Plundering the Moderns: A Classical Defense of the Eclecticism of the Christian Tradition

There is a growing renewed interest in retrieving, reviving, and upholding the Great Tradition among evangelicals today. However, many such evangelicals have argued in such a way as to make classical theism necessarily dependent on these contested and narrow metaphysical doctrines, placing it in a tenuous place for ultimate survival. These same thinkers often villainize “modern” theology and philosophy. All that ails the world can be summarized as modern. I argue that such an approach is at odds with the classical tradition and classical theism. Rather, the project of the classical tradition is one unafraid of plundering the Egyptians for gain—even modern ones. To achieve this goal, I survey those that argue against any value for modern theology and philosophy. I then provide several paragon classical thinkers as models of what I call theological eclectic opportunism. Finally, I show how various modern metaphysical claims can assist classical theism.