Dr. David Hunt: The ‘Thoughtful Christian’: Perception (and Reality)

So here are the notes from his talk tonight. I can't say enough how this challenges me. Yes the perception is that we are angry and judgemental. But we also fight the "don't drink, don't think" stigma. I'm grateful to Dr. Hunt for sharing with us. We've got a lot to learn here. Please note that each new Roman numeral represents a new slide.

So what do you think?


I. The ‘Thoughtful Christian’: Perception (and Reality)

II. The Flat Earth Society: a hypothetical student club that also has a perception problem:
1. involvement in Earth Day event will only go so far in overcoming this problem
2. this doesn’t really address their credibility issues
3. in their case, not much can!

III. The Whittier College Christian Fellowship: a real student club with a perception problem
1. how finding common ground with our critics can address this problem
2. but: like the FES, other credibility issues remain
3. unlike the FES, Christians have incredible resources for addressing these issues

IV. Our split heritage:
Tertullian: “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?”
“I believe it because it’s absurd.”
Augustine: All truth is God’s truth.

V. Some members of our “support group”:
Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibniz, Kepler, Newton, Dante, Milton, Dostoevsky, Flannery O’Connor, Bach, William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa

VI. The College Years: intellectual growth, spiritual stagnation

VII. An argument is a connected set of statements in which one statement (the conclusion) is alleged to follow from the other statements (the premises).

VIII. The Logos
logos > logic, -logy (biology, anthropology, theology, etc.)
Man made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)
God is love: when we’re less than loving we fall short of the divine image.
Likewise, God is Logos: when we’re less than logical, we fall short of the divine image.

IX. Logos as Ultimate Explanation
Humans are explanation-seekers
Aristotle: All men by nature desire to know.

X. Lion got to roar, bird got to fly,
Man got to ask himself why, why, why.

Lion got to sleep, bird got to land
Man got to tell himself he understand.

XI. Two roles for argument?
(1) When we’re confident that we’ve got it right and are trying to convince others, we might use certain arguments that we have reason to believe might be effective with the audience we are trying to convince.
(2) When we don’t know what to believe and are trying to figure it out for ourselves, we might consider and evaluate arguments that appear relevant to the issue we are trying to sort out.
The first of these is in the service of effective apologetics

XII. But (1) and (2) aren’t the only possibilities.

XIII. Responsible Apologetics
Do we have an obligation to make sure that the arguments we use for purposes of apologetics are good arguments?

XIV. Understanding What We Already Believe
Beyond their use in persuading others, we need to consider and evaluate arguments for ourselves when trying to deepen our own understanding of what it is that we already believe.
“Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)
Faith seeking understanding (fides quaerens intellectum)—motto of St. Anselm

XV. We are naturally tempted to go easy on arguments with whose conclusions we agree. This temptation should be resisted.

XVI. Example: Why Jesus should be believed when he makes claims about Himself

When Jesus said that He is the Son of God, either He was telling the truth, He was crazy, or He was a liar.
But everyone (even the skeptic) agrees that Jesus was a good man.
He could not be both good and crazy, and He could not be both good and a liar.
So He was telling the truth.
Therefore, Jesus is the Son of God.

XVII. Compare:
When St. Francis of Assisi said that the Earth, not the Sun, is the center of our planetary system, either he was telling the truth, he was crazy, or he was a liar.
But everyone agrees that St. Francis was a good man.
He could not be both good and crazy, and he could not be both good and a liar.
So he was telling the truth.
Therefore, the Earth is the center of our planetary system.

XVIII. Both arguments grossly oversimplify the alternatives:
a. they overlook the possibility of people like St. Francis, who are neither crazy nor liars but simply mistaken about some things
b. they also overlook the fact that some people are both very good and a little crazy (perhaps St. Francis is again an example!), while others are both very good and occasionally truth-challenged

XIX. I acknowledge, Lord, and I give thanks that You have created Your image in me, so that I may remember You, think of You, love You. But this image is so effaced and worn away by vice, so darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do what it was made to do unless You renew it and reform it. I do not try, Lord, to attain Your lofty heights, because my understanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand Your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that ‘unless I believe, I shall not understand’ [Isa.7:9]. (Anselm, Proslogion)