On this Reformation Day, 497 years after Luther nailed the 95 theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, I reflect upon the wild course theology and philosophy has taken since that fateful day so long ago. The divide between Protestant and Catholic has led to an unbelievable amount of divisions within Protestantism, with thousands of separate (and often antagonistic) Christian denominations existing today.
In the late 1800’s a man named Abraham Kuyper, a Calvinist philosopher, theologian, and politician, articulated a way of doing philosophy that was uniquely grounded in scriptural themes as he saw them. This philosophy gave rise to the political system which dominate in the Netherlands in the pre-WWII era of the 20th century. The philosophy was developed (and some argue reached its zenith) with the work of Dirk Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd in the mid 1900’s. Dooyeweerd recognized that all philosophy regardless of its orientation towards organized religions, come out of what he called “religious ground motives”. These ground motives are prior to and constitute one’s traditionary context and form the main impetus for the way in which one engages with the world. The fact that all philosophers are equally influenced and formed by by ground motives makes it difficult for a secular philosopher to exclude a staunchly Christian (and Scriptural) philosophy from the philosophical conversation. This way of doing philosophy came to be known as “Reformational philosophy” as its adherents believe that its unique perspective gives it an ability to reform the way philosophy has been done.
There has been a great deal of criticism of the Reformational philosophical tradition both from within and from without, and I believe that much of this criticism is warranted, especially with regards to Dooyeweerd. I may go into the details of Dooyeweerd’s system in another entry, but for my purposes here I simply wanted to give the most general outline of the Reformational philosophical system.
At bottom, I believe that philosophy, and especially philosophy which calls itself “Christian” desperately needs to heed the voice of the Reformational tradition. As Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven recognized, much of Christian philosophy has been simply focused on trying to adapt other secular philosophies and the philosophical tradition as a whole to a Christian way of understanding the world. What Kuyper, Dooyeweerd, and Vollenhoven ultimately wanted was to really create a new way of doing philosophy, one which values logic and rationality but which is focused at dealing with the real problems that humans face in the world and which values Creation as good. They saw that the truths of Scripture are the best way to found such a philosophy and, if used as its guiding light, will lead philosophy in directions far different than if it was led solely by “the light of reason.”
I wholeheartedly agree with their proposal, even if I do not share their Calvinist theology or view of Scripture. The beauty of the Bible is its fecundity, and I believe that from this well can spring a variety of philosophical rivers which, though unopposed to each other, are able to rightly divide the wheat from the chaff in philosophical thought and propose a new way forward to deal with the problems humans face in the world. I believe that a Scripturally-based philosophy leads away from internal disputes about semantics which have in many ways curtailed the growth of Analytic philosophy in the United States, and away from the secular materialism which dominates the Continental tradition. I believe that such a philosophy leads us right into the war on poverty, on famine, and on disease. It demands that philosophers engage the lived experience of human beings right here and now and offer an alternative way of doing politics, economics, and ethics. In this way, a truly Scriptural and Reformational philosophy fulfills the Great Commission – it preaches the Good News.
So, on this Reformation Day, let’s follow the examples of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingly; Philip Melanchthon and Menno Simons. Let’s give the world a redeemed Truth, a Reformed Truth, one that liberates rather than oppresses. Let’s break yokes together.
Thought Thoughts and Mused Ideas 
Sounds awesome! Thanks for informing me about the tradition of Reformed Philosophy. I had assumed it was merely philosophy in regards to Reformed Theology, but I see that’s wrong (sorry for the “Double Predestination” pun earlier).
This sort of reminds me of Plantinga’s “Advice to Christian Philosophers” (I hope you read it during Senior Sem), except that Reformed takes it even further.
Let me get something straight–so by Reformed Philosophy, we don’t mean doing philosophy and using the Bible as a proof-text, right? Instead, would it be more like taking in the values, worldviews, theologies, etc. present in Scripture and tradition and doing philosophy with those as our presumptions? Hence, perhaps instead of Philosophy of Religion being a catchphrase for the Theodicy problem, it would grow to mean things like death and the anthropology of humanity, or the (non)reality of purely spiritual beings, etc?
Exactly! Reformational Philosophy takes Scripture as its inspiration and guide, not as a proof-text generator. It is exactly like “taking in the values, worldviews, theologies, etc. present in Scripture and tradition and doing philosophy with those as our presumptions.” It’s not even “Philosophy of Religion” as such. It’s definitely philosophy with a certain intent – One focuses specifically on problems which exist in the world itself rather than problems inherent in other philosophies, although those critiques are necessary and must be developed inasmuch as one seeks to correct a philosophy that has led to harm for humans and creation (Free-Market Capitalism, for instance). Reformational philosophy has taken the form of Critical Theory, Aesthetics, Hermeneutics, Medievial Studies, and pretty much any other field of philosophy that exists. The beauty of being led by the diversity within Scripture is that, if one is called to it, any philosophical field is open. I can’t think of any aspect of human existence the Bible does not address at some level, which is what makes this possible.
Truly awesome
Reblogged this on Faith Seeking Revelation and commented:
Here’s an excellent post from a good friend of mine about a field of philosophy that is holistically Christian, called Reformed Philosophy–a model for me for what a Christian philosopher should look like.
Michael,
I just reread your original comment, and I wanted to mention that “Advice to Christian Philosophers” changed my life when we read it during senior seminar at Messiah. In many ways I’ve carried Plantinga’s exhortations in that essay with me, and I hope never to lose sight of the goals he set for Christian philosophy. I talked with one of my professors about Plantinga, and he told me that Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff are trained in and work in a type of philosophy that comes out of Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd, and Dirk Vollenhoven’s philosophy, but takes a different perspective than what is generally referred to as “Reformational Philosophy”. They call their field “Reformed Epistemology”. Historically this way of doing philosophy has centered around Calvin College, and traces its earliest roots to H. Evan Runner, who was a professor of both Plantinga and Wolterstorff, if I remember rightly. At bottom they would root their philosophy in Scripture as well, but, as their name suggests, they deal most explicitly with issues of epistemology. There are also some technical differences between their philosophical views and those of Reformational Philosophy, but like I said, they come from the same theoretical root.