Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective

'Introduction to Philosophy - A Christian Perspective' is a very worthwhile contribution to philosophical and Christian thought.As is obvious from the title, this is an overview of the field of philosophy. Written by Dr. Norman Geisler and Paul D. Feinburg, it is really a must read for Christians interested in philosophy, apologetics, etc.The authors cover the various areas of philosophy - ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, social and political philosophy, and philosophy of religion. It covers the Socratic method, inductive and deductive reasoning, syllogisms, and much more.This is clearly an area that serious Christians need to have some knowledge. As the authors state: 'Without a thorough knowledge of philosophy the Christian is at the mercy of the non-Christian in the intellectual arena.' Anyone who wants to converse on a deeper level with others really needs to have knowledge in this area. Although many have studied some basic philosophy in college, this book has the advantage of also covering the subject from a Christian view.Geisler and Feinberg make their position clear: 'God places no premium on ignorance. Christians do not receive a spiritual reward for an ignorant faith.' In fact, the Scriptures make it clear that Christians are to love God with all of their being, including their minds.Although this book is somewhat dated (it was written in 1980), it still contains lots of great information and I recommend it. I would encourage the authors to work on an updated version as this is far too valuable to fail to do so.

My assumption is that most of the people reading this review are purchasing this book for a college/seminary level into to philosophy class. This book is certainly a textbook, but do not count it as non-useful outside of the classroom. If you are looking into the book to obtain an understanding of Philosophy this will definitely help. At the beginning of every chapter, a short overview of the chapter is defined, followed by how it will be outlined. This is nice since it allows the reader to see where the author is taking them before just jumping into the topic.Each philosophical thought is explained and evaluated from an evangelical perspective. One of the major benefits of this textbook is its structure. If you were only interested in a topic such as "The problem of evil", you could easily jump to that section of the book, prior to reading the previous sections. The five major sections of the book are as follows..1. Introduction to Philosophy2. What is knowledge?3. What is reality?4. What is ultimate?5. What is good or right?If any of you are wondering, the authors do not present their personal perspective on predestination in this book. They present hard determinism, soft determinism, indeterminism and libertarianism with an explanation of each. They said that topic was "purposely omitted." If you would like something a little lighter / more of an introduction, I would recommend "The Consequences of Ideas" by RC Sproul. If this is a must read for school, you will find it is organized in an easy to learn fashion.

Being a Christian with a recent rising philosophical curiosity, I purchased this book. I have to say it is a solid work in many respects. It is well laid out and deals in a survey fashion with the major philosophical questions of ontology, epistemology, theology, and ethics. The authors appear to do a good job presenting views in an unbiased and focused manner while also offering criticisms as well as conclusions at the ends of chapters which elucidate what position a Christian would hold on the subject matter in the chapter. I found these conclusions/summations of the chapters helpful. For me I found the last third of the book concerning faith and reason, knowledge about God, and discussions on ethics to be most interesting.I have to take a star off though for a couple of reasons. First, the work was first published in 1980 and doesn't seem to have been updated since then. There is one reference to the U.S.S.R as still existing, and I found there to be a lack of mentioning current philosophical movements (postmodernism?), advances in biology such as genetic discoveries, and psychology in regards to knowing the world and human behavior. A lot has happened in 30+ years. The work also isn't as engaging as it could be in the sense that I would have liked more life examples/illustrations of certain views to aid in understanding.Just so potential readers know this is a survey work in philosophy from a Christian and western philosophical perspective (although eastern philosophers are mentioned at times). I would recommend this work for anyone with a strong philosophical curiosity or as a source for philosophical research papers.

Part of the armor that Paul describes in Ephesians and elsewhere is the helmet of salvation. The need for armor tells us we are at war, and to be prepared, we need to know how that war is being waged against us and how to answer the enemy's accusations. This is an essential part of 'taking every argument against God captive', first in our own minds and then to our friends and associates.This book challenges the Christian to think about the world in terms of philosophy-- Why is there evil in the world? How do we know there is a moral law? Is there philosophical evidence for a Creator? Does the argument that we cannot know true reality stand up to critical examination?Being aware of the tenants of philosophy helps us be aware of the arguments against our faith and how to answer them.Will this book equip you to counter these arguments? Not really, but you must learn how to hold a sword before you can learn how to use it.

A very good introduction to philosophy. I highly recommend it.

Everybody has a worldview which informs how they answer philosophical questions. This book doesn't hide the Christian beliefs of the authors but it is written superbly and as fairly as possible (discussing difficulties and the pros and cons of different opinions). Anybody looking for an introduction to philosophy, whether Christian or not, would benefit from reading this book.

Good so far

This is a vital and accssesible introduction to philosophy from a Christian perspective. It presumes the reader will already have a Christian commitment, but still examines issues as they are generally discussed in philosophical circles. Even a non-Christian philosophy student would find it useful.