Christian philosophy

Ang brought up a question that I have just taken for granted... until he asked it. "What do I think it means to be a 'Christian' philosopher?" You know, I am not sure. Another question that Ang asked me is: Would you be opposed to working (teaching) in a seminary? I think only my ego would, and let me explain. In academics, seminaries are not the capitol of thinking but usually involved in teaching what a specific group or genre, e.g. denomination, evangelical, of people believe. You become pigeon-holed if you teach in a seminary, especially evangelical seminaries. Well the only type of seminary that I would be interested in teaching at would be an evangelical seminary. Perhaps my biggest reservation about teaching at an evangelical seminary is that I would be limited to evangelical schools for the rest of my life... which is not a bad thing, it means that my call from God would be to equip people for ministry and build them up in their faith. However, I would never be offered a job (well, maybe a 0.001% chance) in a majore research university. My second reservation about teaching in a seminary would be the quality of students. Most students arriving at a seminary have the idea that the seminary is in their way of doing "real ministry" and nothing that is learned in seminary will be practical. So often seminary students are lazy and apathetic. There are not very many scholar-pastors anymore. Perhaps the best example of a current scholar-pastor is John Piper. Others would include, Martin Luther, John Calvin, St. Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and John Gill. I'm sure that there are others but these are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.

So what does it mean to do Christian philosophy? I am not sure... I have always assumed that Alvin Plantinga is right... one assumes the doctrine of the Christian faith are correct when doing philosophy, any doctrine that does not match one's philosophy, invalidates the philosophical position that one holds to. What is one's responsibility, i.e. what could I do at a secular research university? I have assumed that I could present a Christian worldview. This would show people that there are alternatives to naturalism, and also be able to show that it is rational and coherent to believe in the tenets of Christianity.

I will definitely think about this more... this is not a finished conversation for me but will be a continuing dialogue.