This post is essentially an addendum to my last one; so it will be brief (I’m actually working on another post that deals with the unrevealed God, as a further development of my last post in regard to thinking God contra the unrevealed bases that the Roman Catholic and Post Reformation Reformed orthodox engage in respectively). But let me clarify something about the way I view the relationship of philosophy and theology.

I had a now blocked commenter at my Facebook page for this blog come at me because of my last post; with particular reference to my claims about the informing background ideation that funds much of classical Calvinism: namely, Aristotelianism. Unfortunately, I deleted his comment, primarily because it was too gratuitous and patronizing, but the gist of it was this: ‘Come on Bobby (you dummy)! Barth was a neo-Kantian/Hermannian; Bultmann a Heideggerian; and indeed, some Calvinists are Aristotelian, but not all. Your claims (or I guess, Muller’s) are too reductionistic.’

I have already shared my view on the relationship between philosophy and theology, with particular reference to Barth’s approach, as Kenneth Oakes masterfully details that in his book on Barth and Philosophy. But let me quickly reiterate it: what my now long-lost interlocutor fails to grasp, in his quick presumption, is that I am not uncritically naïve to the reality of background philosophies in the work of grammarizing theology (or revelation). And this is the point that was lost on this interlocutor: I happen to think that as far as background philosophies go, there are some that are better than others in helping us articulate the ineffable, but Self-revealed God. What my interlocutor fails to grapple with, apparently, is that revelation itself has its own categories and emphases. As such, if revelation has its own categories and emphases, it is reasonable to think that revelation has the capacity to use philosophical apparatus/language, while at the same time resurrecting and recreating it under the pressures that the Godman has impressed and continues to impress on the recreated order that He calls: His Kingdom.