Cornelius Van Til on Christian Epistemology
A consideration of Cornelius Van Til's understanding of Christian epistemology.
Introduction
Dr. Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) of Westminster Theological Seminary in the mid-twentieth century made significant contributions in the areas of Christian theology and apologetics. Though he passed on to glory a number of years ago, his legacy certainly lives on today through some his students—and their students—who are now professors and authors themselves. It is a gift to the church at large that his works have been preserved and still remain in print today.
This essay is aimed at briefly considering Dr. Van Til’s position on Christian epistemology. Epistemology is the study of knowledge. At the risk oversimplicty, epistemology seeks to understand how it is that knowledge is acquired. It seeks to understand how and if it is possible to arrive at true, actual knowledge. It deals with the origin and foundation of knowledge itself. Further, it seeks to understand the extent or limits of knowledge.
On this subject, Dr. Van Til wrote much from a Christian and Reformed point of view. And considering he was a respected professor in the field of philosophy, he was equipped to do such. Van Til fundamentally posited that Christians must be consistent in their thinking, in all realms of thought. He lamented the reality that Christians might “reform” their theology to a more biblical form of theology while at the same time retaining an unbiblical epistemology. In a very real sense, for the Christian, a sound epistemology must precede a sound theology. To reverse this would be to assume or presuppose an unbiblical epistemology—true, actual knowledge that can allegedly be obtained apart from the self-contained triune God of Scripture as its foundation—that then seeks to do theology.
Foundationally, Van Til argued that all intellectual disciplines (this would, of course, include theology and philosophy) must presuppose God at the outset in order to properly engage in them. For Van Til, the philosohpher does not employ an autonomous intellect from which to do philosophy. Rather, the philosopher is fundamentally a creature—totally and entirely distinct from the Creator—seeking to understand the the world in which exists. Consequently, this world in which the philosopher exists, including the philosopher himself, is entirely dependent upon the self-contained, triune God of Scripture. Therefore, for Van Til, all philosophy—naturally including Christian philosophy—done from a basic presupposition of human autonomy is vain and, in fact, impossible.
This means that all knowledge that can be obtained by man is derivative.1 This is why Van Til maintained a strong denial of so-called mere “brute facts.”2 There is so such thing as a brute (neutral) fact. All facts, whether concrete or abstract find their “factness” in the self-contained, triune God of Scripture. In his Introduction to Systematic Theology, he wrote regarding the “Christian position”:
When consistently expressed, [the Christian position] posits God’s self-existence and plan, as well as self-contained self-knowledge, as the presupposition of all created existence and knowledge. In that case, all facts show forth and thus prove the existence of God and His plan. In the case, too, all human knowledge should be self-consciously subordinated to that plan.3
Later, in the his chapter on Christian epistemology, he goes on to remind that,
If we hold with Paul (Rom. 11:36) that “of him and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever,” we see clearly that the existence and meaning of every fact in the universe must in the last analysis be related to the self-conscious and eternally self-subsistent God of the Scriptures…for the human mind to know any fact truly, it must presuppose the existence of God and his plan for the universe.4
Statements like these from Van Til are certainly strong, but they are characteristic of his writing. Make no mistake, it is purposeful. He does not make these assertions for shock value. Van Til wants the reader to understand the gravity of just what is at stake. Far too often the standard operating assumption of man is that he is autonomous. It is assumed that it is up to him to evaluate whether or not something is true, right, or good. Though this sort of thinking may at first seem legitimate, Van Til laments that many self-professing Christians buy into this errant notion of the alleged autonomy of human reason/intellect, even among the unregenerate. He reminds that “The Scriptures nowhere appeal to the unregenerated reason as to a qualified judge.”5 For Van Til, in man’s pursuit of truth, when autonomy of the intellect is conceded, biblical epistemology is forefeited.
Van Til cautioned and warned:
The consequences are again fatal for systematic theology and apologetics. For systematic theology it means that truth is not made ultimately to consist in correspondence to the internally self-complete nature and knowledge that God has of himself and of all created reality. Hence man’s dealings in the realm of truth are not ultimately with God but with an abstraction that stands above God, with Truth as such. For apologetics it means that the basic principle of the non-Christian conception of truth cannot be challenged. According to this most basic assumption it is man rather than God that is the final reference point in all predication. The idea of Truth in the abstract is in accord with this assumption. In fact, the idea of Truth in the abstract is based upon this assumption.6
What Van Til is saying is that there is no concept of so-called “truth” that can exist apart from God himself. In other words, all truth is derivative of God himself. Therefore, God cannot be evaluated according to some abstract notion of “Ultimate Truth” because God Himself is ultimate. There can be but one Ultimate. If there were two “Ultimates” the notion of “ultimate” would be meaningless. For Van Til there is only One Ultimate—the eternal, self-contained, triune, personal Creator-God of Scripture. And He is the foundation and starting point of all knowledge. For Van Til this presupposition is the foundation of Christian epistemology.
We’ll close this brief essay with a final quote from Van Til on this subject:
God had in himself all knowledge from all eternity. Nothing could be added to his store of knowledge in any process of time. In accordance with his plan, or, as we may say, in accordance with his interpretation, all finite things were made. Hence, all knowledge that any finite creature of God would ever have, whether of things that pertain directly to God or of things that pertain to objects in the created universe itself, would, in the last analysis, have to rest upon the revelation of God.7
Van Til, Cornelius; Ed. by William Edgar. Introduction to Systematic Theology (P&R: 1974, 2007, 2nd Ed.), 34.
Van Til. Intro to ST, 40-41.
Van Til. Intro to ST, 42-43.
Van Til. Intro to ST, 58.
Van Til. Intro to ST, 68.
Van Til, Cornelius; Ed. by William Edgar. Christian Apologetics (P&R: 1976, 2003, 2nd Ed.), 33.
Van Til, Cornelius; Ed. by K. Scott Oliphant. The Defense of the Faith (P&R 1955, 2008, 4th Ed.) 278.