The Dawn of the Second Millennium
In the 11th century, a light broke the darkness and illumined the world for many centuries. Saint Anselm emerged and contributed greatly to the development of the ontological argument for the existence of God, the doctrines of Atonement, Soteriology and the Incarnation. He started with the idea of God's existence to demonstrate the proof of his existence in the “Proslogian”. When such Scripture-saturated thinkers emerge, the Church would prosper from their light.
By the 13th century, the wisest scholars were Christians who greatly shaped the progress of Western civilization. Paris, Oxford4, Cambridge and Prague were among the first universities in the world. In the medieval university, theology was the Queen of sciences and philosophy was her handmaiden. There was in existence a unique, open academic system where ideas could be exchanged freely. Even Moslem scholars who had already experienced their renaissance were invited to lecture at Western institutions of higher learning. Through this contact, the extensive commentaries of Averroës5 on the works of Aristotle were translated and brought to Europe. His works profoundly influenced the Scholastic school of philosophy in medieval Europe and medieval Jewish philosophy. Western scholars prospered as a result of being introduced to Aristotelian logic and rational thinking by Moslem scholars.
However, why had Moslem nations subsequently lagged behind compared to the West? Today, no great industrial invention can be attributed to them. There is a close correlation between technological advances and the intellectual vigour of a society. Prior to Martin Luther's Reformation, Germany had not produced great inventions or instruments of advanced precision either. Why has that changed today? Why is Germany renowned for its precise and quality workmanship? We can note that the evangelical movement had restored the primacy of reason in place of the myriad of superstitions in many European nations. Swiss timepieces are not made in Lausanne or Zurich but in Geneva. This was the city where John Calvin applied his systematizing genius to Reformed theology. The role of reason and intellect were recovered during the Reformation movement. Whatever we do, we do it for the glory of God, not unto men. This kind of Protestant work ethics permeating the whole culture could not but spur greater heights in uncompromising excellence, creativity and productivity.
In the 13th century, the Moslems and Jews had their eminent intelligentsia. For the Jews, they had Moses Maimoneides. The Moslems had Averroes, a highly respected thinker. And Thomas Aquinas was the great intellect in Christendom. But why did Christianity prosper and with it, the Western civilization? Why were nations influenced by a Christian worldview enjoying superior scientific and technological advances? Subsequently, Aquinas found a more accurate and faithful copy of Aristotelian work on logic. He achieved the "classical synthesis" between philosophy and theology, where both played complementary roles in the quest for ultimate truth. Unlike integral Aristotelianism, he rejected the “double truth” theory that "what may be true in faith may be false in reason, what is true in philosophy may be false in theology."6 Differing from Anselm, Aquinas demonstrated the proof for the existence of God through the cosmological argument. As a result of development in logical reasoning, science and technological progress in Western civilization followed suit.7
Tragically, evangelicals today have largely forgotten this spiritual heritage. We are plagued with a sense of indifference with regards to correct doctrine, accurate interpretation of Scripture and the concept of right and wrong. “It does not matter as long as we love God!” was the oft-repeated excuse. Therefore, truth is often sacrificed for a form of pietism devoid of passion to be uncompromising and faithful to God’s revelation. We need to speak forth truth in love, not sacrifice truth for the sake of “love”. 8
After enduring more than 600 years of Dark Age, man anticipated a new dawn in the new millennium. We can look back from a philosophical perspective and examine in every century its peculiar characteristics and individuated movements since the Reformation. Even as the second millennium draws to a close, it is proper for us to conduct a brief evaluation of the preceding centuries.
The Age of Faith
The 16th century could be justly called the Century of Faith. The religious movement in Europe known as the Reformation called entire nations back to the authority of Scripture as the sole rule of faith and conduct. It was a return to that faith preached by our Lord and His apostles, led by the courageous Luther and Philipp Melanchthon in Germany, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland and John Knox in Scotland. They were great Reformers who sought to rescue men from the stronghold of Rome and give them the Scripture in their vernacular languages. Luther, a German monk, courageously confronted the ecclesiastical authority with these immortal words, "Here I stand. I could do no other. So help me God!"
The Reformation uprooted the superstitions of Rome with her unhealthy preoccupation with icons and relics. But uprooting the false foundation alone would not do! There was a need to also reconstruct and edify the saints upon the true foundation. For that holy task, John Calvin was thus raised up by the Lord. With the mind of Calvin - keen in legislature, meticulous in his choice of words and utter dependence on the Bible - Reformed theology, which bore the mark of his systemic genius, was given form. In the aftermath of great tribulation in France, Calvin wrote a voluminous work with more than 8000 quotations of Scriptural texts with the objective to diligently strengthen, build up and vindicate the faith of his persecuted countrymen.9 It was an unparalleled statement and apologetics of the evangelical faith. The French philosopher, Will Durant said, "If I were to list the ten most influential books that changed human history, one of them has to be John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion". Until today, not a theologian has surpassed him in profundity of thought.
As God’s stewards and modern evangelicals, we have to awaken to our responsibility to contribute to our culture, politics, legislation and the arts. Shallow evangelicalism has missed this by neglecting our cultural mandate and hope its meagre investments would reap generous returns. Our witness is seriously impoverished if we only preach the gospel but withdraw from engaging the world in other areas. Let us learn from biblical examples like Moses, Joseph, David, Jesus and Paul. Their wide range of knowledge astounded and even silenced their ungodly contemporaries. At evangelistic conferences, evangelicals have tirelessly talked about nothing else but fulfilling the Great Commission. But when targeted datelines have passed, the world population at large is still bound by godless presuppositions and ideologies. This trend repeats itself for decades.
Does that mean I am giving up? God forbid! I would never give up on the cause of the gospel. All that I do is for the proclamation of the gospel. But that goal would be thwarted if we fail to actively engage our minds in the marketplace of ideas and respond to the cultural mandate of our witness.
We know that Paul of Tarsus was the faithful missionary of the Gospel to numerous Gentile frontiers. Yet he was also well trained in the Greek philosophical thoughts and Jewish laws of his day. The same Paul who was zealous to preach Christ and him crucified was also able to diagnose man’s spiritual problem at the center of Areopagus. The evangelist who was most faithful in declaring the message of salvation was also the scholarly theologian who expounded on God’s sovereignty in predestination. He who was the least of the apostles, the “fool” for the sake of the gospel was also the most educated of men who turned the world on its head and gained the audience of kings.
I am by no means ashamed of the gospel but strive to call others to join me in this sacred task. The gospel is ever our foundation! The gospel is ever our central pursuit! However, evangelicals need a paradigm shift to communicate these eternal principles in the present cultural and philosophical context, speaking in the language that the world understands. Can we stand being despised as closet-Christians, unable to engage the enemy in the marketplace of ideas?
When I was younger, I used to admire those who held doctorates in philosophy or theology. But as I grew older, their titles ceased to impress me. When I was invited to a dinner with Edith Schaeffer, wife of Francis Schaeffer10, she said to me, "Stephen, in my country, professors in theology can be produced by the thousands but not many could labour for God."
Today, we also find seminaries obsessed solely with paper qualifications. But where is the spiritual power? Where is reliance on God? We are not sent by man to preach man's wisdom with man’s methods. In contrast, we need to practice a God-centred approach to ministry. God says, “Seek my face and my power! Preach my Word!” The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all men. Its message is as relevant to men today as prescription of the right medicine is to a sick and dying man. And the Holy Spirit alone has the power of regeneration to bring men to a living faith in the gospel.
The Age of Reason
Now we come to the 17th century, which is called the Age of Reason. We find that in France, Rene Descartes sought a system of thinking based on deduction11 and intuitive knowledge.12 On the other hand, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Germany) and Baruch Spinoza (Amsterdam) sought to explain the burning dilemma of how God is related to the world with regards to causality and how thought relates to action. Later, empiricists like John Locke, Francis Bacon, George Berkeley and David Hume in Britain emerged. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke challenged the cornerstone of rationalism about innate, intuitive knowledge with his famous “tabula rasa” or blank tablet. A baby is born into the world with a blank mind. All knowledge is learnt from experience through our five empirical senses and reflection. (a posteriori knowledge)
Some philosophers during this period sought to use autonomous reason to overthrow faith. For example, the sceptic David Hume in his argument that all our knowledge comes from sensory perceptions tried to discredit the law of causality altogether. According to him, the assumption of causality is guilty of logical fallacy (post hoc, ergo propter hoc13). We should pause and note that the law of causality was commonly used in the arguments for God’s existence. It is simply logical absurdity to suppose that an effect is without any antecedent cause.
The Age of Enlightenment
In the 18th century, the so-called Enlightenment period arrived. There was an unparalleled atmosphere of optimism in man’s ability to solve all his problems through science. Man was proudly lauded as the measure of all things. This naïve form of humanism was profoundly man-centred or anthropocentric. As a result, metaphysics and the supernatural were overlooked and neglected. That which is transcendental and eternal was scoffed at. Only that which can be proven in a laboratory and perceived inductively was considered real or worthy of study. As a result, divine miracles and providence were dismissed as myths. The value of religion was trivialized to the extent that led to moral bankruptcy.
In the 11th century, a light broke the darkness and illumined the world for many centuries. Saint Anselm emerged and contributed greatly to the development of the ontological argument for the existence of God, the doctrines of Atonement, Soteriology and the Incarnation. He started with the idea of God's existence to demonstrate the proof of his existence in the “Proslogian”. When such Scripture-saturated thinkers emerge, the Church would prosper from their light.By the 13th century, the wisest scholars were Christians who greatly shaped the progress of Western civilization. Paris, Oxford4, Cambridge and Prague were among the first universities in the world. In the medieval university, theology was the Queen of sciences and philosophy was her handmaiden. There was in existence a unique, open academic system where ideas could be exchanged freely. Even Moslem scholars who had already experienced their renaissance were invited to lecture at Western institutions of higher learning. Through this contact, the extensive commentaries of Averroës5 on the works of Aristotle were translated and brought to Europe. His works profoundly influenced the Scholastic school of philosophy in medieval Europe and medieval Jewish philosophy. Western scholars prospered as a result of being introduced to Aristotelian logic and rational thinking by Moslem scholars.
However, why had Moslem nations subsequently lagged behind compared to the West? Today, no great industrial invention can be attributed to them. There is a close correlation between technological advances and the intellectual vigour of a society. Prior to Martin Luther's Reformation, Germany had not produced great inventions or instruments of advanced precision either. Why has that changed today? Why is Germany renowned for its precise and quality workmanship? We can note that the evangelical movement had restored the primacy of reason in place of the myriad of superstitions in many European nations. Swiss timepieces are not made in Lausanne or Zurich but in Geneva. This was the city where John Calvin applied his systematizing genius to Reformed theology. The role of reason and intellect were recovered during the Reformation movement. Whatever we do, we do it for the glory of God, not unto men. This kind of Protestant work ethics permeating the whole culture could not but spur greater heights in uncompromising excellence, creativity and productivity.
In the 13th century, the Moslems and Jews had their eminent intelligentsia. For the Jews, they had Moses Maimoneides. The Moslems had Averroes, a highly respected thinker. And Thomas Aquinas was the great intellect in Christendom. But why did Christianity prosper and with it, the Western civilization? Why were nations influenced by a Christian worldview enjoying superior scientific and technological advances? Subsequently, Aquinas found a more accurate and faithful copy of Aristotelian work on logic. He achieved the "classical synthesis" between philosophy and theology, where both played complementary roles in the quest for ultimate truth. Unlike integral Aristotelianism, he rejected the “double truth” theory that "what may be true in faith may be false in reason, what is true in philosophy may be false in theology."6 Differing from Anselm, Aquinas demonstrated the proof for the existence of God through the cosmological argument. As a result of development in logical reasoning, science and technological progress in Western civilization followed suit.7Tragically, evangelicals today have largely forgotten this spiritual heritage. We are plagued with a sense of indifference with regards to correct doctrine, accurate interpretation of Scripture and the concept of right and wrong. “It does not matter as long as we love God!” was the oft-repeated excuse. Therefore, truth is often sacrificed for a form of pietism devoid of passion to be uncompromising and faithful to God’s revelation. We need to speak forth truth in love, not sacrifice truth for the sake of “love”. 8
After enduring more than 600 years of Dark Age, man anticipated a new dawn in the new millennium. We can look back from a philosophical perspective and examine in every century its peculiar characteristics and individuated movements since the Reformation. Even as the second millennium draws to a close, it is proper for us to conduct a brief evaluation of the preceding centuries.
The Age of Faith
The 16th century could be justly called the Century of Faith. The religious movement in Europe known as the Reformation called entire nations back to the authority of Scripture as the sole rule of faith and conduct. It was a return to that faith preached by our Lord and His apostles, led by the courageous Luther and Philipp Melanchthon in Germany, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland and John Knox in Scotland. They were great Reformers who sought to rescue men from the stronghold of Rome and give them the Scripture in their vernacular languages. Luther, a German monk, courageously confronted the ecclesiastical authority with these immortal words, "Here I stand. I could do no other. So help me God!"
The Reformation uprooted the superstitions of Rome with her unhealthy preoccupation with icons and relics. But uprooting the false foundation alone would not do! There was a need to also reconstruct and edify the saints upon the true foundation. For that holy task, John Calvin was thus raised up by the Lord. With the mind of Calvin - keen in legislature, meticulous in his choice of words and utter dependence on the Bible - Reformed theology, which bore the mark of his systemic genius, was given form. In the aftermath of great tribulation in France, Calvin wrote a voluminous work with more than 8000 quotations of Scriptural texts with the objective to diligently strengthen, build up and vindicate the faith of his persecuted countrymen.9 It was an unparalleled statement and apologetics of the evangelical faith. The French philosopher, Will Durant said, "If I were to list the ten most influential books that changed human history, one of them has to be John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion". Until today, not a theologian has surpassed him in profundity of thought.As God’s stewards and modern evangelicals, we have to awaken to our responsibility to contribute to our culture, politics, legislation and the arts. Shallow evangelicalism has missed this by neglecting our cultural mandate and hope its meagre investments would reap generous returns. Our witness is seriously impoverished if we only preach the gospel but withdraw from engaging the world in other areas. Let us learn from biblical examples like Moses, Joseph, David, Jesus and Paul. Their wide range of knowledge astounded and even silenced their ungodly contemporaries. At evangelistic conferences, evangelicals have tirelessly talked about nothing else but fulfilling the Great Commission. But when targeted datelines have passed, the world population at large is still bound by godless presuppositions and ideologies. This trend repeats itself for decades.
Does that mean I am giving up? God forbid! I would never give up on the cause of the gospel. All that I do is for the proclamation of the gospel. But that goal would be thwarted if we fail to actively engage our minds in the marketplace of ideas and respond to the cultural mandate of our witness.
We know that Paul of Tarsus was the faithful missionary of the Gospel to numerous Gentile frontiers. Yet he was also well trained in the Greek philosophical thoughts and Jewish laws of his day. The same Paul who was zealous to preach Christ and him crucified was also able to diagnose man’s spiritual problem at the center of Areopagus. The evangelist who was most faithful in declaring the message of salvation was also the scholarly theologian who expounded on God’s sovereignty in predestination. He who was the least of the apostles, the “fool” for the sake of the gospel was also the most educated of men who turned the world on its head and gained the audience of kings.
I am by no means ashamed of the gospel but strive to call others to join me in this sacred task. The gospel is ever our foundation! The gospel is ever our central pursuit! However, evangelicals need a paradigm shift to communicate these eternal principles in the present cultural and philosophical context, speaking in the language that the world understands. Can we stand being despised as closet-Christians, unable to engage the enemy in the marketplace of ideas?
When I was younger, I used to admire those who held doctorates in philosophy or theology. But as I grew older, their titles ceased to impress me. When I was invited to a dinner with Edith Schaeffer, wife of Francis Schaeffer10, she said to me, "Stephen, in my country, professors in theology can be produced by the thousands but not many could labour for God."
Today, we also find seminaries obsessed solely with paper qualifications. But where is the spiritual power? Where is reliance on God? We are not sent by man to preach man's wisdom with man’s methods. In contrast, we need to practice a God-centred approach to ministry. God says, “Seek my face and my power! Preach my Word!” The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all men. Its message is as relevant to men today as prescription of the right medicine is to a sick and dying man. And the Holy Spirit alone has the power of regeneration to bring men to a living faith in the gospel.
The Age of Reason
Now we come to the 17th century, which is called the Age of Reason. We find that in France, Rene Descartes sought a system of thinking based on deduction11 and intuitive knowledge.12 On the other hand, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Germany) and Baruch Spinoza (Amsterdam) sought to explain the burning dilemma of how God is related to the world with regards to causality and how thought relates to action. Later, empiricists like John Locke, Francis Bacon, George Berkeley and David Hume in Britain emerged. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke challenged the cornerstone of rationalism about innate, intuitive knowledge with his famous “tabula rasa” or blank tablet. A baby is born into the world with a blank mind. All knowledge is learnt from experience through our five empirical senses and reflection. (a posteriori knowledge)Some philosophers during this period sought to use autonomous reason to overthrow faith. For example, the sceptic David Hume in his argument that all our knowledge comes from sensory perceptions tried to discredit the law of causality altogether. According to him, the assumption of causality is guilty of logical fallacy (post hoc, ergo propter hoc13). We should pause and note that the law of causality was commonly used in the arguments for God’s existence. It is simply logical absurdity to suppose that an effect is without any antecedent cause.
The Age of Enlightenment
In the 18th century, the so-called Enlightenment period arrived. There was an unparalleled atmosphere of optimism in man’s ability to solve all his problems through science. Man was proudly lauded as the measure of all things. This naïve form of humanism was profoundly man-centred or anthropocentric. As a result, metaphysics and the supernatural were overlooked and neglected. That which is transcendental and eternal was scoffed at. Only that which can be proven in a laboratory and perceived inductively was considered real or worthy of study. As a result, divine miracles and providence were dismissed as myths. The value of religion was trivialized to the extent that led to moral bankruptcy.
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