Tag Archives: Paul

Paul and Pericles

I have read that the Apostle Paul was well educated in classical literature, and it is fun to find indications of that fact. In 2 Corinthians 3:3 he wrote, “you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God,

not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

This is an apparent allusion to Pericles’ Funeral Oration (431 BC), when that great statesman told the Athenians,

in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.

The Apostle Paul knew his Pericles, just as he elsewhere echoed Aristotle. 

Logic: A Science and Art

Is logic a science or an art? Of course, a logician would answer Yes, and here is why.

A science is a systematic study of some aspect of the natural world that seeks to discover laws (regularities, principles) by which God governs His creation. Whereas botany studies plants, astronomy studies the sky, and anatomy studies the body, logic studies the mind as it reasons, as it draws conclusions from other information. Logic as a science seeks to discover rules that distinguish good reasoning from poor reasoning, rules that are then simplified and systematized. These would include the rules for validity, of inference and replacement, and so on.

For example, logic as a science could study the apostle Paul’s reasoning in 1 Cor. 15, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised… But Christ has been raised, and is therefore the first fruits from among the dead.” It then simplifies this into a standard pattern: If not R then not C, C, therefore R. This rule can be further simplified, named, and organized in relation to other rules of logic.

An art is a creative application of the principles of nature for the production of works of beauty, skill, and practical use. The visual arts apply their principles to the production of paintings, sculptures, and pottery. The literary arts produce poems and stories. The performing arts produce operas, plays, and ballets.

Logic is one of the seven liberal arts, which include the Trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These arts are the skills which are essential for a free person (liberalis, “worthy of a free person”) to take an active part in daily life, for the benefit of others. Specifically, logic as an art seeks to apply the principles of reasoning to analyze and create arguments, proofs, and other chains of reasoning.

In summary:

Logic is the science and art of reasoning well. Logic as a science seeks to discover rules of reasoning; logic as an art seeks to apply those rules to rational discourse.

Christian Logic

I was recently asked the question, is there a distinctly Christian view of logic? I offer here the beginning of an answer to that question. (I am not trying to be original here. These thoughts are from many sources. Just trying to be faithful.)

Laws of Logic

The laws of logic are universal (applicable everywhere), abstract (immaterial, grasped by thought), invariant (not changing), and authoritative (they must be accepted). A non-Christian worldview has a difficult time accounting for such laws. The laws of logic cannot be denied with any kind of consistency, since a denial of logic is tantamount to a denial of truth and reason. But if it is affirmed that the laws of logic are universal, abstract, invariant, and authoritative, yet not “from God,” how can they be justified? Where do such laws come from? They are not invented by men, because they would not then be universal, invariant, or authoritative. They are not material, because they would not then be abstract.

Rather, logic is an expression of God’s unchanging, orderly, truthful, authoritative character.

The Character of God

God Himself is logical; He is a reasoning being: “Come, let us reason together” (Isa. 1:18).  As the ultimate lawgiver He orders His cosmos in a logical way. “God is not a God of disorder” (1 Cor. 14:33). God is orderly, and order implies reason. Where there is no reason, there is only chaos. God’s word is truth (Jn. 17:17), and He would have us be truth tellers (Eph. 4:15). God Himself is non-contradictory. He is truthful (Jn. 3:33), He cannot lie (Heb. 6:18). He does not deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). John Frame, in his book The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, identifies these attributes of God, and then adds: “Does God, then, observe the law of noncontradiction? Not in the sense that the law is somehow higher than God Himself. Rather, God is Himself noncontradictory and is therefore Himself the criterion of logical consistency and implication. Logic is an attribute of God, as are justice, mercy, wisdom, and knowledge.”

The Christian worldview does account for the properties of logical laws. The laws are universal because God is omnipresent; His character is expressed throughout His creation. The laws are abstract, needing no created, material foundation, because they existed before the creation, being attributes within God. The laws are invariant, because God does not change, and neither do His attributes. If the laws of what is true and rational could change, then how could God be trustworthy? How could He keep His covenant promises if truth could be non-truth? He can and does keep His promises, because Christ, the logos, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The laws are authoritative, because God is the ultimate authority.

A Tool and Gift

God has communicated logic to man as a tool by which we can come to truth. God made us in His image with the ability to reason. We are created as rational beings, and God uses our reasoning ability to speak to us. For example, the giving of law presupposes an ability to reason. Laws are given in the form of universal propositions. “God has commanded all men everywhere to repent.” To obey this, we finish the syllogism: I am a man, therefore I must repent. Without logic, the command could not be applied to particulars. A denial of logic opens the door for disobedience, for without it we cannot obey.

Logic is presupposed, not only in law, but in all revelations of God to men. God gives us minds that reason just as He has given us eyes that see, in order that we may receive His revelation to us. Cornelius Van Til said, “The gift of logical reason was given by God to man in order that he might order the revelation of God for himself.” In order to comprehend any doctrine, we must use logic. The truth that there is one God, eternally existent in three Persons, though clearly contained in the Bible, is not found in any one place in scripture. To see the truth of the Trinity requires a godly, submissive use of logic. If a truth is truly and logically derived from the scripture, we have a divine obligation to believe whatever it is. This is what the Westminster Confession is referring to where it says, “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture.” Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer and logician, said it this way in his book on logic: “It was a saying among the ancients, Veritas in puteo, Truth lies in a well; and, to carry on this metaphor, we may very justly say, that logic does, as it were, supply us with steps whereby we may go down to reach the water…. The power of reasoning was given us by our Maker, for this very end, to pursue truth.”

Logic is thus a tool which God has given us in order to understand and obey Him. Like other tools, our grasp of it as humans is no doubt incomplete and imperfect, but it is sufficient for the task for which it is given. And like any other tool, we need to be careful how we use it.

Paul Echoes Aristotle on Friendship

24__Paul_the_ApostleReading Aristotle’s Rhetoric II.4 on “friendship” is like reading an expanded version of  the Apostle Paul’s 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, which reads:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

2__AristotleIt is not hard to show that every single phrase in this Bible passage alludes to some portion of that section from Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Read more here: Rhetoric 2.4 & I Cor 13.

Either the Apostle Paul knew his Aristotle, or they have a nearly identical understanding of the love between friends.

Rhetoric-2.4-I-Cor-13

The Philosopher and the Apostle

Aristotle presents the general line of argument “That if it is possible for one of a pair of contraries to be or happen, then it is possible for the other: e.g. if a man can be cured, he can also fall ill; for any two contraries are equally possible, in so far as they are contraries” (Rhetoric II.19).

I was wondering if anyone would really argued this way, when I recalled an argument from Paul about the resurrection: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:21-22).

Paul either knows his Aristotle, or Aristotle knows how people think.

Paul Preaching to the Ephesians
Paul Preaching at Athens