Getting Started on Van Til

[ReformedRift]

Brothers,

I am looking to get started on reading Van Til but was wondering where a good place to start is?

A friend recommended to read his My Credo, but I'm also wondering if Van Til has some sort of magnum opus or most-well known work (particularly in presuppositional apologetics). If you could provide titles for his works, that would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Alexander Suarez]

Brothers,

I am looking to get started on reading Van Til but was wondering where a good place to start is?

A friend recommended to read his My Credo, but I'm also wondering if Van Til has some sort of magnum opus or most-well known work (particularly in presuppositional apologetics). If you could provide titles for his works, that would be greatly appreciated!

You might consider Lane Tipton's lectures on Van Til:

In terms of one of his most well-known works on presuppositional apologetics: The Defense of the Faith

In the above work, Van Til provides his own recommendations in the introduction:

For those who, after finishing this work, wish to pursue the various areas discussed in more depth, unpublished class syllabi are available. They may be most profitably consulted in the following order: First, The Protestant Doctrine of Scripture; second, Introduction to Systematic Theology; third, A Christian Theory of Knowledge; fourth, History of Christian Epistemology; fifth, Apologetics; sixth, Christian Theistic Evidences; seventh, Christian Theistic Ethics; eighth, The Truimph of Grace; ninth, Sovereign Grace Defended, and finally, The Phschology of Religion. (6)

 

[Keith Mathison]

I may not be the best person to answer this question, but even though I've been critical of Van Til, I've read pretty much everything he wrote. I would recommend the bibliographic essay at the back of John Muether's biography of Van Til. He recommends "My Credo" and "Why I Believe in God" as an entryway into an Til's own writings. I think that's as good a place to start as any.

 

[jwright82]

I just got his "Defense Of The Faith" but I also got his "Christianity And Idealism" it has his dissertation as the first chapter. Go through the Tipton videos but that dissertation is a really good introduction to his main concerns. Robert Knudsen, who was the second faculty member in apologetics at WTS, also says to start there.

Post automatically merged: Jan 8, 2025

God and the Absolute

God And The Absolute by Cornelius Van Til Originally published in The Evangelical Quarterly 1930 Issue 2, Pages 358-388 In many quarters the idea seems to prevail that Idealism and Christianity ha…

presupp101.wordpress.com

Here it is, in some form. Listen to the Tipton videos first.