The Philosophical Motto

Anselm’s famous motto, ‘Faith Seeking Understanding’, which is the motto of the Philosophy of Religion group, should not be construed as implying a quasi-Platonic contrast between the weak epistemological state of faith and the epistemically more robust state of understanding.  On the contrary, it affirms two theses.

Firstly, it affirms that faith – rather than for example scepticism or systematic doubt or the current state of the natural sciences - is the proper starting place for Christian Philosophy of Religion.

Secondly, it affirms that faith is both a volitional state and an epistemic state: on the one hand faith is a joyful response to the many aspects of the revealed love and goodness of God; on the other hand, faith is a strenuous cognitive attempt, critically and constructively to explore the rationality of its fundamental philosophical commitments.

As Anselm put it, faith is ‘an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God’. It is in this spirit that we study Philosophy of Religion at Tyndale.