“Van Til and Analytic Philosophy” by James N. Anderson

In honor of the centennial of his birth, the Spring 1995 issue of the Westminster Theological Journal featured a collection of articles on the thought of Cornelius Van Til. One of the articles, by William Dennison, took aim at two critics of Van Til, Cecil and Jesse De Boer, for their reliance on the methodology of analytic philosophy in their critique to Van Til’s epistemology. Dennison also targeted John M. Frame, a fellow ‘disciple’ of Van Til, for his adoption of elements of analytic philosophy in his defense and development of Van Til’s apologetic. In Dennison’s estimation, all three had failed to reckon with a central and distinctive element of Van Til’s thought, namely, the role that his philosophy of history plays in his epistemology. The article also conveyed the clear insinuation that analytic philosophy and Van Tilian philosophy are fundamentally at odds and should be kept at a safe distance. …