Christianity as Philosophy

Philosophy is't about the history of it or the merely abstract idea but basically the way of seeing, the way of living. There is a tendency to see philosophy as something that has nothing to do with faith. Some even see philosophy as somewhat evil, a stumbling block to Christianity. If we have a narrow definition of philosophy, then that's what we get. Athens has no place in Jerusalem. No further discussion. Now, for those who think that way, how about the beginning of John which stated, in the beginning was word, or Logos? Is this just a language or its move beyond just ordinary utterance to philosophical concept.

In his book  Jesus the Great Philosopher, Jonathan T Pennington argue acutely that Christianity is a philosophy, but even more than meet the eyes, a true philosophy. Christianity is not just a religion that is airy fairy in nature. It attached and grounded very closely in our life in general. That is why Christianity is some kind of philosophy of life  that help us to get away from dualistist mindset between faith and life. Christianity embrace both vertical and horizontal dimension. 

Pennington wrote, ''When we lose the idea that Jesus is life-philosopher, we are stuck to alternative gurus, whether of the offer man type or not.''He also says, ''we have lost the image of Jesus as a whole-life philosopher...we have philosopher of finance [Warren Buffet], philosophers of what books we should read to feel important [Oprah], philosophers of leadership [Ray Dalio], philosophers of productivity [David Allen]...Christian often create their philosophy of life from hodgepodge of these, often adding in a Christianize version of the same thinkers. 

Pennington get it right! Many people are looking for gurus or secular philosopher that can help them to maneuver the struggle in life, practically and logically. In fact, many popular gurus and practical philosophers are rising star nowadays as we see on YouTube and elsewhere. They are more popular than prevalent pastors. So, it is important to recover the view of Christianity as philosophy which make Christianity whole again as the truth of it will beyond any doubt make sense of life. 

Yet, one cautious note that we should also remember is to ground the notion of Christianity as philosophy only after we hold on to the view that Christianity as Theology. Focusing only the former, we will get into humanism, cultural-ism and ''Christless-way of life.'' Focusing only on the latter, we will soon become ''fossil'', for we are being irrelevant to the world as Pennington said, we will loss the questions to offer to the world  (Bible concern with the big questions of life and address it), and becoming only a limited witness in the world (outside the church).

Pennington successfully bring again the idea Christianity as Philosophy which is actually not totally novel idea, but we can say he is quite persuasive in his approach. Nonetheless, he does not keen to address the very thing that we need to be aware of when we thinking of Christianity as Philosophy. Scholar K. Scott Oliphint argues, philosophy has two streams derived from covenant perspectives. Either covenant breaker philosophy or covenant keeping philosophy. Yet, the nuance of Pennington writing seems to suggests that seeing Christianity as philosophy is all just fine. Therefore, Pennington fail to address the follow up issue, on what kind or model of philosophy that will be considered as truly ''Christian''. [in orthodox way]. 

Moreover, there is a question that left unsolved as he argue for his case. Does Christianity as philosophy need to deal with the philosophical problem and issue that has been raised by technical philosopher like for instance, Hegel? In this case, Pennington remain quite implicit. He give some clue how commandments in Torah for instance could bring us to a deep philosophical inquiry to the definition of a good person and also on what is real, ethics and so on. Well, we can say Pennington belief that Christianity also address philosophical problems in certain extent. Moreover, he actually did mentioned about the idea that Christianity as philosophy were apparently shaping or building the western civilizations as a whole. And also the comparison between ancient philosophy and Christianity as philosophy in addressing philosophical problem, specifically about happiness.

So base on this, probably he will argue that Christianity as Philosophy can engage with technical philosophical problem yet at the end of the day, it is primarily a way of seeing that deals more with practical things-lebensordnung, or eventually be a model for the world which stands in a ''certain way of life''! The way Jesus taught with parable, the way his disciples describe him in the biographical gospel. Surely we can conclude that Jesus is the king-philosopher, who rules and guide us to the narrow road that bring everlasting life to come, and to teleios aner (the mature and complete human)!