Customer Reviews

Consequences of Ideas CD Series

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I bought this book for several reasons.

1) The Title - "The Consequences of Ideas".
2) The Sub Title - "Understanding the Concepts that shaped our world".
3) The heading on the back of the book is catchy "If you think philosophy is irrelevant to your daily life think again".
4) RC Sproul loves this subject and often includes it in his sermons (very well).
5) I wish I could understand and appreciate this subject.

I have tried on several occasions to read this book, but I just cannot get very far in it. This stuff does not make sense to me. For example, on page 174 when he summarizes Edmund Husserl he says "Existence precedes essence". I have no idea what that means. And if I did, how could I apply it? This book is full of statements and conclusions I don't understand.

Just a heads up for people like me, this may be a very fine book. But I would never know it. I have to say that to the average person, you will not understand this book.

Dr. Sproul has an incredible way of breaking down the most complex and profound ideas into understandable and accessible basics. This is, by far, the best overview of philosophy for the Christian wishing for an introduction to the topics that most affect his faith. Dr. Sproul begins with the ancients and carries the listener through to the moderns without losing our interest anywhere in the journey. Like a gentle father (as many of us have come to think of him) he leads us to an ever deeper faith. In the end we must conclude with Francis Bacon, that "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

St. Augustine made the observation, "I believe in order to understand." Faith that precedes a study in philosophy is essential. But we do not stop at faith. Faith is the beginning of understanding. And Dr. Sproul can provide the tools Christians need for that understanding on a level they may not have tough possible before. This is a wonderful series and well worth listening to many times. This is one of those studies that will make Dr. Sproul a favorite theologian and teacher; as he is for this reviewer.

This book is better than the usual sort for this genre, which takes a list of the philosophical bogeymen of ancient and modern times and tries to scare people away from them because of religious reasons. Here the author basically tries to do that without being overtly dogmatic. Yet, his preference for one religion out of many, Christianity, comes out in his concluding section on "Gilson's Choice", in which he brings up Etienne Gilson's preference for Aquinas over Kant etc as the basis for public education. Basically, the author prefers that a subjective form of mysticism, his own religion (Christianity), serve as the basis for philosophical and scientific investigation and for public education. He never explains why the religion in which he happened to be born is better for such a foundation than some other, or none at all.
Dick Marti