I’m very interested in talking with you about my philosophy of education and participating with Christ in His suffering, but to do that well we need to be at home with good, philosophical conversation.

Lord willing, we will be having ZOOM conversations at 7 pm (CDT) on Wednesday evenings. The only breaks in this routine will be during the seasons of Advent and Lent.

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My approach to Philosophy KATA CHRISTON (see Colossians 2:6-9) is enframed by two texts. Both are prayers to the God who reveals Himself to us human beings in the biblical text, the Holy Scriptures.

• The first prayer is from opening paragraphs of Augustine’s The Confessions. It identifies a central existential reality for us as human beings in our inquietus or Angst apart from God in Christ.

• The second prayer is Psalm 22, a prayer from God to David, from David to Jesus Messiah, from Jesus the Second Person of the Triune God to each of us, to be prayed back to God in the midst of our suffering in our time of grace.

My guiding question: What can philosophy do for confessional Lutheran thinking and what can confessional Lutheran thinking do for philosophy?

Although I think this conversation ought to include thoughtful persons whatever the level of their commitment to Lutheran thinking, I myself hold an unqualified quia subscription to the Lutheran Confessions. I've actually made a public promise to teach in line with Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions (in fact, I am an ordained Lutheran pastor with 35-plus years in the public ministry).

We sometimes hear that religious piety undercuts our academic pursuit of truth. I accept and even welcome the tension this creates for me, day in and day out. On the one hand, I come to my intellectual commitments honestly, as the result of my ongoing thinking about Lutheran doctrine, to satisfy myself whether and to what extent (quatenus) it agrees with Scripture. On the other, I find that the Lutheran mode of thought -- in particular, our theology of the cross and our doctrine of the means of grace -- is deeply satisfying and winsome.

• Syllabus and Notes (PDF here)

• Brief invitation to the course (here)

• Session One – Philosophy’s Aboutness (here)

• Session Two – Philosophy’s Mode (here)

• Session Three – Philosophy and Language (here)

• Session Four – Logic (here)

• Session Five – Metaphysics (Ontology + Epistemology) (here)

• Session Six – Ethics (here)

• Socratic Dialogue 1 (here)

• Socratic Dialogue 2 (here)

• Socratic Diaolgue 3 (here)

Flight Bag - Philosophical necessities to have in your backpack for thinking, feeling, and acting on the basis of Christ, the Word of God in our human flesh (ontology and epistemology).

Videos topics include ...

• How and Why to Pack Your Own Flight Bag

• The Three Acts of Mind

• Types of Human Reasoning

• Being Human Beings and Triune Human Consciousness

• Knowing Things as They Are

See the Ten Master Metaphor Series

Mission Navigation - How to keep yourself oriented toward Christ in the heavy turbulence of The Age of Lies in which we live (History of Ideas, Philosophy of Emotion and culture).

Video topics include ...

• Total Situation Awareness

• Ideas Have Consequences

• The Climate and the Weather of Our Souls

• Live Not By Lies

See the "Live Not By Lies" series from Luther Memorial Chapel

Mission Communication - Attuning ourselves to the fellowship of language (LOGOS in Greek).

Video topics include ...

• Language as Atmosphere

• Language as Proof of God's Existence

• Language as God's Medium of Grace to Us Human Beings

• Authorized Countermeasures Against Postmodernist Attacks on Language

See The Word of God Cannot Be Canceled Video

Flying the Mission - Question. "Where is the Life we have lost in living?" Answer. Philosophy Kata Christon!

Video Topics include ...

• Missio Dei (God's Mission Toward Us and Through Us) as flying SAR Missions

• Bioethics or Zoe-ethics?

• We Believe for the Purpose of Understanding -- and for Acting in Harmony with Christ's Will

• The Mission Includes Suffering and Dying

• The Philosophy of Christ the Life is Apocalyptic

See the Video Series with Bryan Wolfmueller on Suffering and my Reformation 2021 Sermon

• A list of Interviews on Issues Etc ... (click here for full archive)

• A Reformation Sermon 2021 (here)