Trueman Does Heidegger

If reason you cannot stand
The poet might be your man
He’s light in the loafers
plays tune on his shofars
he’s better than the rational caveman

“In such a world, arguments, even irrefutable arguments, will not suffice. We need something more comprehensive, something to capture imaginations. We need a philosophy of undergraduate education that offers visions of beauty, that connects the fields of knowledge our modern world has torn apart and isolated, and that speaks to the human desire for meaning. A good start might be making the study of poetry, that medium which at its best makes human language carry almost more significance than it can bear, a compulsory course for freshmen. If the narrative and aesthetic of the world are gripping, then we must show that ours are more gripping, rooted as they are in real beauty and real truth.”

Carl “Heidegger” Truman

Martin Heidegger was an Existentialist theologian who wrote reams and reams of theology and in one large volume he comes to the end and gives this advice; “Listen to the poet.”

Methinks that Truman is channeling Heidegger who being Existentialist was also at the same time neo-orthodox.

In this paragraph, we read our British Ph.D. make the case of “poetry” over “argumentation.” If he is making an argument for poetry wouldn’t he be better served using poetry to “argue” for poetry? Why provide a rational argument in favor of poetry when poetry is superior to the rational argument?

This idea that somehow the imagination bypasses argumentation and reason is just utter tripe. Even if the imagination “connects” it connects on the basis of some shared univocal point of meaning that was arrived at by the rationality of “line upon line and precept upon precept.”

I have no problem teaching poetry to undergrads. I love poetry. But the argument that poetry is going to circumvent argumentation is an argument that only a Ph.D. could come up with.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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