Philosophy And Theology

Just as all women are people but not all people are women, all murder is killing but not all killing is murder, and all mathematics is logic but not all logic is mathematics, so all theology is philosophy but not all philosophy is theology.  Philosophy as a discipline is the study of reason, reality, and belief systems; philosophy otherwise refers to someone's worldview.  Theology as a discipline is the study of God and his nature; theology otherwise refers to someone's worldview with respects to their claims about God.  See how these two still overlap significantly?

Some people seem to try to pit the two against each other, as if a person cannot learn and love one without ignoring and scorning the other.  This is a false dilemma.  One cannot be a theologian and not be a philosopher.  In this sense, all Christians who take their theology seriously are indeed philosophers of sorts, whether they would identify with such a label or not.  Indeed, everyone who has a worldview has a philosophy, and thus everyone who has a theology has a philosophy.

An anti-philosophy Christian might try to twist Colossians 2:8 into a projectile to be launched at those who indulge in philosophy either slightly or greatly.  To see if this verse truly does condemn philosophy, let us examine it:


Colossians 2:8--"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than Christ."


Does Paul here condemn all of philosophy?  Not at all!  He cautions against false, deceptive philosophy and cultural conditioning ("human tradition"), not against philosophy as a whole.  To reject philosophy he would have to reject Christianity, because, as I proved above, every religion and theology is a philosophy.  To argue against philosophy is a self-refuting absurdity.  It is impossible for a conscious and rational being to not have some kind of philosophy and it is illogical to pretend like Christianity is not one.  Any claim that rejects all of philosophy refutes itself and it totally incapable of being true.  Identifying if a philosophy is true or not is the real task.

Some Christians may fear philosophy as some foreign threat to Christianity, but if Christianity is true then rational philosophy in alignment with reality will not contradict Christianity.  This fallacious phobia also likely has its roots in a misunderstanding of what philosophy and theology actually are.  If the American church seeks to thrive in today's cultural environment, it needs to embrace what the Bible itself commands it to embrace.  Sheltering oneself from philosophy only deprives one of legitimate knowledge and in turn makes Christianity seem intellectually weak and vulnerable in the presence of the major worldviews of the current age (scientism, relativism, pluralism, etc).  May the church quickly awaken to the Biblical commands for it to engage in rigorous philosophical and theological study (Proverbs 19:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 1 Peter 3:15).