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Presuppositional apologetics is a school of Christian apologetics, a field of theology which attempts to (1) present a rational basis for the Christian faith, (2) defend the faith against objections, and (3) attack the alleged flaws of other worldviews. Presuppositional apologetics is especially concerned with the third aspect of this discipline, though it generally sees the trifold distinction as a difference in emphasis rather than as delineating three separate endeavors. Presuppositional apologetics developed in and is most commonly advocated within Reformed circles of Christianity. It was first formulated as a school of apologetics in the mid-20th century.The key discriminator of this school is that it maintains that the Christian apologist must assume the truth of the supernatural revelation contained in the Bible (i.e., the Christian worldview) because there can be no set of neutral assumptions from which to reason with a non-Christian. In other words, presuppositionalists say that a Christian cannot consistently declare his belief in the necessary existence of the God of the Bible and simultaneously argue on the basis of a different set of assumptions (presumably those of the non-Christian) in which God may or may not exist.
By way of contrast, the other schools of Christian apologetics do assume the world is intelligible apart from God and argue exclusively on (purportedly) neutral grounds to support trusting the Christian scriptures. Specifically, Thomistic (also "Traditional" or "Classical") apologetics concentrates on the first aspect of apologetics with its logical proofs for the existence of God, while Evidentialist apologetics focuses especially on the first two aspects of the discipline by offering various archaeological, historical, and scientific evidences to support both the probableThe word probability derives from the Latin probare (to prove, or to test). Informally, probable is one of several words applied to uncertain events or knowledge, being more or less interchangeable with likely risky hazardous uncertain and doubtful depend existence of God and the truth of the Bible and refute the major objections to the same.
1 History of presuppositional apologetics
The origins of presuppositional apologetics are in the work of DutchDutch redirects here. For other uses, see Dutch (disambiguation). The Netherlands ( Dutch: Nederland is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a constitutional monarchy. It is located in northwestern Europe and borders the North Sea, Belgium theologian Cornelius Van TilCornelius Van Til (born 1895 in Grootegast, The Netherlands; died 1987) was a Christian philosopher, Reformed theologian, and presuppositional apologist. Biography Van Til was a graduate of Calvin College, Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton Univ, a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian ChurchAlong with Westminster Seminary, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) was founded by conservative Presbyterians who revolted against the modernist theology within the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA) during the 1930s. Led by J Gresham Machen, the churc, who began to adopt a presuppositional approach to defending the truth of his faith as early as the late 1920sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Events and trends Technology John Logie Baird invents the first working t. 1 Van Til personally disliked the term "presuppositional", as he felt it misrepresented his approach to apologetics, which he felt was focused primarily on the preeminence of the Bible as the criterion for truth. He did, however, accept the label reluctantly, given that it was a useful way of distinguishing between those who deny any neutral basis for apologetics and those who do not. His student, Greg Bahnsen, aided in some of the later developments of Van Tillian Presuppositionalism, and the Bahnsen Theological Seminary continues to promote presuppositional apologetics in its curriculum. John FrameFrame ( 1939-) is an American philosopher and a Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in epistemology and presuppositional apologetics, systematic theology, and ethics. He is one of the foremost interpreters and critics of the thought of Corn, another student of Van Til's, also continues to defend his approach, although he is generally more critical of Van Tillian Presuppositionalism than Bahnsen was. 2
By 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada., presuppositional apologetics had acquired a new advocate in the Presbyterian theologian Gordon Clark. 3 Clark's approach to apologetics was even more presuppositional (i.e., more critical of empiricism as a path to truth) than Van Til's had been: Clark embraced the term "presuppositional" given that his approach to apologetics was more closely concerned with the logical order of assumptions than Van Til's had been. The differences between Clark's and Van Til's views on presuppositionalism, though few in number, caused a significant rift between the two men. Even after both Clark and Van Til had died, John Robbins (a theologian and former student of Clark's) and Bahnsen feuded often and publically. 4
As of 2004, presuppositional apologetics has established itself securely as a legitimate perspective on apologetics, although its appeal remains largely limited to Christians whose theology is Calvinist in origin. In a recent book outlining the major schools of apologetics, the presuppositional approach was given equal time alongside much older and well-established schools of thought (the "classical" and "evidential" noted above, for example). 5 In general, Van Til's approach is far more popular and widespread than Clark's.
