Philosophy is anthropocentric because it uses man as a measure to understand the universe. In my opinion, this does not necessarily have to be wrong. Man has been created in the image of God and, as such, is the crown of creation; unlike the otherwise more powerful angels. However, a truthful philosophy is also theocentric, because one’s view of God determines all aspects of life.
Philosophy, then, tries to understand the universe in light of the character of God and of man. True philosophy will keep God and man in balance, since the second great commandment is equal to the first. Corrupt philosophies either overemphasize one side or the other to varying degrees, or compound dualisms of these various imbalances; As if a man could walk on two crooked crutches!
So deistic rationalism is too anthropocentric in the sense that God is described as too transcendent to directly impart knowledge to us. In that case, we are left to the resources of our own minds to philosophize about Creation. Atheistic materialism tends to be anthropocentric (except in cases like Foucault’s) and totally denies God. Most of the time man is his own god or is lost in the universe.
On the other side of the seesaw is mystical pantheism. The theocentric side of reality is overemphasized here. Man must feel one with God to intuitively discover the highest divine truths about himself and Creation. Occult polytheism practically denies the freedom of man. So in Hinduism one must deny one’s individuality and try to realize one’s divinity by becoming one with Brahman.
In the first two cases, divinity is reduced to impersonality and man is elevated to the role of plenipotentiary of God. In the last two cases, the real God is totally ignored and man is exalted directly to divinity or indirectly by the absence of God. Polytheism is an empty theocentricity. It claims to honor the gods, but actually makes them personal extensions of man. Therefore, God is totally lost. The pantheist set out to “overemphasize” the importance of God, and the polytheist misses God altogether. So atheism is an empty humanism. It claims to honor man, but it really turns him into a machine, an animal, or even less, a chemical reaction.
Exaggerated humanity, then, is also a dead end. Therefore, the true philosophy is the right balance between God and man, Creator and creation. Theocentric and anthropocentric aspects need each other in philosophy. Emphasizing God only, or mainly, is wrong, because God has invested all His interest in man. It is also incorrect to emphasize only, or mainly, the man; because man has God as his greatest interest. We can learn this from the Lord himself, who declared that the second clause of the great commandment is the same as the first.
I understand that all corrupt philosophies are the result of the imbalance of these two sides of philosophy. Christians may have thought they had done a good job. But unconsciously, like medieval scholastics, they put themselves more at the center than on God. God was only included as a superior stone, to finish an imposing system. However, the winds of time came to corrode these pyramids of the human mind. And only what was really true of them still stands.
True philosophy, however, is not a system, colossally as some may be above us, but a living Person, namely, Christ. In Him, God and man are in perfect balance! However, our own philosophical understanding must remain the product of limited minds. There may be many good things in our thoughts, but they are always lacking. Therefore, they are really corruptions. No one on this side of the grave can claim to be completely inspired by God. Not even the writers of the Bible could do it. Because some of his writings were not admitted into the canon. Only those who were completely inspired, by a miracle, were recognized as such. Human wisdom, also that of the Apostle Paul (in his daily life), is never fully inspired. All we can hope for is a form of derived wisdom and knowledge, that is, in our formulations. However, with Pascal, I say that the heart has reasons that go beyond reason. And it is in the suprarational heart that we grasp the absolutes of God and His Word.
