REASON TO BELIEVE, by Richard L. Purtill. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. 166 pp. Price $2.95. Reviewed by Rev. Harry L. Downs, pastor Dresden Christian Reformed Church, Dresden, Ontario, Canada.
After seeking to clarify the meaning of the terms “philosophy” and “religion,” Purtill goes on to indicate that most people reared in the Western world “will have formed their ideas about religion on the basis of the Christian religious tradition” (p. 11). For this reason he makes it clear that he desires to deal with “attacks on and defenses of monotheism as understood by Christians” (p. 11). Purtill frankly admits that “it seems reasonable to begin with the traditional Christian idea of God as Creator . . .” all-powerful, all–knowing, perfectly good, able to interfere miraculously with the course of nature, able to punish human souls for deeds done before their death” (p. 11).
The reader, not schooled in philosophy and theology, may find Purtill’s attempted comparison between the philosophy of religion, theology, and apologetics quite difficult. However, if he can courageously move through the discussion he will be heartened to hear him indicate that his position finds “no contradiction between analytic philosophy and traditional Christianity . . .” (p. 13). In fact he says:
It is the theme of this book that no opposition exists, and that clear and logical thinking leads us not in unbelief, not in the direction of ‘liberal’ reinterpretations of Christianity, but rather leads us back to traditional Christian answers to the problems that confront us (p. 13).
Purtill does not mean to say that logic an by itself can lead a person all the way back to Christian belief, but if we move in a logical direction “with honesty and good will, help will be given to tiS to finish the journey” (p. 14). As a Christian in the traditional, Orthodox sense of the term, Purtill admits that he already comes to his honest logic with Christian presuppositions. In fact, he even admits that an answer to “objections” and a giving of “grounds” for traditional Christian belief will not in and of itself lead one to the “religious commitment.” He calls it, at best, “an important first step toward such commitment” (p. 14).
Therefore, when Purtill starts out in the first part of the book by stating common objections to religious belief and then attempting to answer them, he does so already from the perspective of the traditional orthodox Christian faith. In Part II of the book Purtill sets forth various positive arguments in favor of the traditional orthodox Christian faith. However, he contends that these arguments “might not gain a hearing until some answer had been given to the objection” (p 14). In Part III he deals with various “puzzles about the Christian revelation, both to answer objections and to give a fuller understanding which can give grounds for belief” (p. 14).
In Part I, Purtill gives answers to the following objections or accusations against traditional Christian belief concerning God and an after-life, namely, the accusations of: “nonsense,” “wishful thinking,” “credulity,” “immorality,” and “a failure to be truly scientific.”
The author masterfully demolishes the accusation that the orthodox Christian belief is nonsense from a scientific point of view. He states: “Rightly understood, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and other key ideas of the traditional religion, can be neither proved nor disproved by experiment or observation” (p. 11). Purtill correctly turns the accusation around and points out how the claim to settle all questions in a “real” or “meaningful” way by the methods of science or mathematics is itself a “philosophical” theory” (p. 11).
In connection with the accusation that Christian belief in God and an afterlife is wishful thinking, and therefore that they are psychological “projections of our desires and fears,” Purtill establishes the following: 1) “merely offering an alternative explanation does not disprove any theory or idea” without itself being a “possible explanation” and without establishing “its superiority to the theory that the belief in God and in a future life is rationally grounded” (pp. 31–32). 2) “the question of the origins of our beliefs is logically irrelevant to the truth or falsity of those beliefs” (p. 32). 3) “even if Freudian psychology were able to give a completely plausible explanation of our religious beliefs in psychological terms, this would not settle the truth or falsity of those beliefs” (p. 32). Thus the author points out the fact that if traditional Christianity can be explained away “as a projection of our hopes and fears” (p. 34) so can Freud’s theories or any other theory.
In connection with the accusation that traditional Christianity is incredible Purtill shows that the Chance View, Deterministic View, Mixed View, and “every view except the Christian view destroys confidence in reason, and therefore in science. Therefore the Christian view is the only one that gives us any reason to trust any kind of reasoning, including scientific reasoning” (p. 49).
In Part III of the book, Purtill takes up several positive arguments for the traditional Christian belief. He is well aware of the fact that his answers to the accusations dealt with in Part I will never argue a person into accepting the Christian position, but he is convinced that the positive arguments will more readily gain a hearing after the answers have been given. These positive arguments are the nature of: 1) faith, 2) the universe, 3) morality, 4) happiness, 5) the world with God in it.
In his section on the nature of faith, Purtill makes a beautiful case for the fact that we must not see Christianity as a matter of reason taking us part way and then faith taking over. But, rather: “Faith must he based on reasons, and the reasons must be good ones” (p. 71). He firmly believes that there are good reasons and real evidences for accepting the Christian faith.
In the section on the nature of the universe, Purtill masterfully shows part of the reasonableness of the traditional Christian faith. In this section he shows that the universe could not have “popped into existence” nor could it have existed eternally. This, according to Purtill, leaves us with only one alternative. namely, it had to be “brought into existence by something nonmaterial and nonspatial” (p. 81). However, that “something” would not account for the orderliness and intelligibility of the universe. This can only be accounted for by the design of a mind and not by chance or natural necessity. Such a Mind could only be God. Says Purtill: “The view that the universe was created by God seems to be the only view that accounts for all the facts; that gives reason a place, that leads us to expect continued regularity and understandability in the universe” (p. 90).
As one reads Purtill step by step through Part II, he can see that he, through a process of elimination, is leading up to not only a rational personal Being, but’ also to the moral being Who is both just and merciful and Who alone brings true happiness. And thus “God cannot act irrationally nor can he act immorally, for he cannot act against his own nature” (p. 96).
Thus, in Part II. Purtill shows that it is only the personal, rational (intelligible), orderly, moral, just and merciful God, Who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and Who reveals Himself yet today in the Bible, who can account for all facts and thus give reason to believe. And this belief includes, among other things, a trust in this Personal God and a willingness to make rational (responsible) and moral judgments of our own.
In this book Purtill is not suggesting a rationalistic way of finding God or arguing for the existence of God, but he is suggesting that the reason is not in conflict with revelation. In his final section on “Last things” he puts it as follows:
The natnral law which reason reveals in the universe, and the moral law which reason finds in our hearts, were used earlier in this book to argue for the existence of God. And that of course is part of their purpose, to teach us that God exists and makes demands on us. But the scientist’s delight in the intricate unity of natural law, the moralist‘s delight in the intricate unity of the moral law, the ordinary man’s enjoyment of natural beauty and moral goodness, are all hints and foretastes of that delight in Cod which is our destiny.
Our knowledge of and delight in God’s revelation points in the same direction (p. 159).
Purtill wants his readers to realize that; “Our reason, our morality, our hope of happiness, come to us from a Person immeasurably greater than ourselves” (p. 112). And, of course, he makes it abundantly clear that that Person is God, Who has become incarnate in Jesus Christ and atoned for sin. Only such a view is Scriptural and thus reasonable. How our hearts ought to thrill when such Christian scholars as Purtill meet the non-Christian scientists and philosophers on their own terms and demolish the non-Christian view and present the Christian or biblical position as the only credible one. For it is indeed true that true science is not in conflict with God’s Special Revelation or Word. Even though a Reformed Christian could not endorse every theological point made in this book, it is thoroughly Evangelical, and well worth the price of $2.95.
WORKS OF RICHARD SIBBES. Edited with Memoir by Alexander B. Grosart. Banner of Truth Trust. Edinburgh. 1973. 445 pp. $7.95. Reviewed by Rev. Jerome Julien. pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa.
The reading of a Puritan can be time-consuming, but richly rewarding for one who is willing to dig for spiritual gold. I hesitate to quote any sentence for fear that there would be a thousand others more blessed. Richard Sibbes wrote, “the life of a Christian should be a meditation how to unloose his affections from inferior things.” And, ‘“Praising of God may well be called incense, because, as it is sweet in itself. and sweet to God, so it sweetens all that comes from us . . . When we neglect the praising of God, we lose both the comfort of God‘s love and our own, too.”
This book is a reprint of the first volume of the Nichol’s edition. At this time no further volume of Sibbes’ works are contemplated for reprint. This volume contains all the material which Sibbes himself published in his lifetime.
A very lengthy (over 100 pages) biography of Sibbes (1577–1635) by A. B. Grosart opens the volume. Though for some this might be tedious reading it is a must for an understanding of this one who was known as “the Heavenly Doctor Sibbes.”
Following this are his most famous “The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax” (on Matthew 12:20) and “The Sword of the Wicked” (Psalm 42:10) and “The Soul‘s Conflict with Itself, and Victory Over Itself By Faith” (Psalm 42:1). Of this last, Spurgeon in his Commenting and Commentaries wrote “Sibbes never wastes the student’s time; be scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands.”