An Explanation of this New Journey

Many have asked why I've decided to pursue a master's degree in philosophy and why I've chosen to do it at at Catholic university of all places. Below is the general response I have given to those who have previously asked so that if there is anyone else still out there that is curious about my decision they can be rest assured I haven't become a heretic or fallen off the deep end. So here goes...

As for reasons behind my decision, interestingly enough, I talked to several Christian professors of philosophy (one at Calvin, one at Cedarville, and one at Grand Rapids Seminary) and all of them encouraged me to pursue a program at a Catholic school as they are about the only schools that have any kind of Christian bent that take philosophy seriously. I actually applied to Biola (an evangelical school in L.A.) and got accepted, but I had concerns as to the limitations of their program (as well as the cost of living!). One of Duquesne's strengths is Catholic Philosophy (e.g. – Augustine, Aquinas, Anselm, etc), which is basically the first 1500 years of church history and how these theologians appropriated current philosophical constructs to their thinking about God.

Upon graduation at Duquesne, I will then pursue a PhD (4-5 year) program in the area of philosophical theology or philosophy of religion. Here I hope to gain a better perspective of how philosophical thought has influenced Christian theology throughout church history, particularly in regards to its continued commitments to Platonic and Enlightenment thinking in Western Christianity. This study will afford opportunities to open up dialogue between other kinds of philosophy and Christian thinking including Eastern Philosophy and Postmodernism and consider what positive, redemptive contributions they can bring to the table.

Vocationally, the goal is that I be academically qualified to teach in a university setting (Christian or public – both of which have their advantages); however, if an opportunity within a church or para-church opened up that appeared to be an adequate fit with my giftedness, I would be very interested. My studies have vital missional applications as they relate to how Christians ought to interact with various cultures. Thus, I am very interested in teaching in a non-Western setting where the culture views the world from a different philosophical perspective than that of the West.

To put it another way, I could say that my motives for studying philosophy are three-fold:

(1) Jesus was not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant living in American Suburbia but was a Jewish Middle Easterner from the 1st Century, so understanding philosophy from different ages and contexts is extremely important to understanding Jesus as well as other religions and cultures (thus, philosophy is a very important topic for missionaries).

(2) Up until only recent Church History, philosophy was an extremely important topic to theologians. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Tertullian, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Apostle Paul all addressed highly philosophical questions and engaged in the philosophy of people from non-Christian backgrounds. By seeing philosophy as (“the wisdom of the world”), without noting its redemptive aspects, we are then neglecting large portions of church history and thought.

(3) Inadvertently, point two also reveals how philosophy has influenced theology (and vice versa), which should be a very important topic for us so we can consider what presuppositions we have about the world, evil, life, humanity, etc that we bring to the table before we even open up the Bible (or any other book). Understanding our presuppositions will help us to dialogue with others, but it will also help us to consider the ways we add to the Gospel with our own Western thinking, cultural beliefs, etc.

[And for those who don't recognize the picture, it is Raphael's "School of Athens" depicting Plato and Aristotle, a fresco painted in 1510 at the Vatican Museum - I actually took this picture last May when we were there in 2006.]