Philosophy

Resources on Philosophy

10 resources on Philosophy, in curated order

1. Topic 15: The Living God Who Works Personally in the Created Orders of Nature and History

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2014

   Readings address the doctrine of God as the living Lord who acts in nature and history, drawn from Calvin’s account of God’s knowledge and providence (Institutes I.1-5, 14-18), Barth’s doctrine of providence (CD III/3), and William Temple’s Gifford Lectures, Nature, Man and God. John Polkinghorne’s The Faith of a Physicist and Leith’s chapters in Basic Christian Doctrine bring the conversation into dialogue with contemporary science.

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2. Topic 28: The Christian Response to the Problem of Evil

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2014

   Readings include Augustine’s Confessions (Books III, IV, and VII), Calvin’s Institutes I.16-18 on providence and evil, Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics III/3 §50 on das Nichtige (Nothingness), Austin Farrer’s Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited, and John Hick’s Evil and the God of Love. The bibliography approaches the problem of evil through the primary texts of the tradition, asking how Christian faith speaks to suffering, natural evil, and the hiddenness of God.

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3. Peter Martyr Library: Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

   BookBy Edited by Emidio Campi and Joseph McLellandFoundation PublicationsDavenant Press2025

   A Reformed theologian’s interpretation of Aristotle’s ethics. Hardback, $59.95. ISBN 9781931112550.

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4. Peter Martyr Library: Philosophical Works — On the Relation of Philosophy to Theology

   BookBy Translated and edited by Joseph C. McLellandFoundation PublicationsDavenant Press2025

   Vermigli’s philosophical writings, with sections on reason and revelation, body and soul, knowledge of God, providence, miracles, and free will. Hardback, $40.00. ISBN 9780940474413.

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5. Calvin and Natural Law

   PDFBy William KlempaJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies IV1988

   Klempa enters the long debate over natural law in Calvin, weighing the two main camps of twentieth-century scholarship and arguing for a measured reading that locates natural law within Calvin’s social, ethical, and political thought.

   PDF, 24 pp

6. Calvin’s Epistemology

   PDFBy Charles ParteeJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies XII2006

   Partee examines the question of Calvin’s epistemology, arguing that the famous opening of the Institutes on the knowledge of God and self is better treated as theological prolegomena than as a strictly philosophical theory of knowledge.

   PDF, 12 pp

7. Calvinism as Theocentric Humanism

   PDFBy William J. BouwsmaJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies II1984

   William J. Bouwsma reads Calvin as a child of the Renaissance, arguing that theology is a human activity deeply shaped by its historical moment and that Calvin’s thought becomes intelligible only when situated within the cultural circumstances of sixteenth-century Europe.

   PDF, 12 pp

8. Teilhard de Chardin: The Phenomenon of Man

   RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesTeilhard & Rahner, lecture 11968

   In this lecture, Dr. Leith examines Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s landmark work The Phenomenon of Man, tracing his evolutionary vision of creation and its implications for Christian thought.

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9. Teilhard de Chardin: Conclusion

   RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesTeilhard & Rahner, lecture 31968

   The concluding lecture of the Teilhard de Chardin series draws together a Reformed theological assessment of Teilhard’s thought.

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10. Karl Rahner: The Prospect for Dogmatic Theology

    RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesTeilhard & Rahner, lecture 41968

    The fourth lecture turns from Teilhard to Karl Rahner, examining his prospects for dogmatic theology and his engagement with the modern world from a Roman Catholic perspective.

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