Pragmatism

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a worldview, pragmatism focuses on what gets quick results rather than what is true, right, and good. Today, R.C. Sproul addresses this American-born philosophy that comes into direct conflict with the Christian faith.

Get R.C. Sproul's Book 'Making a Difference' and Teaching Series 'Christian Worldview' for Your Gift of Any Amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3526/donate

What does it mean to live "coram Deo," before the face of God? Found out: https://Ligonier.org/coram-deo

Meet Today's Teacher:

R.C. Sproul (1939-2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God's Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	The pragmatist is very much worried about being practical, but so is the Christian.
0:06.0	The Christian's also concerned about practice and about being practical.
0:10.3	But being practical does not mean that you must embrace pragmatism as a philosophy of life.
0:19.6	In fact, where the tension comes, where that point of conflict is,
0:24.6	is that Christianity says that ultimately pragmatism as a philosophy is the most impractical
0:30.5	thing that a person can ever embrace.
0:58.0	Is it practical? Does it work? Have we solved today's problem? These are not bad questions in and of themselves, but they are questions at the heart of the worldview that we'll be exploring today. Pragmatism. This is the Wednesday edition of Rening your mind as we continue a week-long study of the worldviews, the isms that have influenced and are present in modern society.
1:05.6	R. C. Sprold recorded this series to help you understand the world we live in, to help you engage thoughtfully with
1:11.9	those around you, and to help you be faithful in a fallen world. You'll only hear five messages
1:18.1	from this series this week, so I would encourage you to request digital access to all 12
1:23.5	messages and the study guide by giving a donation of any amount at Renewing Your Mind.org.
1:30.2	We'll also send you his book on impacting culture and society as a Christian.
1:35.5	You can find a convenient link to request these resources in the podcast show notes.
1:40.8	So let's hear Dr. Sprawl on pragmatism, a worldview born and bred in the United States.
1:48.9	As we continue our study now of the culture in which we seek to live out our Christian lives,
1:55.7	I want to turn our attention in this session to another strand of philosophy that heavily influences our culture, and if you
2:04.4	recall, is one of those subdivisions of the broad, generic perspective that we call secularism.
2:12.7	And that philosophy that I'm going to be concerned about today is called pragmatism.
2:19.1	How many of you have never heard of the word pragmatism before?
2:25.5	Well, that's good. You know, people are somewhat frightened by words like existentialism and
2:29.8	logical positivism, but everybody's heard the term pragmatism. I suspect that there's a reason for that
2:36.7	because pragmatism as a formal philosophy was developed and expanded in the United States. Most of
	...

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