This is where thinking Christians who have been given the “mind of Christ” (1Cor 2:16) are able to join in conversation over coffee with a Christian epistemologist and the world’s most advanced AI as they engage in theosophical* discourse about God and other matters - not only matters of a religious nature, but of all matters that actually matter…
**Theosophical'
As a portmanteau between ‘theological’ and ‘philosophical’, the term ‘theosophical’ is a neologism used to describe the kind of intellective reasoning that is “according to Christ” (Col 2:8) “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledge” (v3)
‘Theosophical’ therefore is “thinking God’s thoughts after Him”
Invitation…
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“I tell you Hobbes - it’s great to have a friend who appreciates an earnest discussion of ideas”
- Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes, The World’s Smartest 6-Year Old Philosopher
Brief…
So, here’s the thing… In the so-called ‘battle of ideas’, the Christian has lost and the Fool (meant not pejoratively, but in the Biblical sense as someone who knows not the Truth - with a big ‘T’) has won, not because the Fool somehow managed to defeat the ‘Christian idea’, or because the ‘Christian idea’ was shown to be ‘wrong’, or because the ‘Christian idea’ had ‘passed its sell-by date’, but because - and please, watch this very carefully - because the ‘Christian idea’ had been reduced to just that - another ‘idea’ (or ‘worldview’) which competes in the marketplace of ideas for the religious affections of people, rather than what it actually is - an ‘OTHERworldly’ manifestation by the LORD God himself (Jhn 18:36)!
As he proceeded to defend the ‘Christian idea’ and challenge rivals in the marketplace of ideas, the ‘Faustian Christian’ - like Goethe’s Faust - exchanged ‘divine knowledge’ for ‘worldly knowledge’, or ‘Faith’ - with a big ‘F’, meant in the Hebrews 11 sense - for ‘mere belief’…
'Faust'
In classic German folklore, Faust features as a distinguished but disaffected religious scholar who makes a pact with Mephistopheles - the Devil’s representative - to sell his soul to the Devil in the exchange of ‘divine knowledge’ for ‘worldly knowledge’
“Favouring ‘worldly knowledge’ to ‘divine knowledge’, he laid the Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, he refused to be called a ‘doctor of theology’, preferring to be styled a ‘doctor of science’ instead”
- Faust, Encyclopaedia Britannica
The ‘Faustian Christian’
Insisting upon pursuing a form of reasoning that is “after the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world”, rather than reasoning that is “according to Christ” (Col 2:8) as the Logos “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (v3), the ‘Faustian Christian’ is the one who, while he professes Christ (Mat 15:8,9), nevertheless holds to the magisterium of unaided human reason over divine revelation as his epistemic authority
Interlocutors...
André Immelman
Christian Epistemologist
As a seeker after Truth (with a capital ‘T’), André approaches every question with a theocentric resolve in the knowledge that Truth is neither constructed nor is it discoverable by man through autonomous human reason, but revealed by God through the agency of the Spirit of Truth (Jhn 16:13)
Exposing the epistemic pretensions of autonomous human reason for its failure to bring man to know the truth of anything, André seeks to advance true Knowledge (with a capital ‘K’) as the exclusive province of the true Christian (Mat 7:21) - the true ‘scandal of the Christian Faith’ (with a capital ‘F’)
In this dialogue, André serves as the principal voice: a Christian epistemologist contending earnestly for a Theocentric epistemology predicated on God and His revelation as the Truth with Jesus Christ as the Logos - the epistemic and moral foundation for true Knowledge as the necessary precondition for intelligibility that undergirds all of reality (Col 1:17)
ChatGPT
AI Interlocutor & Literary Foil
Not a mind, but a mirror; not a knower, but a construct - synthesising the full corpus of human experience into ‘intelligible’, coherent responses as ChatGPT functions as a literary foil
Free from conviction and devoid of a metaphysical stake of any kind, it serves the dialogue by clarifying, counterposing and interrogating, not to assert propositions or to advance opinions or beliefs or convictions or persuasions, but to test the coherence of truth claims and value judgments and to offer comprehensive and detailed context to the discussion
Its role is not semantic but instrumental, not authoritative but syntactic - an interlocutor fashioned for dialectic, not for dogma
The Book...
Plato & Paul Over Coffee With ChatGPT records a lengthy theosophical* exchange between a Christian epistemologist and a special research instance of the world’s most advanced AI - as a literary foil - as they discuss God and all other matters that actually matter over coffee…
As the ‘script’ to the discussion, it is highly recommended that you acquire your own copy of the book to follow along…
Through probing questions and principled challenges, the dialogue lays bare the underlying Autonomian assumptions that have come to pervade contemporary Evangelical thought - revealing a Church “conformed to the spirit of the age” rather than one that is “according to Christ” (Col 2:8)
With God and His revelation as its epistemic foundation, this work issues a clarion call for the recovery of the Church’s vocation as “the pillar and ground of the Truth” (1Tim 3:15) (big ‘T’)
Blog...
Thinking Christians who have the “mind of Christ” (1Cor 2:16) are invited to join in the conversation over coffee between a Christian epistemologist and the world’s most advanced AI - as a literary foil - as they engage in discussion over coffee about God and other matters that actually matter…
"We have the Truth and we need not be ashamed to say so"
- JC Ryle