A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Daniel L. Arter
Anyone with any interest in Cornelius Van Til, his theories, or presuppositional apologetics, ought to get this book if for no other reason than to better understand both Van Til’s argumentation and to see how biblical and theological scholars ought to work together to sharpen ideas. Jerusalem and Athens: Critical Discussions on the Philosophy and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til contains four parts that include various essays and letters from theologians, Christian philosophers, and scholars concerning Van Til’s writings, theology, theological method, apologetics, and philosophy. Essentially, someone reading this book, though he will not find a comprehensive collection of Van Til’s thoughts and teachings, will get insight into how Van Til formulated his ideas and how those ideas were sharpened by analysis of and correspondence with other religious scholars of his time. It is worth noting that this is not the first printing of this book, which was originally published in 1971.
Jerusalem and Athens begins with a brief introduction from the editor, who explains both the purpose of the book as well as the book’s structure (IX-XV). In the introduction, the reader is given brief descriptions of each section of the book, including the various authors of correspondence recorded through the book. The editor concludes his introduction by explaining that this modest tome is not comprehensive and ought to leave the reader with a desire to not just read more of Van Til, but to dive deeply into his other works (XIV-XV).
Part one of the book provides what Van Til calls his credo or his beliefs as he held them in 1971 (3), which was his 75th birthday and 40th anniversary at Westminster Theological Seminary (VII). In it, he provides a basic understanding of his beliefs, particularly concerning “the self-attesting Christ of Scripture,” (3-4) the Word of God (5-10), and the development of a Christ-Centered and thoroughly Reformed apologetic (10-18). Van Til then ends this part of the book with an outline of his beliefs for the purpose of referencing while reading the text (18-21). This outline concerning Van Til’s beliefs and arguments is perhaps the most useful tool given in this text for use even beyond its immediate concern.
From this point forward in the book, there is a collection of writings from other scholars concerning Van Til and his work—part two contains two letters written to Van Til (26-127), part three contains eleven essays concerning Van Til’s work in theology and theological method (131-272), and part four contains twelve essays concerning Van Til’s work in philosophy and apologetics (275-452). It is worth knowing that the majority of the book is written by other theologians with Van Til choosing to reply to only a handful of the letters and essays. In fact, only fourteen of the twenty-five letters and essays receive a response from Van Til.
What this means for the reader is that this book, though not a comprehensive or systematic compendium of Van Til’s writings, thoughts, or philosophies, provides insight concerning apparent weaknesses and strengths of Van Til’s work from other well-known theologians. Rather than providing all of Van Til’s writings, this book provides a unique exploration of Van Tillian thought while still providing plenty of opportunity for the reader to contemplate his own ideology in contrast to Van Til’s. Perhaps the biggest weakness of this book is that it does not provide a comprehensive or systematic compendium of Van Til’s writings along with the letters and essays of other theologians. However, knowing that the point of the book was not to provide a compendium negates this weakness. The primary strength of this book is that it is exactly what it claims to be and, in this strength, the reader finds a unique perspective concerning a man, his theories, and his work.
Daniel L. Arter
Buy the books
JERUSALEM AND ATHENS: CRITICAL DISCUSSIONS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND APOLOGETICS OF CORNELIUS VAN TIL, edited by E. R. Geehan