Christ and Human Thought

Odd compilation

     

Dr. Van Til is an extremely well learned man. In this set of lectures you really get to hear his passion, as well as a man with a good sense of humor who is willing to keep the mood light by cracking jokes. There is a great deal to be learned from CVT and his thought shouldn't be neglected. The audio quality of the lectures aren't particularly good, but they are very old so it's hard to complain (he said it was the year 1968).

As for the material itself, it's a bit of an odd compilation. By looking at the titles of the lectures, you get the impression that it's one class going through the history of philosophy and Christian thought, but that isn't the case. It's clearly a compilation of various classes or single lectures that have been compiled. It's quite obvious this is the case as the first 9 or 10 are recorded in a small class at Reformed Theological Seminary, then it switches to (judging from the background noise) a very large lecture hall, and even has what seem to be lectures given at a church (he makes reference to being in a church and that he isn't going into much detail for the sake of the layman). This wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that after the first 10 or so, you get A LOT of repetition. It starts to get old when you hear the same stories for the 3rd or 4th time. I'm not sure who compiled this or why they did it so, but a much better treatment could have been given.

The first 10 or so are really good and you get some excellent insights. His treatment of Barth was very interesting and in terms of hearing a very strong, yet highly intelligent critique of Barth, CVT is the man to go to. There are pros and cons to this whole lecture series. I would recommend it, but there is no reason to have all of these lectures together and you'll find yourself skipping through parts you've already heard.