Philosophy

From "20th Century Christian Contribution to Philosophy" (ACTS, 2004; Basileia, 2008) As one of the foremost Christian apologists of this century, Ravi Zacharias ’ specialization in Western, Eastern, and Middle-Eastern philosophy takes him to numerous academic circles all over the world. Through his rich literature, broadcast, and record ministry, he has addressed millions of people all over the world. Most of his books and lectures address the present condition of the Western man which he diagnoses as caused by the invasion of rationalistic atheism and secularism in the once Christian societies. Ravi has shown that the invasion of secularism, existentialism, and Eastern philosophy has led to the relativizing of truth in present day society. His apologetic is against the agnostic and skeptic stance one takes with respect to truth. He says, ‘truth by definition is exclusive. If truth were all-inclusive, nothing would be false. And if nothing were false, what would be the meani...

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and religious thinker, is generally considered one of the founders of existentialism. His philosophy was mainly “an answer to the challenge of theological nihilism – the dead orthodoxy of a dead Church.” 1 It was an attack on the rationalist’s desire for proofs as an evasion of the claim of revelation. Kierkegaard has become popular more recently due to the uprise of secular existentialism and Christian existentialism; both of which find their origins in his ideas. Yet, “it would be inaccurate to call Kierkegaard an existentialist. He himself was concerned to understand how to become a Christian, whereas existentialism is concerned with what it is to be a human being.” 2 In his Philosophical Fragments (1844), Kierkegaard goes on to explain that it is always better and appropriate to reason from existence and that existence is never subject to demonstration. The person who attempts to demonstrate the existence of God...