic philosophy since my college days.  In my latest book, Philosophy: Faithful Learning (P&R Publishing), I discuss just this.
In the book—which is actually so short as to be more like a lengthy pamphlet—I review several of the major contributions that Christian philosophers (such as Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, Marilyn McCord Adams, William Alston, Linda Zagzebski, Robert Roberts, and William Lane Craig, to name just a few) have made to the field.  These thinkers have profoundly impacted contemporary philosophy, not just in philosophy of religion but also in epistemology, ethics and other sub-fields of the discipline.  Their work also powerfully demonstrates how real wisdom can be gleaned from careful, Christ-centered philosophical exploration into ultimate questions.  So if you’ve never done much reading in philosophy or are curious about what it means to do “Christian philosophy,” I invite you to check it out.  Just please don’t ask me why the publisher put Karl Marx on the cover.  Some questions are beyond my pay grade even as an academic philosopher.