Athanasius and Reason
(Part 1)

December 9, 2020

Is Scripture or philosophy (reasoning) more useful in defending the faith? For both Athanasius and twenty-first century Christians, the answer is, “it depends.” In this episode, the group looks at Athanasius’ use of philosophy in On the Incarnation and discusses why we should use the same approach today. Along the way, they discuss philosophy’s place in Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant doctrine.

Although Athanasius uses Scripture aggressively in the portion of the book addressed to the Jews, On the Incarnation starts out with more philosophical arguments. There is some discussion about whether or not Athanasius is doing this on purpose, but David quotes directly from the text to show how the author is intentionally referencing Greek philosophy to appeal to a non-Christian audience. The group agrees that reasoning from Scripture is useful only if the audience knows and adheres to Scripture, but because our culture is largely “biblically illiterate,” philosophical reasoning is more appropriate and more convincing. The Catholic church in particular has formally embraced the use of philosophy in apologetics.

Listen in to this conversation to hear more about Catholic and Protestant takes on philosophy and how Scripture itself promotes this form of reasoning.

 

Jump Through the Conversation

  • [0:44] Adam’s intro and disclaimers on episodes 5-8 (technically 6-9)

  • [4:20] Significance of Athanasius using philosophy

    • [5:45] Addressing an un-Christian audience, similarly to modernity

    • [6:56] Shows Christian faith can go toe-to-toe with other schools of thought

  • [8:04] Is Athanasius intentionally using philosophy?

    • [8:22] Issue of semantics

    • [9:41] Issue of how different traditions use reason and philosophy

    • [11:20] Identifying Athanasius’ audience

    • [12:30] Quotations of Athanasius’ use of philosophy

  • [14:05] Brief aside on philosophy and Catholic dogma

  • [15:07] Using truth as found in secular philosophy for reasoning to a secular or pagan audience

  • [16:23] Protestant issue of only using Scripture

    • [17:34] Example of Nicene Creed wording

    • [18:41] Example of modern arguments

  • [19:50] Adam’s summary and outro

 

Links and Resources

 

A resource of the Chattanooga House of Prayer