Ministry Sciences Philosophy

by Henry Reyenga

What is the Philosophy of Ministry Sciences?

Every approach to impacting the world comes from a philosophical perspective. The Philosophy of Ministry Sciences comes from a Christian religious perspective. Ministry Sciences studies how ministry contributes to societal well-being. Some people may say Ministry Sciences is the social science of Christianity. The fact is that all societal sciences or studies come from a religious ground motive.

Introduction to Religious Ground Motives

Imagine you have a favorite song that you listen to over and over. Over time, it influences how you think, feel, and act. Similarly, a religious ground motive (RGM) is like a powerful song or belief that shapes how people and societies see and interact with the world. A Dutch philosopher named Dr. Herman Dooyeweerd came up with this idea. He believed that everyone’s way of thinking, even if they don’t realize it, is based on some core beliefs. Let’s look at three major RGMs: the Christian RGM, the Modernist RGM, and the Postmodern RGM. Each one offers a different way to understand life and the world around us.

The Christian Ground Motive

In Dooyeweerd’s Christian Philosophy, the RGM is based on the themes of creation, fall, and redemption. It means that everything was created by God, sin has messed things up, but through Jesus Christ, everything can be fixed. This belief shapes how Christians see the world—they believe God is in control, sin has affected everything, and Jesus can restore everything. This belief does not diminish the hope of heaven and resurrection for believer, this view believes that our current existence as image bearer now is also important because our world belongs to God. This viewpoint connects faith with every part of life, from how we think to what we do. In this view, the Bible is considered the Word of God that testifies to a transformative relationship with the Divine.

Biblical Foundation: The Bible verse “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, WEB) shows how Christians see God’s influence in every part of life.

The Modernist Ground Motive

The Modernist RGM came about during the Enlightenment, a time when people started to believe in human autonomy from God and more in human reason and science apart from a connection to God. This belief in humanity as its own savior did not recognize sin but rather saw deviations from the norm. This religious motive emphasizes human ability to think and reason as the ultimate way to understand the world. This religious ground motive believes in absolutes and objective certainty informed by reason. Famous thinkers like Descartes, who said, “I think, therefore I am,” believed that thinking is the most important part of being human, sidelining religious views.

The Postmodern Ground Motive

Postmodernism is a reaction against the certainty of Modernism and the Christian ground motive. It shares the Modernist exclusion of God from its system of thinking, rejecting the notion of a divinely created world or humans as God’s creation. Postmodernism is highly skeptical of universal truths and grand explanations. Instead, it adopts a “religion” that truth is relative, and the only absolute truth is that there is no God and no absolute truth to guide our lives or narratives. Postmodern thinkers like Jacques Derrida, who said, “There is nothing outside the text,” believe that our understanding of reality is shaped by language and culture, not by some objective truth.

Postmodernism deconstructs the idea that any single narrative or perspective can provide an explanation of reality. It emphasizes the diversity of experiences apart from God and reason, focusing on the rational inconsistencies of life to critique both Modernism and Christianity. The Christian ground motive acknowledges these inconsistencies as sin and the effects of a fallen creation. Modernism struggles to describe the deviations and complexities of human life. Postmodernism believes that there is no need to explain deviations; instead, it calls these deviations relative truths for individuals or cultures, arguing that what we consider to be “truth” is constructed by societal norms, power structures, and individual perspectives. This perspective leads to a deep distrust of any claims to absolute knowledge or objective reality.

A key development within the postmodern ground motive is queer theory, which posits that many aspects of identity, particularly gender and sexuality, are fluid and socially constructed rather than fixed or inherently tied to biological factors. Queer theory challenges traditional binary notions of gender and believes in a “religion” of fluid identities toward a spectrum of possibilities.

New on the scene is MetaModernism. MetaModernism believes that all the above can be simultaneously true. This religious ground motive believes in the “religion” of vacillation. On one topic, you may be a modernist, such as in the hard sciences like medicine, but on gender, you may be a postmodernist queer theory believer.

The Philosophy of Ministry Sciences at Christian Leaders Institute

Christian Leaders Institute believes in the Christian Ground Motive. Understanding Ministry Sciences means seeing God as the Creator, recognizing all creation as fallen through sin, and celebrating the exciting redemption and renewal through Jesus Christ.

Christian Leaders Institute offers a Philosophy program that features free donation-supported classes put together by Dr. Roy Clouser. Dr. Clouser was one of the last people to study under the Christian philosopher Dr. Herman Dooyeweerd.

Enroll in a Christian Philosophy course by Dr. Roy Clouser.

Understanding Ministry Sciences Philosophy involves recognizing God’s creation, His redemption, and the role of the Bible in informing human flourishing in this life and a hopeful future for all eternity.Christian Leaders Institute offers Credentialing programs for Christians, volunteers, part-time, and full-time ministers who desire to share this religious ground motive belief with the world. The institute offers a degree program that includes various courses and topics focusing on understanding Ministry Sciences.