Convincing Proof Adam Lloyd Johnson

Greg Welty recently wrote a book on Alvin Plantinga in the "Great Thinkers" series. Alvin Plantinga is a renowned Christian philosopher whom you should be familiar with. He was at the forefront of a Christian renaissance in academic philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century. Welty's book is a great short introduction to Plantinga's work. One place where Adam disagrees with Plantinga is on the idea of "Reformed Epistemology." Some descriptions of Reformed Epistemology seem to look down too much on human reason. While we certainly don't want to downplay or dismiss the vital work of the Holy Spirit, we don't want to settle for basing everything on feelings or intuitions either. In his book Warranted Christian Belief, Plantinga seems to dismiss the idea that philosophy can be useful in determining if Christianity is true, and Adam thinks he is incorrect to do that.

It may be surprising to hear that postmodernism and presuppositionalism could be similar. Postmodernism is a philosophy that, among other things, is very committed to the idea that truth is relative in some sense. Presuppositionalism is the idea that we should start doing apologetics by assuming (or presupposing) that God exists and the Bible is His Word. So, how could these two ideas be related? Both postmodernism and presuppositionalism were overreactions to philosophical modernism. Both movements tended to downplay the importance of using reason in forming our beliefs and instead focused on other means, such as our inner feelings (postmodernism) or blind faith (presuppositionalism). James K. A. Smith is an example of a presuppositionalist who has recognized and even promoted this connection.

Many Christians these days use the term "Christian worldview" to describe their beliefs. Having a "Christian worldview" is usually deemed very important in many Christian circles. But is the term "worldview" a word that Christians should use to describe their beliefs? This term actually came out of postmodern philosophy and has a history of framing all truth claims as merely subjective statements rather than objective facts about the world. In this context, someone's "worldview" was just the way that he or she preferred to view the world rather than a term describing beliefs that apply objectively to everybody, regardless of their subjective "view" or "worldview."

The film "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won several academy awards earlier this year, including one for Best Picture. Like many films and other works of art, this film communicates philosophical and cultural ideas. Namely, postmodern existentialism is front and center. The daughter in this movie has an existential crisis where she fears that there is no meaning and purpose in life and wants to end it all. Following from this, the message of the film is that you should find what gives you meaning and makes life subjectively meaningful to you, because that's seen as the only alternative to concluding that life has no meaning.

Adam’s new book “Divine Love Theory: How the Trinity is the Source and Foundation of Morality” just came out last month. In this podcast, Adam explains how the book came about and why he decided to write on topics such as morality, metaethics, and the moral argument for God’s existence. Adam also explains why much of the book is a critique of a moral theory proposed by Erik Wielenberg that doesn’t require God’s existence. Divine Love Theory is even endorsed by Erik Wielenberg himself along with other Christian philosophers and theologians such as William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, Robert Koons, David Baggett, Mark Linville, Corey Miller, Greg Welty, and Bryan Clark.

"I believe Christianity is true, but I could be wrong." Is this something a Christian should ever say? Adam has often said it, and Francis Schaeffer did as well, but what do they mean by it? In short, it's a way of communicating that our belief in Christianity is the type of thing that can be right or wrong. People need to understand that Christianity is a propositional belief system that can be objectively true or false. It's not just a subjective feeling or personal preference that's helpful or meaningful to me. In the end, Christianity either corresponds to reality or it does not.