Representative Articles: “Epistemology and Christian Belief,” Westminster Theological Journal, Fall 2001; “Something Much Too Plain to Say,” Westminster Theological Journal, Fall 2006.
The label ‘presuppositionalism’ as an approach to apologetics needs, once and for all, to be laid to rest. It has served its purpose well, but it is no longer descriptively useful and it offers, now, more confusion than clarity when the subject of apologetics arises. There are various reasons for this confusion. For one, there are a variety of ways to understand the notion of presupposition, as well as a variety of ‘presuppositionalists’ whose approaches differ radically – Schaefferians, Carnellians, and Clarkians, just to mention three. Moreover, there is also the post-Kuhnian predicament in which we find ourselves such that paradigms and presuppositions have come to be equated, and have come into their own, in a way that is destructive of Christianity in general, and of Christian apologetics in particular. Presuppositionalism has been, thereby, dispossessed of any clear meaning and has died the death of a thousand qualifications. It is time, therefore, to change the terminology, at least for those who consider the approach of Cornelius Van Til to be consistent with Reformed theology and its creeds. I propose, in light of the above, that the word ‘covenant,’ properly understood, is a better, more accurate, term to use for a biblical, Reformed apologetic. I hope in what follows to explain presuppositional apologetics, and in the process to make a case for a terminology switch, a switch to a covenantal apologetic.
In attempting to explain a Reformed approach to apologetics, a covenantal apologetic, as well as to justify the change in terminology, it may be best to begin with the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter VII: Of God's Covenant with Man:
I.The distance between God and the creature is go great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.
Van Til, Cornelius, and K. Scott Oliphint, ed. Defense of the Faith. 4th Edition. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2008
"Cornelius Van Til." In Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization. Wiley & Blackwell, 2009
"Presuppositional Apologetics." In Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization. . Wiley & Blackwell, 2009
"The Reformed World View." In A Christian Worldview: Essays from a Reformed Perspective, ed. N. C. Willborn. Taylors, SC: Presbyterian Press, 2008
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