Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

• Matthew 28:19-20

“Almost nothing is known about Philoponus’s early life other than he studied in Alexandria with the Aristotelian Ammonius Hermiae. A philosopher and natural scientist, Philoponus’s methods of enquiry were shaped by Christian beliefs. By arguing that the universe had an absolute beginning, and that this beginning was caused by God, he became the first serious critic of Aristotle, opening up paths of enquiry which became major influences on future scientists, notably the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. Unpopular with his colleagues, he later gave up philosophy and turned to theology, again causing controversy by suggesting that the Trinity was not one but three separate Gods.”

• Sam Atkinson (senior editor), The Philosophy Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained

John Philoponus, a.k.a. John the Grammarian and John of Alexandria (490-570), was a Christian philosopher and theologian from Alexandria, Egypt.  His views on the universe were biblically based and led to discoveries once science had caught up with his ideas.  But his warranted criticism of Aristotle caused friction in the philosophical world.  When he switched to theology, he developed some strange ideas that were later condemned as heretical by all the major church bodies of the time.

As I was writing this some time ago, I was reading a book by Dorothy L. Sayers, but not published until 50 years after her death.  In one of her essays, she “supposes” what the modern catechism might read, based on her observations of the church roughly one hundred years ago:

“Q. What is faith?
A. Resolutely shutting your eyes to scientific fact.”

“Q. What is human intellect?
A. A Barrier to faith.”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church (Essay: The Dogma is the Drama)

Dorothy L. Sayers was being sarcastic with her usual acerbic wit.  C.S. Lewis’ stepson once said that one of the few times he ever saw C.S. Lewis cry was when told Dorothy L. Sayers had passed away.  They often disagreed, but the arguments were thought provoking, witty, and amusing.  Yet, Sayers is illustrating how far the church had strayed from sound doctrine, using her wit along the way.

I bring this up because John Philoponus was using his human intellect with the structure of his faith.  This raised the ire of the philosophical world.  So, he jumped ship and went into theology.  As he applied his Human intellect and Neo-Platonism to the explanation of the Trinity, instead of getting one God and three persons, he got three Gods.  Oops.  Now he was considered a heretic in the theological world.

I write these essays because there is a great dearth in thinking these days.  The church and the secular world both have adopted Dorothy L. Sayers comedic wit in the quote above as being part of the catechism.  If you do not have faith, spiritual truth appears to be nonsense.  If you do have faith, there are some things that human intellect cannot adequately explain.  Thus, the “church” and the secular world think Christians are non-thinking knuckle-draggers.  The secular world laughs, and the “church” (meaning church without sound doctrine) wants the members to stay in a non-thinking state as long as they send in their tithe.

We should exercise our brains.  We should think, and what Dorothy L. Sayers was saying also, return to sound doctrine and think.  And when we have solved a few of life’s hard question, we will probably get to that wall which has something printed on it – “Nice try, but knowledge beyond this point is by faith alone.” That is not blind faith, that is working out our faith.

Did John Philoponus go too far?  On the philosophical side, maybe not far enough.  Galileo used a Dutch made instrument, later called a telescope, and was the first to use this instrument to study the moon, planets, and stars.  Galileo was arrested and placed under house arrest as a heretic for stating that Copernicus was right and the earth rotated around the sun.  The ideas of John Philoponus were radical and were still not accepted a little over one thousand years later, but his ideas had inspired the study made by Galileo.

As for the three different Gods, John Philoponus was off on that one, but I wonder how many Christians today rationalize the Trinity in an equally heretical manner.  Now, Dorothy L. Sayers even had a “modern diminished church” definition of the doctrine of the Trinity that would probably gain hold, if it were not blatant sarcasm.

“Q. What is the doctrine of the Trinity?
A. ‘The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible.’  Something put in by theologians to make it more difficult – nothing to do with daily life or ethics.”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church (Essay: The Dogma is the Drama)

The only thing wrong with Ms. Sayers’ wit in this case is that her answer is better than what I have heard from some modern theologians and pastors.  Sorry, MY sarcasm with acerbic wit in action…

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.