This interview never happened. It is between me and myself. On a more serious note, I have noticed that my philosophical readings do not fit into any specific category. That is good, I suppose, since “joining a school” is not the best start.
Question: You have read Van Til, doesn’t that make you a Van Tillian?
Answer: Not really. I don’t find all of his apologetics convincing, but I do appreciate his reading of Greek and medieval theology. I think he has a lot of promise in that area. More importantly, Van Til, better than anyone else at his time, showed the importance of God as a Covenantal, Personal God.
Q. But didn’t you used to promote Thomas Reid’s Scottish philosophy? All the Van Tillians I know reject it.
A. There are two different “Van Tillian” answers to that question, and his reconstructionist disciples only knew one of them. In Survey of Christian Epistemology (p. 132-134) he notes that if the Scottish school takes man’s cognitive faculties as a proximate starting point and not an ultimate one, then there is no real problem. Further, we see Thomas Reid and Alvin Plantinga saying exactly that. Elsewhere, however, Van Til was not as careful in his reading of Reid, and the reconstructionists read him as condemning Common Sense Realism.
Q. So, is there a contradiction between the two schools?
A. If the above distinction is made, I am not convinced there is.
Q. You keep mentioning Alvin Plantinga. Are you a Reformed Epistemology guy?
A. I’ve read quite a bit of Wolterstorff and Kelly James Clark. I like what they have to say. I am not an expert on Plantinga so I have to demur at that point. I do think there is a dovetailing between Thomas Reid and Plantinga, and if that convergence holds there is an exciting opportunity to unite Reformed guys along different epistemological and even geographical lines.
Q. What do you mean?
A. The guys in Westminster (either school) claim Van Til. There is a debate on how well they understand him, but that’s beside the point. I think I have demonstrated above that there is no real contradiction between the two at least on the starting point. This means that guys who hold to some variant of Common Sense epistemology and/or Van Tillian presuppositionalism do not have to be at loggerheads.
Q. There is still one other Dutch giant you haven’t mentioned.
A. You mean Herman Dooyeweerd, right?
Q. Correct.
A. If you trace the development of the Reformed Epistemology school, you can find something like Dooyeweerd at the very beginning. When Wolterstorff and Plantinga edited Faith and Rationality, they were at that time strongly influenced by Dooyeweerd. I am not saying that’s where they are today. However, I do believe that Dooyeweerd’s contention that all men have a pre-theoretical “faith commitment” from the heart is in line with what Kelly James Clark and Van Til say about pretended neutrality.
Outlaw Huguenot 