Kevin J. Vanhoozer on the Relationship between Theology and Philosophy

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, ‘Christ and Concept: Doing Theology and the “Ministry” of Philosophy’, in John D. Woodbridge and Thomas Edward McComiskey (eds.), Doing Theology in Today’s World: Essays in Honor of Kenneth S. Kantzer (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 99-145.

Vanhoozer adopts H. Richard Neibuhr’s five-fold typology of Christ in relation to culture to tackle the relationship between theology and philosophy. He notes that the particular nature of the philosophy under discussion is crucial. He defines philosophy as ‘the critical and systematic reflection on enduring problems that arise in language and life’, and says that ‘if conceptual inquiry is the philosopher’s task, the words of ordinary language and the technical terms used to clarify the relations between them are the tools’ (105, 107).

His preference is for the ‘Christ the Lord of concept’ model, akin to Karl Barth, where ‘biblical revelation provides the material to be understood, and philosophy contributes the impetus toward conceptual clarity’. This means that ‘the theologian does not need a prior conceptual scheme within which biblical language can make sense; rather, one simply begins (unapologetically!) with biblical language’ (122-23).