Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

-----

Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Thursday, December 9, 2021

The Last of the Evangelical Classicists - Norman Geisler

 

Dr. Norman Geisler, Evangelical Author, Preacher, Teacher



  


NORMAN GEISLER

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Norman Geisler
Born
Norman Leo Geisler

July 21, 1932
Warren, Michigan, U.S.
DiedJuly 1, 2019 (aged 86)
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern Philosophy
Schoolnon-denominational Evangelical Christian, Amyraldism, Neo-Thomistic Philosophy, Premillennial-Dispensational
Main interests
Philosophy of religion, Christian Apologetics, Systematic Theology, Philosophy, Thomism/Neo-Thomism, biblical inerrancy, Bible difficulties, Creationism versus Evolution, Calvinism-Arminianism, Roman Catholicism and Evangelicalism (differences and agreements), Christian Ethics
Notable ideas
12 point apologetic argument, Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics
Influences
Influenced

Norman Leo Geisler (July 21, 1932 – July 1, 2019) was an American Christian systematic theologian and philosopher. He was the co-founder of two non-denominational evangelical seminaries (Veritas International University[1] and Southern Evangelical Seminary[2]).

He held a Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University and made scholarly contributions to the subjects of classical Christian apologetics, systematic theology, the history of philosophy, philosophy of religion, Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, Biblical inerrancy, Bible difficulties, ethics, and more. He was the author, coauthor, or editor of over 90 books[3] and hundreds of articles.[4]

One of the primary architects of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Geisler was well noted within the United States evangelical community for his stalwart defense of Biblical inerrancy.[5]

Education

Geisler's education included a Th.B. (1964) from William Tyndale College, B.A. in philosophy (1958) and M.A. in theology (1960) from Wheaton College, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University. He had additional graduate work at Wayne State University, the University of Detroit, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.[6]

Biography

Norman Leo Geisler was born on July 21, 1932, in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He attended a nondenominational Evangelical church from age nine but was not converted until the age of eighteen. He immediately began attempting to share his faith with others in various evangelistic endeavors—door-to-door, street meetings, and jail service, rescue missions, and Youth for Christ venues. Some of his conversations forced him to realize that he needed to find better answers to the objections he was hearing. He subsequently earned two bachelor's degrees, two master's degrees, and a Doctorate.[7]

Geisler's decades of degree work overlap a professorial career begun at Detroit Bible College (1963–66) and continued at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (1969–70) and Trinity College (1970–71). He was later Chairman of Philosophy of Religion at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (1970–79) and Professor of Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary (1979–88).[8]

In 1981, Geisler testified in "the Scopes II trial" (McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education). Duane Gish, a creationist, remarked: "Geisler was. . . the lead witness for the creationist side and one of its most brilliant witnesses. His testimony, in my view (I was present during the entire trial), effectively demolished the most important thrust of the case by the ACLU. Unfortunately, in my opinion, no testimony, and no effort by any team of lawyers, no matter how brilliant, could have won the case for the creationist side."[9]

Geisler was formerly a president of the Evangelical Theological Society but left the ETS in 2003, after it did not expel Clark Pinnock, who advocated open theism.[10] Geisler also founded and was first president of The Evangelical Philosophical Society. Additionally, he was the founder and first president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics.

In 1997, Geisler co-authored When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretation.[11] He contributed to The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism.[12]

In 2008, Geisler co-founded the Veritas Evangelical Seminary located in Santa Ana, California. The seminary offers master's degrees in theological studies, apologetics, biblical studies, and Divinity. Geisler served as Chancellor, Distinguished Professor of Apologetics and Theology, and occupant of the Norman L. Geisler Chair of Christian Apologetics.[1] He retired from this post in May 2019.[13]

Personal

Geisler was married to Barbara Jean, and together they had six children.[8][14] He died of cerebral thrombosis at a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina on July 1, 2019, 20 days before his 87th birthday.[15][16] Geisler's funeral was held at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.[17] Ravi Zacharias gave the eulogy.[18]

Outline of Geisler's apologetic system

Geisler is known first and foremost as a classical Christian apologist. Between 1970 and 1990 he participated in dozens of public debates and gained a reputation as a defender of theism, biblical miracles, the resurrection of Jesus, and the reliability of the Bible. The first attempt to publish an outline of his apologetic method showed up in an appendix of his 1990 book When Skeptics Ask. The appendix is titled "Reasoning to Christianity from Ground Zero" and in it we see a high-level view of the holistic system of classical apologetics he had been developing over the years. The first outline contained fourteen points of argument:[19]

  1. There are self-evident truths (e.g., "I exist," "Logic applies to reality").
  2. Truth corresponds to reality.
  3. Truth is knowable (all other views are self-defeating).
  4. One can proceed from self-evident truths to the existence of God.
    1. The argument from Creation (proceeds from "I exist")
    2. The argument from morals (proceeds from "Values are undeniable")
    3. The argument from design (proceeds from "Design implies a designer")
  5. God is a necessary Being (argument from being).
  6. My existence is not necessary (evident from the definition of a necessary Being).
  7. Therefore, theism is true (there is a necessary Being beyond the world who has created the contingent things in the world and intervenes in the world [chap. 3]).
    1. The objection from the problem of evil can be solved.
    2. The objection to miracles can be solved.
  8. The Bible is a historically reliable document.
    1. History is an objective study of the past.
    2. There is great historical, archaeological, and scientific evidence to confirm the reliability of the Bible. (Corollary: The Bible gives a reliable record of the teaching of Jesus Christ.)
  9. Jesus claimed to be both fully human and fully God.
  10. He gave evidence to support this claim.
    1. The fulfillment of prophecy
    2. His miraculous and sinless life
    3. His resurrection
  11. Therefore, Jesus is both fully human and fully God.
  12. Whatever God teaches is true.
  13. Jesus (God) taught that the Old Testament was the inspired Word of God and He promised the New Testament.
  14. Therefore, both the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God.

The overview of his system was later streamlined slightly into a 12-point schema. As of 1999, it could be summarized as follows:[20]

  1. Truth about reality is knowable.
  2. Opposites cannot both be true (The Law of Noncontradiction).
  3. It is true the theistic God exists.
  4. If God exists, then miracles are possible.
  5. Miracles performed in connection with a truth claim are acts of God to confirm the truth of God through a messenger of God.
  6. The New Testament is historically reliable.
  7. As witnessed in the New Testament, Jesus claimed to be God.
  8. Jesus' claim to divinity was proven by miracles, especially the Resurrection.
  9. Therefore, Jesus is God.
  10. Because Jesus is God, whatever Jesus affirmed as true, is true.
  11. Jesus affirmed that the Bible is the Word of God.
  12. Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God and whatever is opposed to any biblical truth is false.

These same twelve steps served as the framework for the chapters of the highly popular book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist[21] in 2004 and for Geisler's 2012 e-book Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True.[22]

Theology

Geisler was a conservative evangelical scholar who wrote a four-volume systematic theology.[23]

He defended the full inerrancy of the Bible, being one of the co-founders and framers of the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy" (1978) and editor of the book Inerrancy (Zondervan, 1978). More recently, he co-authored Defending Inerrancy with William Roach (Baker, 2013). He also co-authored (with William Nix) General Introduction to the Bible (Moody Press, 1986)[24] and From God to Us, revised (Moody, 2012).

Geisler considered himself a "moderate Calvinist", as expressed in his book Chosen but Free (Harvest House, 2001) and Systematic Theology, in One Volume (Harvest House, 2012). On the Five Points of Calvinism, he believed:

  1. Total depravity extends to the whole person but does not destroy the image of God in fallen human beings;
  2. Election is unconditional from the standpoint of God's giving it and only one condition for humans receiving it—faith;
  3. The atonement is unlimited in its scope—Christ died for all mankind—but limited in its application to only the elect;
  4. Grace is irresistible on the willing but does not force the unwilling;
  5. All those who are regenerate will, by God's grace, persevere to the end and be saved.[25]

Ethics

Geisler wrote two significant books on ethics: Christian Ethics[26] and The Christian Love Ethic.[27] He provided his perspective on ethical options, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, biomedical issues, capital punishment, war, civil disobedience, sexual issues, homosexuality, marriage and divorce, ecology, animal rights, drugs, gambling, pornography, birth control, and more.

Of the six major ethical systems (antinomianism, situationalism, generalism, unqualified absolutism, conflicting absolutism, and graded absolutism), Geisler advocated graded absolutism, which is a theory of moral absolutism which affirms that in moral conflicts we are obligated to perform the higher moral duty.[28] Moral absolutism is the ethical view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong regardless of other contexts such as their consequences or the intentions behind them. Graded absolutism is moral absolutism but clarifies that a moral absolute, like "Do not kill", can be greater or lesser than another moral absolute, like "Do not lie". Graded absolutism is also called "contextual absolutism" but is not to be confused with situational ethics. The conflict is resolved in acting according to the greater absolute. That is why graded absolutism is also called the "greater good view", but is not to be confused with utilitarianism[29] (see also prima facie right).

Geisler believed the American Revolution was not justified by the standards of either the Bible or just war theory. However, he was not a pacifist, believing that defensive wars are justified but revolutions are not.[30][page needed]

Works

The following is a list of books authored, co-authored or edited by Dr. Norman Geisler.[31]

  • A General Introduction to the Bible  (Moody, 1968)
  • Christ the Theme of the Bible  (Moody, 1968 | Bastion Books, 2012)
  • Ethics: Alternatives and Issues  (Zondervan, 1971)
  • The Christian Ethic of Love (Zondervan, 1973)
  • Philosophy of Religion (Zondervan, 1974)
  • From God to Us  (Moody, 1974)
  • * To Understand the Bible Look for Jesus (1975, reprint and retitle of Christ: The Theme of the Bible)
  • Christian Apologetics  (Baker, 1976)
  • A Popular Survey of the Old Testament (Baker, 1977)
  • The Roots of Evil  (Zondervan, 1978) (Second edition, Zondervan, 1981)
  • Inerrancy (Zondervan, 1979)
  • Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective  (Baker, 1980)
  • Options in Contemporary Christian Ethics  (Baker, 1981)
  • Biblical Errancy: Its Philosophical Roots (Zondervan, 1981 | Bastion Books, 2013)
  • Decide for Yourself: How History Views the Bible  (Zondervan, 1982)
  • The Creator in the Courtroom “Scopes II “: The 1981 Arkansas Creation-Evolution Trial (Baker, 1982)
  • What Augustine Says (Baker, 1982 | Bastion Books, 2013)
  • Is Man the Measure?  An Evaluation of Contemporary Humanism (Baker, 1983)
  • Cosmos: Carl Sagan’s Religion for the Scientific Mind (Quest, 1983)
  • Religion of the Force  (Quest, 1983)
  • To Drink or Not to Drink: A Sober Look at the Problem (Quest, 1984)
  • Perspectives: Understanding and Evaluating Today’s World Views  (Here’s Life, 1984)
  • Christianity Under Attack (Quest, 1985)
  • False Gods of Our Time : A Defense of the Christian Faith  (Harvest House, 1985)
  • A General Introduction to the Bible, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded (Moody, 1986)(Third Edition with revisions and expansion underway as of 2019 with projected publish date in 2021.)
  • Reincarnation Sensation (Tyndale, 1986)
  • Origin Science (Baker, 1987)
  • Philosophy of Religion  (Expansion and Revision of #5. Baker, 1988| Bastion Books, 2021?)
  • Signs and Wonders (Tyndale, 1988 | Bastion Books, 2019)
  • * Worlds Apart : A Handbook on World Views  (Baker. Reprint and retitle of #22)
  • Knowing the Truth About Creation (Servant, 1989 | Bastion Books, 2013)
  • The Infiltration of the New Age  (Tyndale, 1989)
  • The Battle for the Resurrection (Thomas Nelson, 1989 | Bastion Books, 2013)
  • Apologetics in the New Age  (Baker, 1990)
  • Come Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking  (Baker, 1990)
  • When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences  (Baker, 1990, 2013)
  • Gambling: A Bad Bet (Fleming H. Revel, 1990 | Bastion Books, 2013)
  • The Life and Death Debate  (Greenwood, 1990)
  • In Defense of the Resurrection  (Quest, 1991 | Bastion Books, 2015)
  • Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal  (Baker, 1991)
  • Matters of Life and Death: Calm Answers to Tough Questions  (Baker, 1991)
  • Miracles and the Modern Mind: A Defense of Biblical Miracles (Baker, 1992 | Bastion Books, 2012)
  • When Critics Ask: A Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Victor, 1992)
  • Answering Islam (Baker, 1993)
  • Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences (Baker, 1995)
  • Love is Always Right  (Word, 1996)
  • Creating God in the Image of Man?  (Bethany, 1997)
  • When Cultists Ask  (Baker, 1997)
  • The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism  (Harvest House, 1998)
  • Legislating Morality  (Bethany, 1998)
  • Baker’s Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Baker, 1999)
  • Chosen But Free : A Balanced view of God’s Sovereignty and Free Will  (Bethany, 1999)
  • Unshakable Foundations (Bethany, 2001)
  • Why I Am a Christian : Leading Thinkers Explain Why they Believe  (Baker, 2001)
  • The Battle for God: Responding to the Challenge of Neotheism  (Kregel, 2001)
  • Living Loud: Defending Your Faith (Broadman & Holman, 2002)
  • Answering Islam, Updated and Revised (Bethany, 2002)
  • Who Made God?  (Zondervan, 2003)
  • Is Your Church Ready?  Motivating Leaders to Live an Apologetic Life  (Zondervan, 2003)
  • I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist  (Crossway, 2004)
  • Systematic Theology, Vol. 1  (Bethany, 2002)
  • Systematic Theology, Vol. 2  (Bethany, 2003)
  • Systematic Theology, Vol. 3  (Bethany, 2004)
  • Systematic Theology, Vol. 4  (Bethany, 2005)
  • Bringing Your Faith to Work: Answers for Break-Room Skeptics  (Baker, 2005)
  • * Correcting the Cults: Expert Responses to Their Scripture Twisting   (Baker, 2005, reprint of #….)
  • * Why I Am a Christian : Leading Thinkers Explain why They Believe (revised for Baker, 2006)
  • Integrity at Work : Finding Your Ethical Compass in a Post-Enron World  (Baker, 2007)
  • Creation  and the Courts: Eighty Years of Conflict in the Classroom and the Courtroom  (Crossway, 2007)
  • A Popular Survey of the New Testament (Baker, 2007)
  • Love Your Neighbor: Thinking Wisely about Right and Wrong  (Crossway, 2007)
  • Reasons for Faith: Making a Case for the Christian Faith  (Crossway, 2007)
  • Conviction Without Compromise: Standing Strong in the Core Beliefs of the Christian Faith  (Harvest House, 2008)
  • The Apologetics of Jesus: A Caring Approach to Dealing with Doubters   (Baker, 2008)
  • Conversational Evangelism (Harvest House, 2008)
  • Is Rome the True Church? (Crossway, 2008)
  • * The Big Book of Bible Difficulties (Baker 2008, reprint of #43)
  • * Making Sense of Bible Difficulties (Baker, 2009, abridgement of #43)
  • Chosen But Free: A Balanced View of God’s Sovereignty and Free Will  (third edition, revised and expanded, Bethany, 2010)
  • Christian Ethics, Second Edition (Baker, 2010)
  • If God, Why Evil?  (Bethany, 2011)
  • Systematic Theology in One Volume  (Bethany, 2011)
  • Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scriptures for a New Generation   (Baker, 2012)(Revision and expansion underway as of 2019 by Dr. Bill Roach will include much of Norm’s thought and writings on the defense of inerrancy between 2011 and 2019.)
  • Reasons for Belief : Easy-to-Understand Answers to 10 Essential Questions  (Bethany, 2012)
  • Reasons for Belief Study Guide (Bastion Books, 2014)
  • A Popular Handbook of Biblical Archaeology: Discoveries that Confirm the Reliability of Scripture   (Bethany, 2012)
  • The Big Book of Christian Apologetics   (Baker, 2012) (Minor revision of The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics)
  • * Christian Apologetics  (revised, Baker, 2012)
  • Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True  (NGIM, 2012)
  • Explaining Biblical Inerrancy: The Chicago Statements on Biblical Inerrancy, Hermeneutics, and Application with Official ICBI Commentary (Bastion Books, 2013)
  • * The Christian Ethic of Love (2012, a minor revision of #4)
  • From God to Us (Moody, 2012) (a major revision and update of #6 with some additions from #25.)
  • Is the Pope Infallible: A Look at the Evidence  (Bastion Books, 2012)
  • * The Roots of Evil , Third Edition (Bastion Books, 2013. A Minor revision of #4)
  • Should Believers Make Ashes of Themselves? Cremation, the Burning Question  (Bastion, 2013)
  • * Should Old Aquinas Be Forgotten?  (Bastion Books, 2013. Revision and expansion of #37)
  • The Atheist’s Fatal Flaw  (Baker, 2014)
  • The Jesus Quest: the Danger from Within  (Xulon, 2014)
  • The Bible’s Answer to 100 of Life’s Biggest Questions  (Baker, 2015)
  • The Shack: Helpful or Hurtful?  (Bastion Books, 2011)
  • Teacher’s Guide to Twelve Points That Show Christianity is True (NGIM, 2012).
  • Beware of Philosophy  (Bastion Books, 2012)
  • A History of Western Philosophy: Vol 1: Ancient and Medieval  (Bastion Books, 2012)
  • A History of Western Philosophy: Vol 2: Modern and Contemporary  (Bastion Books, 2012)
  • * A Handbook on World Views: A Catalogue for Worldview Shoppers  (Bastion Books, 2013) (A minor revision of Worlds Apart)
  • * Biblical Inerrancy: The Historical Evidence  (Bastion Books, 2013)(A minor Revision of #15)
  • * What in Cremation is Going On? (Bastion Books, 2014) (Abridgement of # 86)
  • The Official Study Guide to I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (Xulon Press, 2014)
  • The Religion of the Force  (Bastion Books, 2015) (Update and expansion of #19)
  • God: A Philosophical Argument  (Bastion Books, 2015)
  • Evidence of an Early New Testament Canon  (Bastion Books, 2015)
  • Romans in Logical Form (Bastion Books, 2015)
  • Vital Issues in the Inerrancy Debate (Wipf & Stock, 2016) (review)
  • How to Know God  (Bastion Books, 2016)(In English and Spanish)
  • A Prolegomena to Evangelical Theology  (Bastion Books, 2016)
  • A Popular Survey of Bible Doctrine (Bastion Books, 2015)
  • A Prolegomena to Evangelical Theology (Bastion Books, 2016)
  • The Bible: Its Origin, Nature and Collection: NGIM Guide to Bible Doctrine, Book 1 (NGIM.org, 2015)
  • The Doctrine of God: NGIM Guide to Bible Doctrine, Book 2  (NGIM.org, 2015)
  • The Doctrine of Christ: NGIM Guide to Bible Doctrine, Book 3  (NGIM.org, 2016)
  • The Doctrine of Creation: NGIM Guide to Bible Doctrine, Book 4  (NGIM.org, 2016)
  • The Doctrine of Angels & Demons: NGIM Guide to Bible Doctrine, Book 5  (NGIM.org, 2016)
  • Preserving Orthodoxy: Maintaining Continuity with the Historic Christian Faith on Scripture  (Bastion Books, 2017)
  • Somewhere Under the Rainbow: A Christian look at Same-Sex “Marriage” (Bastion Books, 2017)
  • Having Fun Under the Sun: A Study of Ecclesiastes (Bastion Books, 2018)
  • The Collected Work of Norm Geisler, Volumes 1-5 (Bastion Books, 2019) Vol. 1 (1964-1979) | Vol. 2 (19xx-19xx)| Vol. 3 (19xx-19xx)| Vol. 4 (19xx-19xx)| Vol. 5 (19xx-19xx)
  • *Conviction without Compromise: Standing Strong in the Core Beliefs of the Christian Faith (NGIM.org, 2021)(An unrevised republishing of #73)
  • Is Man the Measure? An Evaluation of Contemporary Humanism and Transhumanism (Bastion Books, 2021? – Forthcoming)(A major update to and expansion of #18)

Notes

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b "Dr. Norman Leo Geisler". Veritas International University. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  2. ^ "Home". Southern Evangelical Seminary. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 22, 2014.
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 22, 2014.
  5. ^ Greene, Richard (May 2014), "Take a Stand on Biblical Inerrancy", Decision Magazine, retrieved 4 July 2019
  6. ^ Geisler, Norman L. "About". Official Web page.
  7. ^ "Interview with Dr. Norman Geisler". Christian Book Previews. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  8. ^ Jump up to:a b "About Norman L. Geisler". Homepage. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  9. ^ Geisler, Norman. Creation & the Courts: Eighty Years of Conflict in the Classroom and the Courtroom. (Crossway Books, 2007)
  10. ^ Geisler, Norman (2003), Why I Resigned from The Evangelical Theological Society, archived from the original on 2013-06-30.
  11. ^ Geisler & Rhodes 1997.
  12. ^ Geisler 1998. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFGeisler1998 (help)
  13. ^ "Norm Geisler has Retired". Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  14. ^ "Author Detail". Moody Publishers. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  15. ^ "Died: Apologist Norman Geisler, Who Didn't Have 'Enough Faith to Be an Atheist'". Christianity Today. July 1, 2019.
  16. ^ "Christian Theologian Norman Geisler Passes Away at 87". CBN. July 1, 2019.
  17. ^ Shellnutt, Kate. "Died: Apologist Norman Geisler, Who Didn't Have 'Enough Faith to Be an Atheist'". News & Reporting. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  18. ^ Seminary, Southern Evangelical (July 10, 2019). "Norman L. Geisler Memorial - Ravi's Eulogy". YouTube. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  19. ^ Geisler, N. L., & Brooks, R. M. (1990). When skeptics ask (p. 289). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
  20. ^ Geisler, N. L. "Apologetics, Argument of", in The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. 1999
  21. ^ Geisler, N. L., & Turek, F. I Don't have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. 2004
  22. ^ "12 Points that Show Christianity is True" (PDF). Bastion Books. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  23. ^ Kreider, Glenn. "Review: Systematic Theology by Normal Geisler". Dallas Theological Seminary. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  24. ^ "A General Introduction to the Bible". Christian Book. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  25. ^ Allen, Bob. "Traditional Southern Baptists counter Calvinism". Baptist News Global. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  26. ^ Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options, 2nd Edition. Baker Academic. 1989, 2010.
  27. ^ "The Christian Love Ethic". Bastion Books. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  28. ^ Geisler 2009. sfn error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFGeisler2009 (help)
  29. ^ Christian Ethics, Chapter 4
  30. ^ Geisler 1989, chapters 12–13. sfn error: multiple targets (5×): CITEREFGeisler1989 (help)
  31. ^ "About – NORMAN GEISLER". Retrieved 2021-08-20.

Publications

  • Geisler, Norman L (1971), Ethics: Alternatives and Issues, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1973), The Christian Ethic of Love, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1974), From God to Us, Moody.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1975), To Understand the Bible—Look for Jesus, Moody.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1976), Christian Apologetics, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1977), A Popular Survey of the Old Testament, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1978), The Roots of Evil, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1979), Inerrancy, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1980), Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1981), Options in Contemporary Christian Ethics, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1981), Biblical Errancy: Its Philosophical Roots, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1982), Decide for Yourself: How History Views the Bible, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1982), The Creator in the Courtroom—Scopes II, et al, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1981), What Augustine Says, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1983), Is Man the Measure?, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1983), Cosmos: Carl Sagan's Religion for the Scientific Mind, Quest.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1983), Religion of the Force, Quest.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1984), To Drink or Not to Drink: A Sober Look at the Problem, Quest.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1984), Perspectives: Understanding and Evaluating Today's World Views, Here's Life.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1985), Christianity Under Attack (book, video series), Quest.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1985), False Gods of Our Time, Harvest.
  • Geisler, Normal L (1986) [1968], General Introduction to the Bible (revised & expanded ed.), Moody.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1986), Reincarnation Sensation, Tyndale.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1987), Origin Science, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1988) [1974], Philosophy of Religion, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1988), Signs and Wonders, Tyndale.
  • Geisler, Norman L (September 1, 1989), Christian Ethics: Options and Issues (8 impr ed.), Baker, ISBN 978-0-80103832-7.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1989), World's Apart, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1989), Knowing The Truth About Creation, Servant.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1989), The Infiltration of the New Age, Tyndale.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1989), The Battle for the Resurrection, Thomas Nelson.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1990), Apologetics in the New Age, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1990), Come Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1990), Gambling: A Bad Bet, Fleming H Revell.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1990), The Life and Death Debate, Greenwood.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1991), In Defense of the Resurrection, Quest.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1991), Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1991), Matters of Life and Death: Calm Answers to Tough Questions about Abortion and Euthanasia, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1991), Miracles and the Modern Mind: A Defense of Biblical Miracles, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1992), When Critics Ask: A Handbook on Bible Difficulties, Victor.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1992), Miracles and the Modern Mind: A Defense of Biblical Miracles, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1993), Answering Islam, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1995), Roman Catholics and Evangelicals.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1996), Love Is Always Right, Word.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1997), Creating God in the Image of Man?, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Rhodes, Ron (1997), When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretation, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1998), The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism, Eugene, OR: Harvest House.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1998), Legislating Morality, Bethany House.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1999), Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (1999b), Chosen But Free, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2001), Unshakable Foundations, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2001), Why I Am a Christian, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2001), Battle for God, Kregel.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2002), Living Loud: Defending Your Faith, Broadman & Holman.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2002), Systematic Theology, 1. Introduction – Bible, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2003), Systematic Theology, 2. God – Creation, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2003), Is Your Church Ready?, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2003), Who Made God?, Zondervan.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2004), Systematic Theology, 3. Sin – Salvation, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2004), I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Crossway.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2005), Systematic Theology, 4. Church – Last Things, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2005), Bringing Your Faith To Work, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Rhodes, Ron (2005), Correcting The Cults, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2007), Love Your Neighbor, Crossway.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2007), Essential Doctrine Made Easy, Rose.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2008), A Popular Survey of the Old Testament, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2008), A Popular Survey of the New Testament, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Rhodes, Ron (2008), Conviction Without Compromise, Harvest House.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2008), Is Rome the True Church?: A Consideration of the Roman Catholic Claim, Crossway.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2008), When Skeptics Ask, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2008), The Big Book of Bible Difficulties, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (April 17, 2009), "Any Absolutes? Absolutely!", Equip, Christian Research Institute, DE198, retrieved 18 Oct 2013.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2009), The Apologetics of Jesus, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2009), Making Sense of Bible Difficulties, Baker.
  • Geisler, Norman L (January 1, 2010) [1989], Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options [Christian Ethics: Options and Issues] (2 ed.), Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, ISBN 978-0-80103879-2.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2011), If God, Why Evil?, Bethany.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2011), Systematic Theology: In One Volume, Bethany, ISBN 978-0-76420603-0.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Roach, William C (2012), Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scripture for a New Generation, Packer, JI foreword, Baker, ISBN 978-0-80101434-5.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Nix, William E (2012), From God To Us Revised and Expanded: How We Got Our Bible, Moody, ISBN 978-0-80242882-0.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2012), Big Book of Christian Apologetics, The: An A to Z Guide, A to Z Guides, Baker, ISBN 978-0-80101417-8.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Tunnicliffe, Patty (2013), Reasons for Belief: Easy-to-Understand Answers to 10 Essential Questions, Bethany, ISBN 978-0-76421057-0.
  • Geisler, Norman L; Brooks, Norman L (2013), When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences, Baker, ISBN 978-0-80101498-7.
  • Geisler, Norman L (2013) [1976], Christian Apologetics (revised & expanded ed.), Baker, ISBN 978-0-80104854-8.

External links



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Homebrewed Christianity - Walking with Soren Kierkegaard, Part 5 - Session 1




Homebrewed Christianity - 
Walking with Soren Kierkegaard,
Part 5 - Session 1


* * * * * * * *


Kierkegaard: 3 Stages of Life (Path to the True Self)
Nov 24, 2019

Join George and John as they discuss and debate different Philosophical ideas. Today they will be looking into the works of Soren Kierkegaard and his ideas around the 3 Stages of Life.



6 Feature Sessons:
Course Outline and Readings

Week 1 (11/9): Biography and Early Writings (pp. 3-12)

In this first week, we will cover Kierkegaard’s life and general socio-cultural and philosophical contexts. Then, we will look at some of his early journal entries in which he lays out some of the main concerns that will show up across his authorship: subjectivity, decision, passion, and faithful existence.

Week 2 (11/16): Either/Or (pp. 37-83)

This week, we will look to Kierkegaard’s first major text in his official authorship. In the two parts of Either/Or, he outlines the first to modes of living: aesthetics and ethics. We will consider each and pay attention to the ways in which they are not just chronological steps, but persistent temptations for how to take ourselves up in the world.

Week 3 (11/23): Four Upbuilding Discourses (pp. 84-92) and Fear and Trembling (pp. 93-101)

Here we will consider what is arguably Kierkegaard most famous book, and yet one of the most complicated. In Fear and Trembling, he looks to the story of Abraham and the binding of Isaac in order to consider how Abraham could rightly be considered the “father of faith,” rather than simply a murderer. In order to set up Fear and Trembling, we will look to an Upbuilding Discourse that helps to situate the text in terms of “religious” existence as the utmost possibility for human life.

Week 4 (11/30): Concluding Unscientific Postscript (pp. 187-229; 242-246)

Turning from philosophy of religion to questions of epistemology, the Postscript is Kierkegaard at his most existentialist. During this week we will consider his famous claim that “subjectivity is truth” and see why he places the religious emphasis on “how” we worship, rather than simply “what” we believe.

Week 5 (12/7): Works of Love (pp. 277-311)

Although Kierkegaard is often charged with not having a developed ethics, in Works of Love we see a profound attempt at thinking through what it means to enact neighbor-love as a command from God.

Week 6 (12/14): Practice in Christianity (pp. 372-384), Two Discourses at Friday Communion (pp. 385-392), For Self-Examination (pp. 393-403), Judge for Yourself! (pp. 404-410), “My Task” (pp. 445-448), Simmons “Militant Liturgies” (link to be provided)

For this last week, we will continue in the vein of Kierkegaard late upbuilding work that was directly critical of “Christendom” in the name of “Christianity.” We will pay particular attention to his critique of Christian nationalism and how we can apply his texts to our contemporary cultural contexts.


Walking with Kierkegaard: Session One
Nov 9, 2021





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Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Wendell Berry: The Cranky Farmer, Poet and Essayist You Just Can't Ignore


Wendell Berry reads one of his poems from at the 2014 Festival of Faiths. (Wikimedia/Creative Commons)


Wendell Berry: the cranky farmer, poet
and essayist you just can’t ignore
article link

by James T. Keane
December 07, 2021


A writing project for America’s Advent reflection series last week gave me occasion to revisit a favorite poem (“IX”) by an author who knows more than most about seasons, both liturgical and agricultural: Wendell Berry. Now 87 years old, this man of many labels (Is he a farmer? A novelist? An environmental activist? An essayist? A poet? A cultural critic? A cranky old professor? A Christian prophet?) has been a voice of practical reason and concise cultural commentary in his more than 80 books published over six decades.

My own first encounter with Wendell Berry’s writings was not through his poetry, but his essays. It came in college, when a philosophy professor (now retired, he recently ran for governor of California; philosophy professors rule) assigned Another Turn of the Crank, Berry’s book of five essays on the global economy, health care, forest preservation, private property and wealth and ecology. In a 1995 review for America, Patrick Samway, S.J., wrote that “all of these essays address the mind and heart with the same forcefulness and clarity as the writings of Annie Dillard, Henry David Thoreau or Wallace Stegner.” To that august list I think I would add distributists like Peter Maurin and G. K. Chesterton and early Garry Wills (included here mostly so I could write “early Garry Wills”), but at the time my college-student reaction was a simple one: Did Wendell Berry just leap off the page and hit me over the head with a fencepost?

"My reaction was a simple one: Did Wendell Berry just leap off the page and hit me over the head with a fencepost?"

The writing was lyrical but commonsensical and practical. Berry, who had returned decades before to the farming life of his childhood and was an advocate for time-tested agrarian living, drove home the point that the United States had been built on certain principles - 
respect for the land, shared small communities and economies, the handing down of tried and true traditions and lifestyles, an assumption that a life of faith was a natural one, a management of resources that allowed for seasonal cycles
- that were all being abandoned, sacrificed to the gods of technological innovation, individualism, commercialism and unfettered capitalism.

I argued in my final paper for the class that Berry was right, but his solution was wrong: The only solution was Christian Marxism. (Can it be there was only one year I was 21? It must have been a long one then.) In sharp, practical prose reminiscent of Berry himself, the professor tore my essay apart. But I still remember the book well.

If you ask Berry’s many fans, that slim volume isn’t usually among their favorites. Berry first made his bones with his poetic works of the 1960s and 1970s, like The Broken Ground (1964), and many environmentalists and distributists hold dear his 1977 collection of essays, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. His novels—the first, Nathan Coulter, was published in 1960—have their own fans, and you can usually find them gravitating toward his “Port William novels” like Hannah Coulter (2004) or Jayber Crow (2000). (Keep your ears peeled next time you’re at the farmer’s market—one chance in 12 that guy selling you homemade mead named his son Jayber.)

"Keep your ears peeled next time you’re at the farmer’s market—one chance in 12 that guy selling you homemade mead named his son Jayber."

In a 2019 review for America of What I Stand On, a husky two-volume anthology of Berry’s writing edited by Jack Shoemaker, Jon Sweeney identified exactly when he became a Wendell Berry enthusiast: at the age of 16. The owner of a bookstore in the suburbs of Chicago that Sweeney haunted as a teenager gave him two of Berry’s books, The Wheel (a book of poems) and Recollected Essays, and said “I think you should get to know this author.” Sweeney did her one better, becoming so obsessed with Berry’s writings that he decided a few years later to undertake an impromptu pilgrimage to Berry’s farm in Port Royal, Ky. Alas, Berry wasn’t home, but it didn’t dampen Sweeney’s enthusiasm for his writings.


  


“There is always movement in Wendell Berry’s sentences. He writes about what he has experienced, what he has learned, and always with humility for what he does not know. The natural world is his primary teacher: its rhythms, its largesse, its mysteries,” Sweeney wrote:

“And in the essays, the natural world often reflects how change in humans is also natural, inexplicable and possible. I think this is what many who love his writing appreciate most about Berry, whether they realize it or not. For his Christian readers, this becomes an expansion of what we understand as conversion.”

The focus on conversion can seem a bit ironic in Berry’s case, because at first glance he doesn’t seem to be much of a fan of change in general. “He frequently questions society’s attempts to improve things, modernize or make ways of living more efficient. Those words—improve, modernize, efficient—might as well be in quotation marks whenever they appear in a Berry essay. He doubts them consistently,” Sweeney continued.

There were moments in the anthology where Berry made Sweeney’s hackles rise: “He is not always right. Any essayist worth reading will anger and annoy you from time to time. Berry can be cranky.” On the other hand, “his wisdom, and his call to better habits, is too essential. To ignore Wendell Berry is like trying to ignore your grandmother: You just can’t.”

“There is always movement in Wendell Berry’s sentences. He writes about what he has experienced, what he has learned, and always with humility for what he does not know."

Two years before Sweeney’s review, Anna Keating wrote a review for America on Laura Dunn’s new documentary, “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry.” In the film, an 83-year-old Berry “reads his essays in a Southern drawl over images of his working farm, the land he and his family have cultivated in Kentucky for five generations. He and his wife returned to this land after graduate school, in search of home and sense of place or, as William Faulkner once called it, ‘significant soil,’” Keating wrote.

The filmmakers never interview Berry on camera; rather, they try to take viewers into Berry’s world: “You hear the sound of footsteps as an unseen person walks through the hills or around the farm. You get to know some of the people Berry loves: his wife and collaborator, Tanya, his daughter, Mary, and his fellow farmers, both industrial, subsistence and organic.”

Berry, Keating wrote, “is an advocate of small farms, rural communities and Judeo-Christian values like kindness, all of which have been harmed by ‘get big or get out’ industrial agriculture. His life and work bear witness to the fact that it is never Christian to say, ‘I can do whatever I want with my own land’ or ‘my own body.’ We are stewards, not owners. What’s more, the attitude of ‘I can do whatever I want’ is toxic to earth and water, family and community.”

Keating owns a small business with her husband, and has a particular interest both in Catholic social teaching and in distributist writers, including the aforementioned Chesterton and Maurin but also Hilaire Belloc and Dorothy Day. She defined distributism as a way of thinking that “seeks to unite what has been separated, labor and capital, through the ownership of small businesses and farms or through the ownership of tools and a trade or through participation in a guild, so that wealth is not consolidated in the hands of a few wealthy individuals (capitalism) or in the hands of the state (socialism).” She found that the life Wendell Berry has created and the views he espouses “both are in line with this vision and can prove helpful to Catholics, serving as an antidote to the many ills of our time.”

There’s plenty more in the America archives on Wendell Berry, including this 2009 appreciation by fellow writer-farmer Kyle T. Kramer and this 2017 interview by Sean Salai of Berry’s daughter Mary, the executive director of the Berry Center in New Castle, Ky., a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the legacy of her father.

"His life and work bear witness to the fact that it is never Christian to say, ‘I can do whatever I want with my own land’ or ‘my own body.’ We are stewards, not owners."

 - James T. Keane, Senior Editor at America




The Seer: A Portrait of Wendell Berry - Movie Clip
May 25, 2016




#MSPIFF: Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
Mar 30, 2017




The Berry Center:
A Present Day Iteration of the Producer's Program
Sep 27, 2016





https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2335444/




A Timbered Choir
by Wendell Berry

Even while I dreamed I prayed that what I saw was only fear and no foretelling,
for I saw the last known landscape destroyed for the sake
of the objective, the soil bludgeoned, the rock blasted.
Those who had wanted to go home would never get there now.

I visited the offices where for the sake of the objective the planners planned
at blank desks set in rows. I visited the loud factories
where the machines were made that would drive ever forward
toward the objective. I saw the forest reduced to stumps and gullies; I saw
the poisoned river, the mountain cast into the valley;
I came to the city that nobody recognized because it looked like every other city.
I saw the passages worn by the unnumbered
footfalls of those whose eyes were fixed upon the objective.

Their passing had obliterated the graves and the monuments
of those who had died in pursuit of the objective
and who had long ago forever been forgotten, according
to the inevitable rule that those who have forgotten forget
that they have forgotten. Men, women, and children now pursued the objective
as if nobody ever had pursued it before.

The races and the sexes now intermingled perfectly in pursuit of the objective.
the once-enslaved, the once-oppressed were now free
to sell themselves to the highest bidder
and to enter the best paying prisons
in pursuit of the objective, which was the destruction of all enemies,
which was the destruction of all obstacles, which was the destruction of all objects,
which was to clear the way to victory, which was to clear the way to promotion, to salvation, to progress,
to the completed sale, to the signature
on the contract, which was to clear the way
to self-realization, to self-creation, from which nobody who ever wanted to go home
would ever get there now, for every remembered place
had been displaced; the signposts had been bent to the ground and covered over.

Every place had been displaced, every love
unloved, every vow unsworn, every word unmeant
to make way for the passage of the crowd
of the individuated, the autonomous, the self-actuated, the homeless
with their many eyes opened toward the objective
which they did not yet perceive in the far distance,
having never known where they were going,
having never known where they came from.

Wendell Berry



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Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Process Theology Says God Gives AND Receives Love Contra Anselm & Aquinas

Site references provided by R.E. Slater
The Ontological Argument by Atheist.org


The Theo-Logic of Love
(and why Aquinas and Anselm are wrong)

by Thomas J. Oord
September 12th, 2017

God’s love involves both giving and receiving. That’s part of the theo-logic of love. But some great theologians erroneously thought God’s love only gives and never receives.

In my previous blogs, I’ve argued that the Bible, Jesus, and our common experience tell us that God is relational/passible. And God’s love involves giving to and receiving from others.

We might call this overall argument “the theo-logic of love.” The love described in Scripture, in Jesus, and in our own best experiences indicates that expressions of love are partly shaped by responses to others.

An entirely unrelated, unresponsive, and isolated person – if such a being existed – could not love. Love requires relationships of giving-and-receiving influence.

God's Love Both Gives AND Receives

One of the biggest errors committed by Christian theologians of yesteryear was in thinking God’s love involves only outgoing benevolence with no receptive relationality. In other words, they wrongly thought God’s love only gives and never receives. Let me offer a few examples of this erroneous thinking.

The Error of Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas thought God acted benevolently toward creatures but was not affected by creaturely love. “A relation of God to creatures is not a reality in God,” he writes. God knows creatures as ideas without being causally affected by them.[1]

Influencing relations with creation “are not really in Him,” Aquinas says, and “are ascribed to him only in our understanding.”[2] In other words, we only imagine God gives and receives in loving relationship. But in reality, God does not.

If Aquinas is right, biblical statements about God’s compassion are fictional. Creatures cannot bless God. And God never responds to sin by offering forgiveness.

The Error of Anselm

Anselm made the same error. “How are you compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless?” Anselm asks rhetorically of God. “For if you are passionless, you do not feel sympathy; and if you do not feel sympathy, your heart is not wretched from sympathy for the wretched; but this it is to be compassionate.”

In response to his own question, Anselm offers the same answer we saw in Aquinas: “When you behold us in our wretchedness, we experience the effect of compassion, but you do not experience the feeling. Therefore, you are both compassionate, because you do save the wretched, and spare those who sin against you; and not compassionate, because you are affected by no sympathy for wretchedness.”[3]

In other words, according to Anselm we think God is compassionate when God is actually not.

God’s Giving-and-Receiving Love

In contrast to Aquinas and Anselm, I think God’s love involves more than outgoing benevolence. God’s love also involves incoming empathy, receiving, and sometimes suffering.

I stand with many other theologians who affirm divine passibility. I list some in this footnote.[4] According to us, God’s love requires both giving and receiving. And we think the Bible, the witness of Jesus, and commonsense stand with us on this issue. And they stand against Aquinas and Anselm.



Notes

[1] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I (Wesminster, Md: Christian Classics, 1981), q. 6, a.2, ad 1.

[2] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles II (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), 13-14.

[3] St. Anselm, Proslogium, tr. Sidney Norton Deane (La Salle, IL, 1951), pp. 13-14.

[4] Among the many theologians who argue that God is passible, see especially Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1949), Gregory A. Boyd, Is God to Blame? Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Suffering (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), John B. Cobb, Jr., God and the World (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), Isaak August Dorner, “The History of the Doctrine of the Immutability of God,” in Divine Immutability, trans. Robert R. Williams and Claude Welch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 82–130. Paul Fiddes, The Creative Suffering of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), Paul L. Gavrilyuk, The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), Catherine Keller, From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism and Self (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), Kazoh Kitamori, Theology of the Pain of God, 5th ed. (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1965), Jung Young Lee, God Suffers for Us (Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1974), Bruce McCormack, “Divine Impassibility or Simply Divine Constancy: Implications for Karl Barth’s Later Christology for Debates over Impassibility,” Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of Human Suffering, James F. Keating and Thomas Joseph White, eds. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2009); Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God (1974, 2001), Thomas Jay Oord, The Nature of Love: A Theology (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2010), Clark Pinnock, Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), Pinnock, et. al., The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understand of God (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity, 1994), Jeff Pool, God’s Wounds: Hermeneutic of the Christian Symbol of Divine Suffering. Vol I Divine Vulnerability and Creation (Cambridge, UK: James Clarke and Co., 2009), John Sanders, The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Academic, 2007); T.F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God (New York: Continuum, 1996), Daniel Day Williams, “Suffering and Being in Empirical Theology,” in B. L. Meland ed., The Future of Empirical Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), 175-94, Nicholas Wolterstorff, “Suffering Love,” in Philosophy and the Christian Faith, Thomas V. Morris, ed. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990).



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A History of Philosophy - Hugh Timeline Charts!




A History of Philosophy


Philosophy has been around since the dawn of western civilization. The golden age of Greek philosophy took place in Athens in the 5th century BC. The works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle informed thousands of years of thought, becoming central to thought in the Roman world, the Middle Ages, and then resurfacing in the renaissance and later.

Starting at the height of the Roman republic, Christian thought was central to philosophy at least until the enlightenment. In the 18th century, questions of how we come to know what we believe we know (epistemology), and new ethical schools began to form. By the late 1800’s, questions of language, logic, and meaning took center stage, and the 20th century played host to one of the largest bursts of philosophical work ever seen. Today philosophical thought is applied to almost every component of life, from science to warfare, politics to artificial intelligence.


A History of Western Philosophy Chart

This awesome chart from superscholar.org provides an abbreviated, easy to follow, and informative overview of the general flow of thought in Western Philosophy. Although missing several influential scholars, it does a great job at capturing the nuts-and-bolts of things and is very well thought-out. We hope you enjoy this visual as much as we do and find it helpful! Click on the link below to view!



Both Western & Eastern Charts Together

https://merlinccc.org/visual-library/a-history-of-western-philosophy-chart/

Chart - History of Western Philosophy

analytic philosophy, ancient philosophy, aristotelianism, atomists, averroism, contemporary philosophy, continental philosophy, critical thinking, eclecticism, eleatics, empiricists, epicureanism, existentialism, german idealism, hellenistic, hellenistic philosophy, history, humanism, ionians, logic, modern philosophy, natural philosophy, neoplatonism, ordinarly language philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy, platonism, political philosophy, post-structuralists, postanalytic philosophy, pragmatism, presocratics, pythagoreanism, pythagorreans, rationalists, reason, roman philosophy, scholasticism, skepticism, sophists, stoicism, western philosophy.


A History of Eastern Philosophy

Eastern Philosophy is expansive, beginning as far back as 5,000 years ago. Eastern philosophies are also some of the most intricate and popular on the planet, with many adherents to religious philosophies thousands of years old.

Far from being isolated, many philosophies began in small sections of the Asia and spread for thousands of miles. As early as the Ancient Greeks, there was interplay between eastern and western thought, and Islamic thought–in particular– laid the foundation for the enlightenment in the west.

Though many of the schools of thought on our graphic are religious in some form, their philosophical importance can’t be underestimated, with many religious thinkers contributing substantially to the development of logic, metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology.






Abheda, Achintya-Bheda-Abheda, Ajivika, Asharism, Athari, averroism, Avicennism, Bahai, Bahusrutiya, Bhedabheda, Buddhism, Caitika, Carvaka, Chanakya, Confucianism, Daoism, Dharmaguptaka, Dvaita, Dvaitadvaita, east-asian philosophies, Illuminationism, Indian Philosophy, Iranian Philosophies, Islamic Philosophy, Jainism, Kasyapiya, Legalism, Lokottaravada, Mahasamghika, Mahisasaka, Manichaeism, Maoism, Maturidi, Mazdakism, Mimamsa, Mutazilah, naturalists, Neo-Vedanta, philosophy, Prajnaptivada, Samkhya, Sarvastivada, School of Naturalists, Shia, Shinto, Shuddadvaita, Sramana, Sthavira Nikaya, Sufism, Sunni, Theravada, Transcendent Theosophy, Vaisheshika, vedanta, Vedics, Vibhajyavada, Vishishtadvaita, yoga, Zoroastrianism, Zurvanism


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