A Christian Philosopher

Lately I have been struggling with what the role of a Christian Philosopher is. I think for myself I will emphasize philosophical theology as a Christian Philosopher. Obviously, a Christian Philosopher will do philosophy from a Christian worldview. Which means emphasizing Scripture first and foremost, then Church Creeds, then lastly teachings of the Church Fathers. This is not to say that creeds or the fathers are authoritative for the believer, but they can both give guidance as to what the traditional, orthodox teaching of the church is. So, one who is doing philosophy in a Christian manner, would definitely not go against anything that Scripture teaches - when Scripture is rightly interpreted, but that's a different matter altogehter - and probably use Church Creeds and Patristics to inform her theology.

Now about doing philosophical theology - I take philosophical theology to be the task of a theologian, though a theologian who is trained in philosophy. Any fool can find a contradiction in Scripture but it is the task of a theologian to resolve the contradiction. A biblical theologian exegetes Scripture and explains what Scripture means, sounds simple enough, but the biblical theologian is not concerned with background material - she is concerned with the text in the context of Scripture. Historical theologians are concerned with the history of theology and properly understanding the setting and the background in which the theologizing has occurred, e.g historical theology involving the Reformation. A systematic theologian combines, historical theology, biblical theology, and philosophical theology. Now I will explain the role of a philosophical theologian. I take a philosophical theologian to be one who understands church tradition and biblical theology but attempts to clarify difficult issues. So an issue such as the Incarnation, e.g. how can Jesus be both fully God and fully man? Or an issue as the Trinity, how can God be three seperate persons, yet one whole being? Another issue is that of God and time, how can God know the future and humans still have free will in such a manner that humans are responsible for their actions?

Two areas that I am intrigued by right now are the Trinity and the Atonement, along with the Trinity and time. For the Atonement, one cannot say that Jesus went to the cross against His Father's will, or on His own initiative, nor can one say that the Father commanded (unitarily) the Son to go to the cross. For Jesus went willingly to the cross while the Father sent Him (or asked (suggested) Him to). As for the Trinity and time, I would like to propose a model where the Father reigns outside of time with the Son at His right hand, while the Holy Spirit acts within time. ...As you can tell, there is still a lot of work for me to do on these issues to maintain my orthodox thinking.