James Baird speaks with Cory Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto about Friedrich Schleiermacher’s philosophical influences and their effect upon his theology. Brock and Sutanto are both PhD candidates at the University of Edinburgh, studying the theology of Herman Bavinck under Dr. James Eglinton. Cory Brock is writing a thesis on Bavinck’s appropriation of Schleiermacher. Gray Sutanto is writing on Bavinck’s theological epistemology. Together, they have co-authored an article titled, “Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Eclecticism: On Catholicity, Consciousness, and Theological Epistemology” forthcoming in The Scottish Journal of Theology.

Participants: Cory Brock, James Baird, Nathaniel Gray Sutanto

French intellectual Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was one of the most important contributors to the post-modern philosophical movement. He was also one of the most notoriously difficult philosophers to understand. In this third episode of a three-part series, Dr. Christopher Watkin helps us understand Derrida’s theology. Dr. Watkin is senior lecturer in French Studies at Monash University, Australia. Dr. Watkin received his MPhil and PhD from Cambridge. He has written multiple books on philosophy, including the Derrida installment of the Great Thinkers series, forthcoming with P&R Publishing.

Participants: Christopher Watkin, James Baird, Jonathan Brack

French intellectual Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was one of the most important contributors to the post-modern philosophical movement. He was also one of the most notoriously difficult philosophers to understand. In this second episode of a three-part series, Dr. Christopher Watkin helps us understand Derrida’s moral philosophy. Dr. Watkin is senior lecturer in French Studies at Monash University, Australia. Dr. Watkin received his MPhil and PhD from Cambridge. He has written multiple books on philosophy, including the Derrida installment of the Great Thinkers series, forthcoming with P&R Publishing.

Participants: Christopher Watkin, James Baird, Jonathan Brack

French intellectual Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was one of the most important contributors to the post-modern philosophical movement. He was also one of the most notoriously difficult philosophers to understand. In this first episode of a three-part series, Dr. Christopher Watkin helps us understand Derrida’s metaphysic (theory of reality). Dr. Watkin is senior lecturer in French Studies at Monash University, Australia. Dr. Watkin received his MPhil and PhD from Cambridge. He has written multiple books on philosophy, including the Derrida installment of the Great Thinkers series, forthcoming with P&R Publishing.

Participants: Christopher Watkin, James Baird, Jonathan Brack

Dr. Nathan Shannon, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Torch Trinity Graduate University in Seoul, Korea, talks with us about his new book, Shalom and the Ethics of Belief: Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Theory of Situated Rationality. Dr. Shannon is joined by Nathan Sasser, PhD student in philosophy at the University of South Carolina.

Participants: Jared Oliphint, Nate Shannon, Nathan Sasser

Dr. Vern Poythress speaks about his new book, Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought. Discussion centers around the relationship between God and logic, the relationship between logical form and its content, and a Christian approach to modal concepts like possibility and necessity. Dr. Poythress is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.

You can find a free sample from his book, Logic, here. Other eBooks by Dr. Poythress are available at frame-poythress.org.

Participants: Jared Oliphint, Nathan Sasser, Vern Poythress

Nathan Sasser, Assistant Director of Academic Affairs at the Pastors College for Sovereign Grace Ministries and PhD student at the University of South Carolina, comes on the program to talk about worldview, epistemology, culture, politics, eschatology, and the upcoming Clash conference.

Participants: Jared Oliphint, Nathan Sasser

Dr. Lane G. Tipton, Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, describes logical positivism, a type of analytic philosophy incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions of epistemology.

Participants: Lane G. Tipton

Jared Oliphint sits down with Dr. K. Scott Oliphint to speak about how Christians should approach the subject of philosophy. They speak about the necessity of the Christian position, the questions asked and answers offered by secular philosophers, and the worldviews communicated in popular culture.

Participants: Jared Oliphint, K. Scott Oliphint

We speak with Nathan Sasser, Assistant Director of Academic Affairs at the Pastors College for Sovereign Grace Ministries and PhD student in philosophy at the University of South Carolina. Nathan describes the format and goals of the Pastors College, as well as the subject of his doctoral work, the philosophy of David Hume.

Participants: Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack, Nathan Sasser, Paul Maxwell

Philosophy for Theologians opens up the subject of universals by discussing the basic approaches to reality found in thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. After laying an introductory foundation, the panel discusses Bavinck’s approach to the subject and his views of how theology relates to disciplines.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Paul Maxwell

For Reformed theologians it can be rather difficult to articulate the relationship between philosophy and theology. Is philosophy simply theology asking different questions? Is it a distinct discipline that can be differentiated from theological inquiry? Bob LaRocca drives a discussion pertaining to these difficult questions.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Camden Bucey, Daniel Schrock, Jared Oliphint

Jared Oliphint and Nate Shannon lead a discussion on Jay Wesley Richards’ book The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Simplicity, and Immutability.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack, Nate Shannon

Bob LaRocca leads a discuss on Thomas Aquinas’ Second Way. The Second Way is an argument for the existence of God from efficient causes. The flow of the argument is as follows:

1. We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world.
2. Nothing exists prior to itself.
3. Therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself.
4. If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results.
5. Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists.
6. The series of efficient causes cannot extend ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no things existing now.
7. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.

Visit this site for more information regarding Thomas’ Five Ways.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack, Nate Shannon

PhD students Gabe Fluhrer (MDiv, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary), Carlton Wynne (MDiv RTS, Charlotte) and Nate Shannon (ThM, Westminster Theological Seminary) share what led them to PhD studies, how their seminary experience prepared them, and how their studies have impacted their ministry.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carlton Wynne, Gabe Fluhrer, Jared Oliphint, Nate Shannon

Bob LaRocca brings Thomas Aquinas’ famous first way to the table. Thomas’ ways have become staples in apologetic discussions.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

Daniel Schrock stops by to discuss Hume and his philosophical position on miracles. This is part two of a two part discussion. Download Daniel Schrock’s paper Hume’s Argument Against Miracles.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Camden Bucey, Daniel Schrock, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

Daniel Schrock stops by to discuss Hume and his philosophical position on miracles. This is part one of a two part discussion.

• Daniel Schrock Hume’s Argument Against Miracles
• Hume entry on Wikipedia
• Hume’s works on the Gutenberg Project

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Camden Bucey, Daniel Schrock, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) (known to intimates as “Van”) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition. From 1930 until his death 70 years later, Quine was continuously affiliated with Harvard University in one way or another, first as a student, then as a professor of philosophy and a teacher of mathematics, and finally as a professor emeritus who published or revised several books in retirement. He filled the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard, 1956–78. A recent poll conducted among philosophers named Quine as one of the five most important philosophers of the past two centuries. Quine’s paper Two Dogmas of Empiricism, published in 1951, is one of the most celebrated papers of twentieth century philosophy in the analytic tradition. According to Harvard professor of philosophy Peter Godfrey-Smith, this “paper [is] sometimes regarded as the most important in all of twentieth-century philosophy”. The paper is an attack on two central parts of the logical positivists’ philosophy. One is the distinction between analytic truths and synthetic truths, explained by Quine as truths grounded only in meanings and independent of facts, and truths grounded in facts. The other is reductionism, the theory that each meaningful statement gets its meaning from some logical construction of terms that refers exclusively to immediate experience. from Wikipedia

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack, Nate Shannon

The crew spends a few minutes discussing the metaphysical system of Aristotle, one of philosophy’s greatest minds.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

Logical positivism is a combination of empiricism and mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology. The crew provides a brief overview of the view and major players. They then proceed to offer a short critique. post image from the cover of A. J. Ayer’s Language, Truth and Logic.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

The group discusses Bertrand Russell’s infamous essay Why I Am Not a Christian. Russell led the 20th century British revolt against idealism and contributed greatly to the philosophical field of logic. Jared Oliphint leads a march through Russell’s essay as the group offers a critique of the philosopher’s arguments.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650), was a French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist. He has been dubbed the “Father of Modern Philosophy,” and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings. Many of his works are still studied today – in particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes is also known for his contribution to mathematics and even is credited as the father of analytical geometry. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. His famous phrase cogito ergo sum (“I think therefore I am”) is perhaps the most well known philosophical phrase. This phrase encapsulates Descartes attempt to find something he could not doubt – an indubitable. And for him, that thing was the very fact that he was thinking.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack, Nate Shannon

We realized many of our discussions on the Reformed Media Review were drifting toward the philosophical.  And we also believe there is a general lack of good philosophical resources – at least from people working from a Reformed theological framework.  As a result, we bring you Philosophy for Theologians. Our goal in this program is to provide an overview of a particular philosophical figure or an idea and to analyze it critically through the lens of Scripture.  That doesn’t mean proof-texting Kant’s views, but it does mean that we consider everything in light of God’s revelation.   We not only want to address philosophical questions on Philosophy for Theologians, but we want to equip you with a way to think about these questions. In this wide-ranging discussion, the panel begins with a discussion between Nate Shannon and Bob LaRocca regarding the role of realism in Herman Bavinck and the consistency thereof.   The discussions moves on and touches, among other things, upon Thomas Reid, Alvin Plantinga and possible worlds semantics.

Participants: Bob LaRocca, Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack, Nate Shannon