The implications and practical outworking of our understanding of God, man and purpose will consistently cohere, and by God’s gracious increase – Christian wisdom, unto the glory of God, will be on display through serious reflection that produces humble practice. 

Whereas the Bible is the foundation for Christian theology, the theology we derive from the Bible should provide the basis for a Christian understanding of knowledge, reality and morality. In turn, a robust Reformed theology will not just be consistent with but, also, according to a distinctly Christian epistemology, metaphysic and ethic, which is to be informed by a Reformed system of doctrine that is grounded in Scripture. In short, theology and philosophy are interdependent disciplines that mutually support each other.

If there is a distinctly Reformed system of doctrine, it stands to reason that there is a distinctly Reformed understanding of those three referenced branches of philosophy. Consequently, not only should we derive our philosophy from our theology, we should defend that theology philosophically and according to Scripture. An alternative and more common approach is to derive our theology from the Bible and, in turn, try to defend that theology strictly exegetically. One problem with such an approach is that the exegetical interpretations that come from opposing systems of doctrine are often governed according to vastly different theological assumptions and philosophical commitments regarding God and man, which too easily can go unchallenged. Without employing philosophical tools to unpack and clarify theological statements, we can (a) end up reaching a theological impasse too quickly with our Arminian and secular friends, (b) beg crucial questions in our theological interactions and (c) fail to expose by way of rigorous internal-critiques the inconsistencies and even heretical implications of opposing theological perspectives.

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