In this volume Cornelius Van Til focuses on the nature of a commitment to biblical authority and its implications for non-Christian thought. To some degree an expansion of and supplement to his The Defense of the Faith, this book compares and contrasts a consistently Christian approach to knowledge with interpretations that have been given to it throughout church history. Van Til gives specific attention to the views of the church fathers, Roman Catholicism, evangelicalism, and liberalism, as well as recent methods of defending the faith.

Writes Van Til, "As self-explanatory, God naturally speaks with absolute authority. It is Christ as God who speaks in the Bible. Therefore the Bible does not appeal to human reason as ultimate in order to justify what it says. It comes to the human being with absolute authority. Its claim is that human reason must itself be taken in the sense in which Scripture takes it, namely, as created by God and as therefore properly subject to the authority of God."

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction I. PRELIMINARY SURVEY II. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES A. The Self-Sufficiency of Scripture B. Facts 1. The Phenomena of Scripture 2. Facts Outside of Scripture C. Logic III. THE AUTONOMOUS MAN A. The Necessity of Scripture B. The Question of Authority 1. Schleiermacher 2. Recent British Theologians 3. Dialectical Theology C. The Sufficiency of Scripture D. The Perspicuity of Scripture IV. THE CHURCH FATHERS A. Philo Judaeus B. The Church Fathers in General C. The Apostolic Fathers 1. Clement of Rome - Ethics 2. Ignatius - Heresy 3. Polycarp - Authority D. The Apologists 1. Justin Martyr 2. Athenagoras 3. Irenaeus 4. Tertullian a. B. B. Warfield on Tertullian b. Apology c. An Answer to the Jews d. The Sours Testimony e. A Treatise on the Soul f. Authority 5. Alexandrianism (Clement and Origen) a. Clement on Authority b. Origen on Epistemology E. Saint Augustine 1. Early Writings a. Augustine's Rationalism b. Augustine's Irrationalism 2. Later Writings a. The Two Cities b. Y Freedom V. FROM SOVEREIGN GRACE TO SYNERGISM A. Plotinus B. The Aereopagite C. Johannes Scotus Erigena D. Natural Theology E. Mystical Theology VI. AUTONOMY PLUS AUTHORITY: ROMAN CATHOLICISM A. Earlier Official Writings 1. Trent 2. Vatican I B. The Attributes of Scripture 1. Necessity 2. Authority 3. Perspicuity 4. Sufficiency C. The Thomistic Paideia D. Vatican II l. Herman Bavinck on Trent 2. G. C. Berkouwer on Vatican II 3. The Documents of Vatican II VII. EVANGELICALISM AND SCRIPTURE A. Lutheranism 1. Francis Pieper 2. Karl Francke B. Arminianism 1. Richard Watson 2. Joseph Butler 3. John Miley VIII. NATURAL THEOLOGY AND SCRIPTURE Kuyper and Warfield on Apologetics IX. HAMILTON'S BASIS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH A. The Existence of the Soul B. The Nature of the Reasoning Process C. The Insuperable Problem X. BUSWELL'S SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY A. Natural Theology B. What is God? 1. The Cosmological Argument 2. The Teleological Argument 3. The Anthropological Argument 4. The Moral Argument 5. The Ontological Argument C. Evaluation 1. Buswell Modifies Thomas 2. Buswell Rejects Presuppositionalism - A Basic Misunderstanding 3. Buswell's Natural Theology 4. The Unbeliever Replies to Buswell XI. THE DILEMMA OF WESTERN THOUGHT A. Demythologization B. Existential Interpretation C. Dimensionalism Is No Help D. Demythologization Again E. Peace on Earth F. Traditional Apologetics XII. THE DILEMMA OF MODERN THEOLOGY A. A New Quest of the Historical Jesus B. Christ without Myth C. Primal Thinking D. Preaching the New Objectivism Option> Index