After having had the pleasure of reading Dr. Michael W. Kelley's two previous works, On Stone or Sand, the Ethics of Christianity, Capitalism & Socialism and The Burden of God: Studies in Wisdom and Civilization from the Book of Ecclesiates, I eagerly awaited the publication of this present volume. I was not disappointed. Dr. Kelley has emerged as a scholar par excellence. In this present work, Dr. Kelley demonstrates his comprehensive knowledge of the philosophy and history of Western Civilization. Of noteworthy value is Dr. Kelley's examination of the enormous influence Greek philosophy, particularly Plato's, has had on Western man's view of government: ran by an elite group of philosopher wise-men or experts with its oftentimes accompanying tyranny.
His analysis of Christianity's unique contribution to Western Civilization, both positive as a moral force and negative when infused with pagan ideas, is particularly notable. Man has been accurately described as incurably religious, or a religious creature. Consequently, it is not a question of whether mankind will be religious; it is the question of which religion will man follow. Similarly, Dr. Kelley argues "that man has a natural-born `impulse' to power" (308). In other words, basic to man's created nature, man among other things is destined to be a cultural-creature. It then becomes a conflict between which religion will inspire man's "impulse" to build culture. Will mankind self-consciously attempt to build culture upon his own ideas (humanism) or upon the revelation of God in Scripture?
Dr. Kelley in this most excellent elucidation of Western Civilization and its formative ideas challenges the adherents of Christianity to build culture with consistency and faithfulness to its covenantal presuppositions in the areas of epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics with the goal of fulfilling God's ordained purposes in history.
Note: Dr. Kelley's book may be out of print at this time. However, a search on the Internet may turn up a used copy. It is well worth tracking down a used copy of this book if a new copy cannot be found.
Food for thought and discussion:
The philosophical positions advanced by the Greeks influenced to such a large extent the areas of epistemology, ontology, ethics, and teleology that the Greek argumentation is a sufficient cause for positions that have been adopted by aberrational western religions and philosophy. While admitting that many aberrational religions and philosophers may not be aware of the original source of some of their positions, they nevertheless are dependent upon Greek philosophical ideas at numerous points. Apostate thinking down to present day has never escaped entirely from Greek thought. I believe that many forms of paganism are related, too, and are the result of the superior apostate thinking of the Greek philosophers.
See Ronald Nash's Was Christianity Influenced by Pagan Religions?
Some comments from Gordon Clark's Thales To
Dewey may be helpful concerning Christianity and pagan influence. Clark makes the
following summary in his section on paganism and Christianity:
For such reasons as these it may be concluded that paganism and Christianity are
radically distinct. Any points of similarity are superficial and trivial. To speak of them
as alike is no better than indentifying Epicureanism and Platonism on the ground that both
were founded by men. This conclusion is not weakened by two cautions that should be
observed. First, since the New Testament was written in Greek, it uses words found in
pagan writings. John even used the term Logos. But the point in question is not the use of
words but the occurrence of ideas. Logos in John and hypostasis in Hebrews are not
evidences of pagan ideas. Nor should one find Aristotle in the Nicene Creed because it
says God is a substance or reality. One cannot forbid Christian writers to use common
words on pain of becoming pagans. The second caution is that while Christianity and the
Greek philosophies, as systems, have no element in common, the Christians, as people,
often held pagan ideas. They had been converted from paganism and could not divest
themselves of familiar modes of thought all at once. Therefore when they came to expound
and defend Christianity, they inconsistently made use of Platonism or Stoicism. By a long
and arduous struggle these inconsistent elements were gradually removed from a few
fundamental areas, and thus a purely Christian Nicene Creed came into being. But on other
topics, and especially in cases of individual authorship, the struggle was not so
successful. Then, too, as time went on, the attempts to escape pagan ideas and to preserve
the purity of New Testament thought grew weaker, and one might say, almost ceased.
(195)
Mr. Kettler is an ordained Presbyterian Elder and the owner of the http://www.Undergroundnotes.com web site where his theological, philosophical and political articles can be read. He has worked in corporate America for over 30 years. Mr. Kettler can be contacted by e-mail at: jack@kettlerwellness.com
Jack Kettler
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