Encouragement for Evangelical Philosophers

Posted by: J.P. Moreland

November 19, 2012

To a group of several dozen Evangelical Philosophical Society members, I had the privilege of encouraging Christian philosophers and students at the EPS reception in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, November 14th.

The 2012 election results in the U.S. reminded me of how much of the country is immune to conservative ideas politically, religiously and ethically, and how weak our efforts often are to persuade those of a more secular, liberal mindset.

Credit: Mike Licona

In light of this, I pointed out that the EPS's opportunity and responsibility is even greater. As an academic society, we have seen progress in our publishing efforts through Philosophia Christi, growth in our EPS membership, and the overall quality of our endeavors being strengthened and so forth.

I closed with three charges, which in some sense extend what I encouraged in 2009 at the EPS reception:

• We need to continue to do technical, academic work and not just popular work. There is tremendous need for Christian witness in the academy; a witness that takes seriously the Christian worldview as a source of knowledge of reality.
• We need to work together to produce collaborative projects (e.g., books, articles, speaking, etc.) to strengthen our efforts and networking across areas of philosophy, with other disciplines, and through various educational institutions.
• We need to be faithful to the Bible and not engage in revisionist projects that make Christianity acceptable to contemporary culture while changing the nature of the faith.

Both the academy and the local church are in need of trustworthy and dedicated spokespersons for the cause and means of the Kingdom of God.