The book you hold in your hands started with a simple vision to produce a clear, up-to-date, and comprehensive resource for Christians new to philosophy. Both of us teach or have taught in Christian settings (Jamie at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Paul formerly at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) and have a particular burden to help Christians think clearly about the things of God and the deep things of life. Like most professors, however, over the years we’ve watched our students struggle with the concepts covered in our introductory philosophy courses. Some students give up and never return, while others plod along, eventually finding their philosophical legs. There are two things that are discouraging about those who give up. First, we believe that philosophy is simply too important to give up on. Philosophy continues to play a vital role in our lives and in contemporary discussions on almost everything. As such, we need more students, not fewer, to engage in these philosophical discussions. And, since we inevitably philosophize about the important things of life, we may as well learn how to do it well. Second, we’re not convinced that philosophy needs to be so difficult. Sure, there are a lot of philosophical issues that are difficult, but there are also a lot of issues that aren’t that difficult. We suspect that a focus on clarity from those who write, speak, and teach about philosophy, coupled with a bit of persistence and grit from students, will help students advance in their philosophical abilities. This book is our best effort toward clarity in writing about philosophy.
Like any project of this nature, producing the manuscript has had its ups and downs. Sometimes writing is easy, but most of the time it is painfully difficult. Without the help and encouragement of the people who surround us, such a project would never come to fruition. So, needless to say, we are deeply grateful to those who have pitched in to help us produce the manuscript for this book. First, we want to thank our friends and colleagues who read our chapters and provided valuable feedback. To Ross Inman, Robert Garcia, and Tyler McNabb, thank you for letting us bounce ideas off you and for the dialogue, which brought so much clarity to our work. To Wesley Davey and Ashlee Evans, thank you for reading and rereading each chapter. You’ve helped us tremendously, and we are grateful. To Alex Oakley, thank you for helping with research, formatting, and the bibliography. Second, we would like to thank our students for the years of dialogue, discussion, and questions that have sharpened us and prepared us to write this book. Without you, we certainly wouldn’t have tackled such a project. Third, we want to thank our incredible editor, Dave Nelson, and the entire Baker family. Your encouragement, support, wisdom, and patience have been tremendous. Working with you all has been a truly fantastic experience. Finally, we would like to thank our families for their support. To our kiddos—Natalie, Nathan, Samantha, Samuel, Austin, Madeleine, Travis, and Joshua—thanks for keeping us grounded and for taking pleasure in our work. And to our incredible wives, Tara and Ethel, thank you for letting us do what we do and for the kindness and encouragement you offer each day. We surely wouldn’t have finished this without you!