The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians

by Andrew Davison

From the dawn of Western thought to the present day, The Love of Wisdom tells the story of philosophy as something intensely theological, both in its insights and its wrong turns. The book will be invaluable for any student of theology or intellectual history, and for anyone who wants to see the intellectual cogency of the Christian faith at its best. The intellectual tradition of the Church emerges clearly from this book as one of the glories of the Christian inheritance. Andrew Davison argues that Christian thinkers will be more faithful to Christian teaching, not less, if they pay attention to philosophy. Our thinking is always philosophical, since we cannot think without categories or assumption. Our philosophy may as well, therefore, be good philosophy. By bringing our philosophy out into the open we can bring them under theological judgement. Clear and articulate, this book provides the philosophical background to Christian theology down the ages, and examines the intellectual climate of our own times.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2013

About the author

Andrew Davison (DPhil, University of Oxford) is the tutor in doctrine at Westcott House, University of Cambridge, in Cambridge, England. He has taught theology at St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, and is known for his writing on doctrine, mission, and the church. He is coauthor of For the Parish: A Critique of Fresh Expressions and joint editor of Lift Up Your Hearts.

Reviews

[Matt Pitts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philosophy has long been a weakness of mine, but I found this book fascinating and engrossing. Davison covers the history of philosophy from the Presocratics to postmodernism and political philosophy with clarity, good humor, and verve. His love for philosophy is contagious.

Davison is a master teacher giving a comprehensive tour of his subject with an eye to the work of the theologian. I cannot recommend it highly enough as an introduction to the grand sweep of philosophical thought.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A helpful overview of western philosophical thought from the presocratics to present day. Accessible but not watered down.

[Chandler Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read for class)

Excellent intro to studying philosophy for theology's sake. Helpful recommendations for primary and secondary sources at the end of each chapter. Chapter 9 ("Late Scholasticism") was one of the best chapters on philosophy I've ever read--great case for classical/scholastic/Thomistic philosophy as a way to reenchant the Christian's outlook on the world and things around him. Will definitely re-read that chapter. The last third of the book was somewhat of a drag, but that's mainly due to the content (modern philosophy onward) rather than the author himself. Had some disagreements on minor issues throughout (such as how Davison perceives the Reformation's impact on philosophy and related issues, as well as his generally overly ecumenist perspective on some philosophical approaches), but overall a great book.

[Miles Lapointe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philosophy is cool

[Dylan Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really helpful as an intro to philosophy for me. I especially appreciated the chapters on Aristotle and Aquinas, both helped partially solidify metaphysical realism for myself, however I realize I still have much to learn.

My biggest gripe is that I would disagree with his interpretations of Luther (takes the Luther as nominalist story) and the Reformation (the Reformation was rejection of tradition). It’s been proven that Luther wasn’t a nominalist and that the Reformation was a call back to tradition (“ad fontes”). Further I would have appreciated him showing more in Protestant philosophical thought from the likes of Vermigli and other Protestant scholastics.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly, this is written to guide a theologian through the history of philosophy, meaning that it always try to tie in the theological significance of the philosopher and the philosophic ideas. When dealing with ancient philosophy it is done very explicitly as well as when dealing with more modern atheistic philosophy. In between, there seems to be a period where theology was very implicit in philosophical thinking, and I found that to be an interesting observation. The ties between theology and philosophy is something Andrew Davison should have looked even more into. The book contains some very good chapters(with some excellent passages that I need to return to at some point) and other chapters that are unnecessarily detailed and gets a bit muddled. Still, I found it a good read as an addition to studies in philosophy, especially if you have a flair for theology as well.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book and was overall disappointed, however I did learn some things on the way.

I often wished for a more clear and thorough presentation of how we ought to think about philosophy as Christians as well as greater clarity and directness as to the wrongness of other philosophies. I gathered throughout that he was a Thomist, realist, virtue ethicist, and, I believe, structuralist. I wish that he laid these all out very clearly in one chapter and clearly laid out his critiques of the other views.

He also got many things wrong such as saying that history is subjective, or blaming the great financial crash of 2008 on pure capitalism, agreeing with Marx that capitalism has within itself its own demise.

3.5 stars. Probably not worth reading again but maybe worth keeping for reference of a topic.

[Darren Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not familiar with western philosophy and its history so it it is difficult for me to give a proper assessment for this book. It was at least worth reading until the end of Aquinas chapter, and many philosophical ideas after Aquinas just flew through my head. Maybe this is due to my lack of background knowledge and familiarity.

I was expecting the author to give more explanation on the relationship between philosophy and theology, particularly on how some philosophical ideas were critically appropriated to be a handmaiden of theology and how some philosophy ideas affected theology negatively. This aspect was only explain very minimally in the book.

At least from this book I discovered that philosophical theology isn't something I would like to do a deep dive into as compared to doing deep dive into post reformation reformed dogmatics books.

[Richard Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful overview of philosophy, from the pre-socratics through to the present day.

The analysis of scholasticism was fascinating as was the consideration of the skeptical and splintering turns of the enlightenment. So much to ponder here - so many knock on effects of underlying patterns of thought.

I believe the author is somewhat of a progressive and I think this shows in a few spots BUT his historical work and introductions to concepts are nonetheless very useful.

This is the sort of book that will help you think about a large number of other issues - should have read it sooner.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tough slog for me. A lot of facts and definitions to keep track of. However, I had been wanting to read a survey of philosophical history for a while and this was a good choice, I think. I can always revisit specific portions of the book.

[Natalie Lapointe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine but I don't like philosophy