About this Blog

Hello, and welcome to my Blog!

I’ll begin by explaining the name. When I decided to call this blog “A Jerusalemite in Athens”, I had in mind Tertullian’s famous quote:

“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” ~ Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum (On the prescription of heretics)

The question is rhetorical; we’re supposed to agree that Athens in fact has no business with Jerusalem, nor Jerusalem with Athens. And of course these names are representative of Philosophy (Athens) and Christian Theology (Jerusalem). So, are they really mutually exclusive?

You can probably guess my answer! As can be inferred from the title of Tertullian’s book, his primary concern was with the preservation of orthodox interpretations of Scripture. In particular, he was reacting to the corruption of core doctrines of Christianity (such as the deity of Jesus) by Greek philosophy. So while Tertullian certainly rejected many of the conclusions of the Stoics, Platonists, and Aristotelians, he would not have rejected what I take to be the purpose of philosophy in general: the pursuit of clear thinking for the purpose of certainty about all things.

I am a Christian, and I consider myself to be a philosopher (the verdict’s still out on that one!). So, sticking to Tertullian’s terms, I consider myself to be a Jerusalemite (Christian) in Athens (the philosophical tradition, as well as the academy). This blog is dedicated, then, to approaching all things with a Christian worldview and the tools of philosophical inquiry. With these two starting points, it’s my sincere hope to approach questions and problems we all care about or ought to care about with the purpose of honoring Christ with our entire being, which most certainly includes our minds.

This having been said, not every post on here is academic in nature. You’ll find all kinds of posts about my experiences, my horticultural interests, and perhaps even some photographs of various events/objects.

Thanks for visiting my blog; I’ll leave you with this verse from Acts 17 about the first Jerusalemite in Athens:

¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. ¹⁷ So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. ¹⁸ And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? ²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”  ~ Acts 17:16-20