Guest Post: Is it possible to be a Christian philosopher?

Today's guest post comes from my redoutable and wise friend Josh Heyes. Josh, who blogs here too, has guest posted for me a couple of times. He is currently an MA Candidate at the University of Nottingham in Theology and Philosophy (from where he holds a BA), and is a committed member of our church, Trent, and spent the last year working for Scripture Union as a Youth Worker in a variety of contexts. This post is a corker: enjoy!

Philosopher. Probably. Certainly working hard.

Is it possible to be a Christian philosopher?

"Get a real job" is a kind of unspoken reality lurking behind conversations in which philosophers try and explain their work to others. Yet within Christianity there is often a similar attitude of negativity, held for a number of perhaps understandable reasons. I want to address the heart of some of these supposed tensions, with the purpose of suggesting how the task of Christian philosophy is not only a valid calling but an essential part of the Church's role in advancing the kingdom of God.

We are so clear in contemporary Christianity on the importance of a Biblical view on work that has does away with negative and secondary attitudes towards non-ministerial occupations. But why have we bought into our culture's latent anti-intellectualism? We need to see philosophical work not as a kind of secondary, lesser choice to a more "faithful" life that doesn't require such an active and intense use of one's rational capacities. Thinkers - God didn't make a mistake when he made you a relentless questioner or a indefatigable analyser. Our desires, whether intellectual, sexual, creative or ambitious  are gifts from God - it is our "missing of the mark" in twisting these gifts to glorify us that shows the ugliness and barrenness of any endeavour devoid of worship.

Philosophy is work, in much the same ways as engineering, marketing, or cleaning is. The difference is that while most other professions deal in some way with concrete realities, the philosopher deals in ideas, concepts and arguments about them. Ideas are more powerful than forces of nature, natural disasters and all the man-made instruments of destruction combined. They stand the test of time where grand architecture has crumbled, and they silently infiltrate our worldviews without leaving a trace, unrealised, from birth to death. These are the provenance of the philosopher - to understand, order, criticise and ultimately to create and disseminate ideas.

There are two great dangers in entering philosophy as a Christian - the first is similar to that of an experimental chemist. You are working with deadly, poisonous materials that will eat right through you in seconds if you have not taken the necessary precautions. Or perhaps it is more like a military weapons tester - "Getting inside" the heads of great thinkers is analogous to testing a nuclear weapon - even the testing process can cause irreparable harm to both you and everything around you, so caution is required. Satan has used these ideas throughout history like chemical weapons in deadly combinations to confuse and confound people.

The temptations of this path are manifold. In the hands of gifted and influential men and women the creative and destructive power of ideas can create and destroy whole edifices of social, scientific and psychological values, for better or for worse. Many philosophers remained unread and unpopular in their lives, with their ideas only taking on their full potency after their death. When the Christian philosopher starts taking hold of the ideas of philosophical history and aligning them against his own understanding he is faced with issues of power and pride. The questions the Lord may ask of a Christian philosopher are much like those he could ask of a Christian politician - Will you choose me and my kingdom as your goal, or will you choose yourself and your own glory?

Nevertheless, I hope that despite the dangers, it is abundantly clear that we need Christian philosophers in the same way that we need Christian doctors, teachers, politicians, engineers and cleaners - because there is work to do. One question remains - where is theology in all of this; the revelation of God through Jesus as found in the Bible? As my tutor often tells me "theology is not a subject, it's a task". Consequently, everyone is a theologian -  not excluding the philosopher.  Theology necessarily has something to say about everything, and as such Christian presence in every field of human endeavour is important because there is no "place", conceptual or real, over which God does not declare his authority and supremacy. It is submitting oneself to the authority of God in his Word by growing in the understanding and application of its wisdom to human life that guides our path through the perils of walking in our calling in this world, whatever the line of work. Therefore may both Christian philosophers and those Christians who think philosophically be emancipated from the guilt that has been lain on their intellectual passions, and work to the glory of God, as every man was made to do.