• Cornelius Van Til,  Greg Bahnsen,  James Anderson,  Robert Stern,  Transcendental Arguments for the Existence of God

    Why We Can Argue Transcendentally

    January 21, 2016

    Transcendental arguments usually seek to demonstrate that human experience (or a particular part of human experience) has, as a necessary condition, the existence of or the belief in something. The form of the argument is simply that “there must be something Y if there is something X of which Y is a necessary condition”2 Robert Stern maintains that, strictly speaking, transcendental arguments are for a metaphysical precondition. He suggests that there are four common features in the metaphysical kind of transcendental argument. First, the claim is for a metaphysical condition usually arrived at a priori and obtains in every possible world. For example, says Stern, “existence is a condition for…

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  • Ben Holloway,  Book Reviews,  Cornelius Van Til

    Nine of the Most Influential Books I Have Read

    December 7, 2014

    Here are nine of the books that have influenced me most in my life (apart from the Bible): 1. Tintin by Herge My parents used to tell people that if I sounded like I knew anything I got it from Tintin. Despite being a little colonial in its perspective (Herge often used unflattering ethical stereotypes) Tintin’s adventures took my young imagination all over the world. 2. The Secret Agent’s Handbook When I was old enough to go to the movies I became obsessed with James Bond. My parents bought me this book to put my obsession into practice. Somehow my interest, and this book specifically, became a part of my…

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  • Cornelius Van Til,  Education

    Van Til’s Philosophy of Education

    December 27, 2013

    For Van Til, two doctrines are vital for Christian education – creation and providence. God makes all the facts and arranges them according to his own will. No fact is outside the control of God or originates in anyone other than God. Experiences of human beings all originate in the plan of God. For Van Til, all facts are related to God, they are his facts. Being related to God, facts are automatically revealing of God. A fact that is determined by God reveals God to human beings who themselves are created by God. In scripture God provides the right interpretation of nature, experience and all the other facts humankind…

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  • Alvin Plantinga,  Apologetics,  Cornelius Van Til,  Jared Wilson

    Herodiasian Times

    March 8, 2013

    Herodias Jared Wilson likens our time to a transition from Herod to Herodias (see here). He quotes Mark: “For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.” John makes a public claim, rooted in his worldview, that is “heard gladly” by Herod even while not taken to heart. Herodias, on the other…

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  • Alvin Plantinga,  Cornelius Van Til,  John Calvin,  Paul Helm,  Sensus Divinitatis

    Calvin’s Sensus Divinitatis

    February 7, 2013

    John Calvin On the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation it is a little odd that we are still talking about Calvin’s sensus divinitatis. For one thing, the sensus appears only at the beginning of the Institutes and is somewhat dismissed by Calvin as being inadequate for saving anyone. The sensus is also a species of innate idea. But ever since John Locke’s Essay forced a retreat by nativists, talk of innate knowledge of anything has remained largely a niche activity. More recently, however, some philosophers of religion have proposed interpretations of Calvin’s sensus that do not entail innate ideas and thus do not fall foul to Locke’s criticisms. Although…

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  • Cornelius Van Til,  Greg Bahnsen,  Wittgenstein

    Wittgenstein and Van Til

    December 4, 2012

    One wise professor once told me that to use Ludwig Wittgenstein in a paper was to invite derision. He evidently felt that Wittgenstein is so variously interpreted that one will always be wrong about what he meant. Another professor once told me that it was possible to write a paper without mentioning Cornelius Van Til. Possible, but, for this Van Tillian blogger, quite unlikely. So I offer some interaction between Van Til and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein is most commonly taken to be opposing a foundationalist theory of knowledge. He writes “Really ‘The proposition is either true or false’ only means that it must be possible to decide for or against it. But this does not say…

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  • Atheism,  Chris Stedman,  Cornelius Van Til,  Religious Pluralism

    The Antithesis of Christianity is not Atheism

    November 26, 2012

    Most Christian apologists set themselves up against atheism. Moreover, their suggested approach is to begin with defeating atheism by showing why theism is more likely to be true. Cornelius Van Til was a little different.  Rather than opposing the belief that there is no God, he opposed the belief that there is an option. Van Til’s primary opponent was not one anti theistic belief, but the possibility of a plurality of religious beliefs being, in principle, rational. It was an apologetic contra religious pluralism. The root of unbelief, for Van Til, is not a rejection of God (although that is what follows), but the consideration of multiple options in basic commitments. Van…

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  • Cornelius Van Til,  John Hick,  Religious Pluralism

    Van Til vs Hick

    November 22, 2012

    John Hick is most well known for his argument for religious pluralism. He argued that, given that so many people are religious and believe in some kind of divinity, there must be something that all religions refer to. That thing Hick called the “real,” a kind of incomprehensible reality that best explains the existence of all religions. Religion is the human appropriation of the “real” in the phenomenal realm. The fact that they are different only goes to show that the real is unknowable in itself and only empirically expressed in human culture. How would a presuppositionalist like Van Til respond? First of all, the Christian presuppositional approach to a philosophy of religion is…

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