Must a Presbyterian be Presuppositionalist?
Conservative “Presbyterian and Reformed” thought has given much attention in this century to the philosophical issues of “epistemology,” which is the subject of how we know things and the definition of faith, largely in response to the growth of “liberal” theology and its definition of knowledge, which borrows heavily from existentialism. Modern Reformed thought is divided into two predominant schools, called “Presuppositionalism” and “Evidentialism,” the former represented by authors such as Cornelius van Til, John Frame, and Alvin Plantinga, and the latter represented by authors such as John Gerstner, Francis Schaeffer and R.C. Sproul. Some presuppositionalists have gone so far as to declare their views the only orthodox view and to declare all other views, specifically evidentialism, to be heresy. I argue, first, that this debate is a worthwhile one, since it affects how we teach, preach, and present the Gospel; I then present some of the points of debate, some of the history of the debate, and a brief critique of presuppositionalism. I end by discussing whether the Reformers such as Calvin would have adhered to modern presuppositionalism. I myself fall into the Reformed evidentialist school and argue that this view is certainly within the bounds of orthodoxy.
Filed under: Theology
This is a good discussion, and worth having. I was discussing this with a friend some time ago. He said he first encountered the presuppositionalist position through C.S. Lewis in the book Miracles, and was convinced that Lewis used both. Evidentialism when the conversation was civil, and presupp when he needed to ‘break out the big guns.’