Where is there room for God in the academic world?
The Bible proclaims that Christ is Lord. He reigns with God the Father even today over the entire universe (Eph. 1:20-22). Those who trust in Christ for salvation also acknowledge him as Lord: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). If he is the Lord, we are his servants. What does that imply about how we look at ourselves and at the world around us and at the things that we study?
Since Christ rules over all, we have to acknowledge his Lordship in every aspect of our lives. There is no part that we can cordon off and keep to ourselves privately. This universal Lordship extends to our thoughts. The Apostle Paul saw the implications when he talked about taking “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). Every academic discipline, every department of every university in the world, should look different, because Christ and his wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:3) needs to be acknowledged.
How does this work out in practice, in discipline after discipline? That is a long story. It is still in progress, because Christians are gradually learning to think God’s thoughts after him, on a creaturely level, and to submit every thought to him in every discipline.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
Where is there room for God in chance?
Chance might be the last place where we expect to find God. Chance, we might think, is completely out of control. Well, yes, chance is a term we use when events are unpredictable from a human point of view. But the Bible reveals that God is in complete control of all events, including every unpredictable event like the roll of a die (Prov. 16:33).
One of the remarkable things about this world that we live in is that human beings have been able to develop a mathematically precise theory about chance and randomness. It is called the theory of probability. The theory of probability, in its precision, displays and reflects the stability and faithfulness and beauty of God who ordains and governs all the events that we call chance. Chance events display the wisdom and power of God over the things that we cannot control.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
Where is there room for God in modern sociology?
It is important to see that God, not man, is the origin of all the structures and regularities in all the societies of the world. Human beings have personal relations not only with each other, but with God, who is personal. And it is God, who is personal, who rules over and specifies the contours of every society in the world. The original personal relations were not those of man, but relations among the three persons in the Trinity.
The personal in relations in God serve as the original pattern for the creation of human beings. Human beings are made in the image of God. So they imitate on a creaturely level the multi-dimensionality of personal relations within God. God is eternally the Father of the eternal Son. And so there can be a reflection or imitation of his Fatherhood in human fathers, who have human sons. This relationality among human beings is what makes possible human societies and social organizations. As a consequence, a Christian sees society and the study of society in the context of God as pattern and also ruler over all societies.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
Where is there room for God in modern science?
All scientists rely on God, because it is God who puts in place and governs all the regularities—what we call laws of nature. The real laws are what God speaks to govern the world (Gen. 1:3, 11-12). What scientists come up with are approximations.
God has made man in his image, so that we are naturally imitative of his thoughts, on a creaturely level. We have to have minds in tune with him, and a world in tune with him, obeying his word, in order to have a basis for science. The fall of mankind into sin means that in our sin we no longer want to recognize the role of God. But scientific success depends on his sustenance and his consistent wisdom.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
Where is there room for God in the study of mathematics?
It seems to many people that mathematics is the study of pure abstractions. Numbers and perfect triangles float out in a realm of pure thought. Yes, mathematics can be done in the head, without pen or paper. But in practice there is interaction among three realms: (1) persons, who do the thinking; (2) rules, which govern the thinking; and (3) a world out there in which mathematics has applications.
These three things—persons, rules, and a world—all come from God. God is the actual source of mathematics. God is one God in three persons. He is a God of unity. And that unity is the foundation for the unity of any subject, including mathematics. It is the foundation for the stability of any concept, like the concept of a number.
God is three persons. God is a God who has diversity within himself, infinitely and forever. That diversity is the foundation for the number system, beginning with the counting numbers. Two is distinction from one. God is also the infinite God who fills all things. His presence is the foundation for our experience and thinking about space, which leads to geometry.
So mathematics is dependent on God. And it looks different when we realize where it comes from.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
Where is there room for God in the study of logic?
One of the difficulties with questions about logic is that in the course of history there has been more than one conception of “logic.” Even though many people would agree that the proper kind of logic is universal to the human race, they do not agree as to what exactly logic is.
The Bible gives us a clear starting point by indicating that God is the absolute source for his creation and for its order. That includes us. That includes also not only the physical objects around us, but God’s order, his governance of the world.
So God is the source of logical order as well. The world is not just a chaos. The order in the world goes back to the fact that God is a faithful God (Ex. 34:6). Logic, therefore, belongs to God even before there was a world. God is consistent with himself. He is always faithful to who he is.
The Bible indicates that God made human beings “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26-27). We are like God in several respects. One is that we think like him. So we are in touch with logic. But we must make a distinction between God’s knowledge and ours. Our knowledge is derivative knowledge, finite knowledge. So we can sometimes be mistaken. We can make mistakes also in the area of logic.
The Christian view is that there are two levels for logic. First, there is God’s perfect level of understanding. He understands all of logic by understanding himself and his own internal self-consistency and faithfulness. Second, there is the level of human understanding, which is derivative, finite, and partial.
By contrast to this view, most of the history of Western philosophy has ignored the two levels. With few exceptions, philosophers have tried to answer the big questions about existence, and the big questions about logic as well, by just using their own resources, and not relying on God or on his word, the Bible. This route is the route of autonomy, that is, trying to make yourself into the final ruler. So logic gets reduced to one level—the human level.
The result is that a flaw runs through the entire conception of logic. This flaw is not utterly disastrous because, in spite to intentions to the contrary, no human being can in actuality escape the presence of God. People end up relying on him and on his consistency, even when they desire to be independent. But the flaw makes a difference, all the way through the discipline of logic. To trace the difference is a challenge.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
Where is there room for God in the study of philosophy?
Traditionally, philosophy has sought answers for the big questions about the world. What does the world consist of? Is there an ultimate basis for reality, and if so what is it? What is the meaning of human life? How do we come to know what we know, and how can we be sure of it? Is there such a thing as a right or virtuous way to live, and if so what it is? Is there an afterlife?
God himself, in the Bible, provides distinctive answers for all these questions. But the history of philosophy, with few exceptions, has been a history of very brilliant people trying to get answers to the key questions while not consulting the word of God. It represents thinking that wants to be autonomous, self-sufficient rather than dependent on listening to God. And so it is largely a history of intellectual rebellion against God.
There have been brilliant insights, of course, because God gives intellectual gifts to non-Christians as well as Christians. But the whole quest of philosophy is off-base when it seeks “wisdom” while evading God who is the source of wisdom.
Philosophy, then, is going to look quite different if we seek to answer the big questions in communication with God.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
How does language and communicability reflect the nature of God?
Because there are multiple languages across the world, it is easy for modern people to assume that language is a human invention. But no one invented it. It is actually a gift from God—the whole multiplicity of languages. God is the source. And, according to the Bible, God is the original speaker.
The first speech is God himself: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word is also known as the divine Son, who is Jesus Christ. God has also indicated that he created everything by speaking. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3; see Ps. 33:6, 9). When he created mankind in Adam, he spoke to Adam (Gen. 1:28-30).
As a result, human language reflects divine language. In fact, it reflects God in his Trinitarian character. There is one God who is three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because there is one God, language is a unified whole. But there is also a diversity of persons, resulting in a diversity of meanings in language.
For Professor Poythress’s full treatment of the question, see:
