A Christian Introduction to Philosophy

A CHRISTIAN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY Review of Steven B. Cowan and James S. Spiegel, The Love of Wisdom: A Christian introduction to philosophy (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2009), 476 pages. Key Words: philosophy, Christianity, rational, faith, textbook, Steven B. Cowan, James S. Spiegel. Why another introduction to philosophy? Philosophy professors, who probably receive at least a half dozen new introductory philosophy textbooks each year from publishers that hope to entice them to adopt their texts as required reading for introductory philosophy classes, are likely to greet the publication of yet another introduction to philosophy with "enthusiastic ambivalence." Doubtless this is part of the reason why many recent introductory philosophy texts have born such unusual titles as Coffee and Philosophy, You Decide! Current Debates in Introductory Philosophy, and The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 experiments for the armchair philosopher.1 The Love of Wisdom has no such clever title, but it does have other features that make it almost unique as an introductory text and that will assure it a receptive audience in some segments of the market. The signature attribute of this particular introduction is that it is intentionally and openly written from a traditional Christian perspective. That a philosophy textbook would be written from a religious perspective may strike some as odd, perhaps even as somehow inappropriate. The relationship of philosophical thought, which tends to focus on reason, and religion, which often exhibits a propensity to justify beliefs in non-rational ways, has often been contentious. Many Christian thinkers since Tertullian ("What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?") have argued that "faith" and reason are distinct and incommensurate paths to knowledge. But others have pointed out that such thinkers invariably use reason in their arguments and unfailingly have a personal philosophy, even if they are not explicitly aware of it. While some religious thinkers are very hostile toward the formal study of philosophy, others welcome the intellectual rigor of philosophy as a way of deepening theological understanding or propagating and defending the faith. Steven B. Cowan and James S. Spiegel fall into the latter category. Their book, The Love of Wisdom: A Christian introduction to philosophy, uses philosophical analysis to deepen and defend a conservatively Christian perspective on a range of philosophical issues. The outline of The Love of Wisdom is very conventional. The book opens with an introduction that provides a brief historical orientation to the background and methods of philosophical investigation and then discusses how the study of philosophy helps one "to develop a reasonable worldview."2 This clear correlation of philosophy and worldview is somewhat unusual in introductory philosophy texts, and in the opinion of this reviewer it is a welcome addition, since it helps the beginning philosophy student understand how the sometimes abstract discussions that follow have a very practical impact on his or her life. Following the introduction are chapters on logic, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of religion, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. The book closes with a fourteen page glossary, an index of names, a subject index, and a scripture index. This final addition is another unusual feature, but one that may be appreciated by some readers. The book is, after all, subtitled A Christian introduction to philosophy. The tenor of the book is one of rational examination of issues. Emblematic of this is the quote from Galileo found on p. 101, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."3 The reader does not get the impression that the authors are straining to maintain their religious position in the face of better arguments to the contrary. …