“Few today will have seen the words "Jesus" and "logician" put together to form a phrase or sentence,” says philosopher Dallas Willard, “unless it would be to deny any connection between them at all. The phrase "Jesus the logician" is not ungrammatical, any more than is ‘Jesus the carpenter.’ But it 'feels' upon first encounter to be something like a category mistake or error in logical type, such as ‘Purple is asleep, or More people live in the winter than in cities,’ or ‘Do you walk to work or carry your lunch?’"
As Willard goes on to point out in his intriguing article Jesus the Logician, there is in our culture an uneasy relation between Jesus and intelligence. We consider it almost absurd to imagine him as a “thinker.” Yet while he did not produce theories of logic, like Aristotle or Frege, he was a master of logical forms. “When I speak of ‘Jesus the logician’,” says Willard, “I refer to his use of logical insights: to his mastery and employment of logical principles in his work as a teacher and public figure.”
Earlier this year I encouraged my fellow godbloggers to analyze the Gospels and post examples of the way that Christ used various logical and rhetorical forms in his ministry. Listed below are links to the invaluable posts that I received on this project:
Logical and Rhetorical Forms Index
Figures of Reasoning
A Fortiori -- "To the stronger," or "even more so. " We are bound to accept an a fortiori claim because of our prior acceptance of a weaker application of the same reasoning or truth.
Aetiologia -- A figure of reasoning by which one attributes a cause for a statement or claim made.
Anthypophora -- A figure of reasoning in which one asks and then immediately answers one's own questions.
Appeal to Authority
Appeal to Evidence
Anacephalaeosis -- A recapitulation of the facts.
Apophasis -- The rejection of several reasons why a thing should or should not be done and affirming a single one, considered most valid.
Argument from Analogy
Commoratio -- Dwelling on or returning to one's strongest argument.
Contrarium -- Juxtaposing two opposing statements in such a way as to prove the one from the other.
Dirimens copulatio -- A figure by which one balances one statement with a contrary, qualifying statement.
Enthymeme -- The informal method of reasoning typical of rhetorical discourse. A truncated syllogism.
Expeditio -- After enumerating all possibilities by which something could have occurred, the speaker eliminates all but one.
Paromologia -- Admitting a weaker point in order to make a stronger one.
Proecthesis -- When, in conclusion, a justifying reason is provided.
Prosapodosis -- Providing a reason for each division of a statement, the reasons usually following the statement in parallel fashion.
Ratiocinatio -- Reasoning (typically with oneself) by asking questions.
Reductio ad absurdum -- is a type of logical argument where we assume a claim for the sake of argument, arrive at an absurd result, and then conclude the original assumption must have been wrong, since it gave us this absurd result.
Sorites -- A chain of claims and reasons which build upon one another. Concatenated enthymemes.
Syllogismus --The use of a remark or an image which calls upon the audience to draw an obvious conclusion.
Figures of Ethos
Anamnesis -- Calling to memory past matters. More specifically, citing a past author from memory. Anamnesis helps to establish ethos, since it conveys the idea that the speaker is knowledgeable of the received wisdom from the past.
Related Articles
Scripture Index
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
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Here's an interesting article by Nathaniel Bluedorn, called "Reasons from the Bible to Study Logic".
Bleudorn runs a website called ChristianLogic.com. I think an avid Christian apologist like yourself would enjoy it.
I don't agree with everything he says about Jesus and logic, but he has a lot of good stuff to say, and a very interesting perspective.
posted on 09.09.2005 8:32 AM2
Oops -- I meant to give a hat tip to Blest With Sons for the Christian Logic website.
If you haven't visited her blog lately, she has great news: her man has made it safely back from Iraq!
posted on 09.09.2005 8:37 AM