In the philosophical marketplace, there appears to be a competition between Christianity and secular philosophy on one hand, and between Christianity and non-Christian religion on the other. As long as the intellectual environment of Christianity makes a special philosophical and spiritual claim for itself vis-a-vis other intellectual traditions, a potentially intractable question remains persists on the issue of whether the special revelation of Christianity is a source of universal metaphysical and moral authority or of universal metaphysical, spiritual, and moral support. In either case, the call of faith is never far beneath the power of argument and rationality.
The Christian approach to philosophy involves making specific intellectual claims for that approach, based not only on its intrinsic metaphysical and rational content and coherence but also on its attachment to God, which in the philosophical tradition lies beyond the grasp of human reason. Indeed, it is in part because of its spiritual superstructure and content that Christianity positions itself to comment authoritatively on non-Christian intellectual traditions. This is no less true of competing philosphical traditions in general. However, in the case of Christianity, spirituality and faith interpenetrate rational methodology and philosophic commentary, backed up by what could be called the spiritual authority of scriptures.
To the degree the imperatives of Christianity cannot be validated outside the confines of Christian scripture itself, then the claims for universal validity of Christianity as a universal ethical and moral foundation and as the basis for interpreting the nature of being and truth remain problematic. The non-Christian philosopher is fated never to argue on equal terms with a Christian, who can always say that the problem with an opposing view is that one simply has not found faith and therefore has no standing to fairly evaluate the Christian v...