Why Christians should care about philosophy an interview with Paul Copan

What is philosophy and why study it? Isn’t theology more important? How does philosophy and theology relate? If Ephesians sheds a little bit of negative light on philosophy, how can we support the study? Isn’t philosophy atheistic? What does it mean to doubt wisely? Do we need to have absolutely certainty in order to know things as Christians?

“The Philosopher, Alvin Plantinga said that, ‘Philosophy is just hard thinking about things: in particular hard thinking about ethnics, about knowledge, about reality.’ And, theology is going to involve hard thinking about God. And so it’s not as though we are going to make a hard and fast distinction between theology and philosophy because philosophy is also going to include thinking about God.” – Dr. Paul Copan

Those are some of the important questions we are going to be talking about today in this podcast with Dr. Paul Copan (Ph.D., philosophy, Marquette University) is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is author of "True for You, But Not for Me" (Bethany House), "That's Just Your Interpretation,""How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?", When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics (all with Baker), and Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion (Chalice Press). These are all books that seek to make available accessible answers to the toughest questions asked of Christians.

He has co-authored (with William Lane Craig) Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration (Baker Academic). He is co-editor of three books on the historical Jesus and of three other books in the philosophy of religion, The Rationality of Theism (Routledge), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Routledge), and Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues (Blackwell).

He has co-edited (with William Craig) Passionate Conviction and Contending with Christianity's Critics. He has contributed articles and book reviews to various professional journals as well: Philosophia Christi, Faith and Philosophy, Trinity Journal, Southern Journal of Theology, the Journal for the Evangelical Theological Society, and The Review of Metaphysics.

He is presently writing a book on Old Testament ethics and co-authoring a book on the moral argument.