Volume One of Dr. Craig's Systematic Philosophical Theology Part Two

KEVIN HARRIS: We’ve heard people complain that some theologians place the value of philosophy over the value of Scripture as if the authority of Scripture is threatened or demeaned. You discuss much of this in the first volume, but maybe it would be helpful to talk about the various theological disciplines that have been written on like biblical theology and historical theology that you mentioned earlier.

DR. CRAIG: It's clear from the placement of my locus on the doctrine of Scripture that this is absolutely foundational for all that will follow. It is the very first locus that I consider: on holy Scripture. In this locus I examine what is Scripture’s teaching about itself. Does it teach that it is itself inspired of God and therefore authoritative in matters of faith and practice? And I argue that it is. Then I ask: Is there any good reason to believe this doctrine that is taught in Scripture? And I provide arguments for why I think it is rational to accept this teaching. Therefore Scripture forms the very foundation for theology. It is inspired of God, and therefore authoritative in matters of doctrine and morality. Now, the different disciplines of theology that you speak of (like biblical theology) can take Scripture to be authoritative, though it need not. I mean, you could have a non-Christian, even a Muslim or a Jew, study Paul's doctrine of salvation, for example. Or who was Jesus of Nazareth? They could engage in the project of biblical theology without having a commitment to the authority and truth of Scripture. Similarly, historical theology is typically the history of dogmatics – what did the early church fathers have to say about the Trinity and the two natures of Christ, for example. What did the Protestant Reformers have to say about the doctrine of justification and how did the Roman Catholic Church react to their teaching? Those would be questions of historical theology that again do not presuppose the authority of Scripture. Anybody who wants to give a description of biblical teaching or of historical teaching can do so without a commitment to the truth of Scripture. But, as I say, in doing systematic theology one of the very first things that characterize systematic theology is that it draws upon authoritative Scriptures as its source of truth as well as secular disciplines.

KEVIN HARRIS: You've pointed out that it's not circular reasoning to see what the Scriptures teach about themselves, and certainly that would be a factor in looking into the Christian faith or looking into the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures. What do the Scriptures teach about the Scriptures?

DR. CRAIG: The classical theologians at the old Princeton Seminary like Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield understood this very well. They understood that Scripture itself has a doctrine of Scripture. It teaches something about itself. The question, “What does Scripture teach about itself?” is an entirely different question from the question “Is what Scripture teaches about itself true?” So the person who explores those two questions properly is not at all reasoning in a circle. You could do something like that with the Qur’an, for example. What does the Qur’an teach about its own authority? Then you could ask the question, “Is what the Qur’an teaches about its own authority true?” Those would be quite different questions with different answers. So those are the two questions I'm exploring in this opening volume. And it is not at all circular reasoning.

KEVIN HARRIS: Volume 1 is titled “Prolegomena: On Scripture, On Faith.” I would think this would be an opportunity for an introduction or foundation on what the remaining volumes will cover.

DR. CRAIG: This first volume is absolutely foundational, as I say, because it lays the foundation of authoritative Scripture as the basis for systematic theology. Then it looks at whether or not faith commits us to certain propositional truths about God and Christ and the world. And I argue that it does. Then one will begin to examine the subject matter of systematic theology. The subject matter of theology, I think has been rightly said, is God and everything else in relation to God. So I turn in volume 2 to the doctrine of God. I regard this as the very heart of Christian theology – the nature of God, his existence, and the Trinity that God is. Then, having dealt with the doctrine of God, one then turns to the subject of other things in relation to God. That will bring you into the doctrine of creation. There we ask, “What is the relationship between God and the created order?” Does he bring it into being out of nothing? Does he conserve it in being? Does he concur with secondary causes in the world? Does he govern and rule the world? Does he intervene in the course of events in miraculous ways in history? Then, also part of the doctrine of creation, will be the doctrine of man. Who is man? What does it mean that man is created in the image of God? Man exists today in a fallen state, and so how should we understand the sinfulness of man and his need of salvation? That will then take you to the next volume which is going to be on Christ, both the person of Christ, his deity and humanity, as well as the work of Christ – how his death on a cross wins our salvation. Then the application of that to us in the doctrine of salvation where we discuss such questions as election, calling, justification, regeneration, and so forth. Finally, one would finish with the doctrine of the last things and the doctrine of the church.

KEVIN HARRIS: Not surprising, you bring in middle knowledge in your part about inspiration of Scripture. I'd like to hear a little bit about that.

DR. CRAIG: One of the challenges of your doctrine of Scripture is to formulate a coherent doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. How can Scripture be completely and verbally inspired by God and yet freely written by human beings? How do you avoid a dictation theory of inspiration? Islam has a dictation theory of inspiration. Muslims believe that the Qur’an was dictated by God to Muhammad. By contrast, Christians believe that the authors of Scripture wrote freely and without compulsion. So the challenge for the systematic theologian is to provide a model of the inspiration of Scripture that enables you to affirm that. Frankly, I've not seen too many, or any, other systematic theologians who have really tackled that subject and successfully dealt with it. What I propose is a middle knowledge perspective. That is to say, God knew that if he were to place the Apostle Paul in just certain circumstances, certain influences, that Paul would freely write the book of Romans. So God puts Paul in those circumstances knowing he would write the book of Romans, and God adopts that book as his word to us. It is inspired of God in the sense that it is God's word to us written through the Apostle Paul.

KEVIN HARRIS: Next you have the section on faith. I thought that you had the topic of faith pretty much covered in Reasonable Faith but lo’ and behold you've added some new insights. I can't wait to dive into this a little bit further – that there's actually this belief that you don't have to believe it in order to have it.

DR. CRAIG: Yes. Most of us, I think, would find this just absolutely bizarre. We think that when we say “you have faith” that means to believe it. That's what faith is – to believe in something. And we might think there's a question about this faith – a leap in the dark – or does faith have foundations and reasons and evidence? But we wouldn't think to deny that faith involves believing something. Yet this is what some Christian philosophers today maintain. On their view, in order to be a Christian you don't have to actually believe that God exists or that Jesus rose from the dead. Instead they would say you have merely to assume those things or accept those things, but you don't really have to believe them. I do quite a searching analysis of Scripture, especially the New Testament, on the nature of faith and argue that indeed faith does involve belief and that this opposite view, I think, can actually be dangerous for the church because it can lull people into a false sense of security thinking that they don't really need to believe these things and yet they're still Christians. I fear that that may be lulling people into a false sense of security.

KEVIN HARRIS: Let's talk about what's coming up. What are some things that will be covered in volume 2. And, by the way, I've noticed that you're labeling it 2A, 2B, 1A, 1B.

DR. CRAIG: Yes. Wiley-Blackwell didn't want to be publishing 700-page volumes. They wanted these to be compact, digestible volumes. So they prefer to have more volumes of smaller size than fewer volumes of large size. So they divided volume 2 into two parts: A and B. Volume 2 as a whole is devoted to the doctrine of God. 2A is devoted to the nature of God, the attributes of God or what philosophers call “the coherence of theism.” Is the idea of an omniscient, metaphysically necessary, omnipotent, eternal, perfectly good being a coherent idea? Then in volume 2 I have an excursus on natural theology where I explore and update the six various arguments for God's existence that I've defended in the course of my philosophical career as well as the problem of evil. Then volume 2B closes out with a discussion of the Trinity where I propose to offer a biblical model of the Trinity and then to offer a philosophical model of that doctrine.

KEVIN HARRIS: Let's talk a little bit about volume 3. What will you cover?

DR. CRAIG: There are two major topics in volume 3. This is the volume where you turn from the doctrine of God to other things in relation to God. So this will be principally about the doctrine of creation and then secondly the doctrine of man.

KEVIN HARRIS: Volume 4. I'm really anxious for that one. You discuss salvation and justification. I'm always a little nervous about that because I want to make sure that I have it right. What are you writing about that?

DR. CRAIG: In the doctrine of salvation, I've decided to organize this discussion around two classical distinctions called the historia salutis (or history of salvation) and the ordo salutis (or the order of salvation). The historia salutis is comprised of the objective events that constitute the basis for our salvation. So this would include things like God's eternal decree of election to choose a people for himself and then to foreordain a plan of salvation that will be accomplished through the incarnation and atoning death of Christ. Those are the objective events that underlie salvation. The ordo salutis is the subjective appropriation of salvation on the part of historical individuals as they come to hear the Gospel and place their faith in Christ. So in the ordo salutis I discuss such things as divine calling, prevenient grace, faith, and then the twin results of faith: on the one hand, justification (which is the legal or forensic consequence of faith), and then on the other hand, the moral or transformational consequence of faith (which is regeneration and sanctification).

KEVIN HARRIS: As we conclude, I think it's appropriate to thank people who have given to Reasonable Faith and supported your work on this. Every day I see someone online cheering you on and eager to start reading these volumes.

DR. CRAIG: I got to say, Jan and I are both so thankful for the way people have supported me in this endeavor. I can understand why people would give generously to their church or to an evangelist who is out preaching the Gospel, but here is an academic ensconced in his office writing this highly academic book that many of them wouldn't even understand and yet they realize and believe in the value of this project and so have supported me in this work. I am so tremendously grateful. It inspires me. It encourages me to do my very best in this – my utmost for his highest, as Oswald Chambers used to say. We are very grateful for those supporters of Reasonable Faith that have made this possible.^[1]