Thursday, February 24, 2011

Philosophy & a Pentecostal Worldview

James K. Smith's new book is Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy. I'm pleased and excited to see this. James is interviewed at the Evangelical Philosophical Society's blog.

"Thinking in Tongues not only seeks to articulate a "pentecostal worldview" (more on this below), but it also tries to envision how that worldview can contribute to philosophical discussions on epistemology, science and religion, ontology, philosophy of religion and philosophy of language."

Smith, who teaches at Calvin College, describes himself as a "Reformed charismatic." AKA "square circle?" Wow!

Smith connects a pentecostal worldview with Christian spirituality. He says: "I’m arguing that Christian philosophers should not just look to the resources of Christian concepts; we should recognize that there are philosophical “intuitions” (for lack of a better term) implicit in Christian practices, in Christian spirituality. As implicit, these are not necessarily articulated (indeed, in some sense they might be inarticulable). But by “exegeting” the understanding that is implicit in Christian spirituality, we can make explicit (per Robert Brandom) the wisdom embedded in our practices and then sort of “run” that wisdom philosophically to tease out its unique implications."

Another "must read" for me. But since I don't golf anymore it's more affordable.