John McElphatrick Frame (born April 8, 1939) is a retired American

Christian philosopher Christian philosophy includes all philosophy carried out by Christians, or in relation to the religion of Christianity. Christian philosophy emerged with the aim of reconciling science and faith, starting from natural rational explanations wit ...

and

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

especially noted for his work in

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

and

presuppositional apologetics Presuppositional apologetics, shortened to presuppositionalism, is an Epistemology, epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the res ...

systematic theology Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topics ...

, and

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

. He is one of the foremost interpreters and critics of the thought of

Cornelius Van Til Cornelius Van Til (May 3, 1895 – April 17, 1987) was a Dutch-American Reformed theologian, who is credited as being the originator of modern presuppositional apologetics. A graduate of Calvin College, Van Til later received his PhD from Pr ...

Biography

Frame was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

and became a Christian at the age of 13 through the ministry of Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the

United Presbyterian Church of North America The United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) was an American Presbyterian denomination that existed for one hundred years. It was formed on May 26, 1858, by the union of the Northern branch of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church ...

in Pittsburgh. He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he was involved in the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship (PEF) and Westerly Road Church. The PEF and Westerly Road had a profound impact on forming Frame's faith and theology. He says of their impact:

I owe much to PEF ... Fullerton and PEF cared deeply about people, spending hours in mutual prayer, exhortation, counseling, gospel witness. I never experienced that depth of fellowship in any
Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...
church or institution ... So I am not much impressed by people who want to set up an adversary relation between "Reformed" and "
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
." Today, Reformed writers often disparage evangelical ministries as circuses, as clubs that will do anything at all to gain members, who pander to the basest lusts of modern culture. That was not true of PEF, or of Westerly Road Church ... PEF would never have imagined the effect their ministry had on me: they turned me into a Reformed ecumenist!

Frame received degrees from Princeton University ( A.B.),

Westminster Theological Seminary Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian theology, theological seminary in the Reformed theology, Reformed theological tradition in Glenside, Pennsylvania. It was founded by members of the faculty of Prince ...

( B.D.),

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

( AM, and M.Phil. and began work on a doctoral dissertation). He received an honorary doctorate of divinity in 2003 from Belhaven College. He has served on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary, and was a founding faculty member of their

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

campus; , Frame is an emeritus faculty member at

Reformed Theological Seminary Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) is a theological seminary in the Reformed theological tradition with campuses in multiple locations in the United States. Founded by conservatives in the Southern Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Churc ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. He is an ordained minister in the

Presbyterian Church in America The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is the second-largest Presbyterian church body, behind the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the largest conservative Calvinist denomination in the United States. The PCA is Calvinist, Reformed in theolog ...

Relations to other scholars: polemics and critical reviews

Frame is known for his critical view of historical modes of theology, including his criticism of such scholars as

David F. Wells David Falconer Wells (born May 11, 1939) is Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books in which his evangelical theology engages with the modern world. He has taught at Trin ...

Donald Bloesch Donald George Bloesch (May 3, 1928 – August 24, 2010) was an American evangelical theologian. For more than 40 years, he published scholarly yet accessible works that generally defend traditional Protestant beliefs and practices while seeking to ...

Mark Noll Mark Allan Noll (born 1946) is an American historian specializing in the history of Christianity in the United States. He holds the position of Research Professor of History at Regent College, having previously been Francis A. McAnaney Professor o ...

George Marsden George Mish Marsden (born February 25, 1939) is an American historian who has written extensively on the interaction between Christianity and American culture, particularly on Christianity in American higher education and on American evangelicali ...

, D.G. Hart, Richard Muller, and Michael Horton. Particularly notable amongst Frame's critical analyses is "

Machen Machen (from Welsh ' "place (of)" + ', a personal name) is a large village three miles east of Caerphilly, south Wales. It is situated in the Caerphilly borough within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It neighbours Bedwas and Treth ...

's Warrior Children", originally published in ''Alister E. McGrath and Evangelical Theology: a Dynamic Engagement'' (Paternoster Press, 2003). More recently, Frame reviewed

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

's book ''Christless Christianity'' with a similar analysis. In 1998, he debated then librarian D.G. Hart in a student-organized discussion of the

regulative principle of worship The regulative principle of worship is a Christian doctrine, held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists, that God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in the Bible, and convers ...

Multiperspectival epistemology

Frame has elaborated a Christian

in his 1987 work ''The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God''. In this work, he develops what he calls ''triperspectivalism'' or ''

multiperspectivalism Multiperspectivalism (sometimes triperspectivalism) is an approach to knowledge advocated by Calvinist philosophers John Frame and Vern Poythress. Frame laid out the idea with respect to a general epistemology in his 1987 work ''The Doctrine of ...

'' which says that in every act of knowing, the knower is in constant contact with three things (or "perspectives") – the knowing subject himself, the object of

knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

, and the standard or criteria by which knowledge is attained. He argues that each perspective is interrelated to the others in such a fashion that, in knowing one of these, one actually knows the other two, also. His student and collaborator

Vern Poythress Vern Sheridan Poythress (born 1946) is an American philosopher, theologian, New Testament scholar and mathematician, who is currently the New Testament chair of the ESV Oversight Committee. He is also the Distinguished Professor of New Testament ...

has further developed this idea with respect to

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

. Reformed theologian

Meredith Kline Meredith George Kline (December 15, 1922 – April 14, 2007) was an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology. Academic career Kline received his AB from Gordon College, Th.B. and Th.M. ...

wrote a critique of this view, explaining that Poythress and Frame had used multiperspectivalism in ways that had led to what he considered incorrect conclusions in regards to the relation of Kline's position and Greg L. Bahnsen's on

covenant theology Covenant theology (also known as covenantalism, federal theology, or federalism) is a biblical theology, a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It is often distinguished from dis ...

(more specifically

theonomy Theonomy (from Greek ''theos'' "God" and ''nomos'' "law") is a hypothetical Christian form of government in which divine law governs societies. Theonomists hold that societies should observe divine law, particularly the Old Testament’s judici ...

Presuppositions

As a former student of Van Til, Frame is supporter of the

presuppositionalist Presuppositional apologetics, shortened to presuppositionalism, is an epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the results of those ...

school of Christian

apologetics Apologetics (from Greek ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their f ...

. He defines a presupposition as follows:

Rationalism and irrationalism in non-Christian thought

Frame, developing the thought of his mentor Cornelius Van Til, has asserted in both his ''Apologetics to the Glory of God'' and his ''Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought'', that all non-Christian thought can be categorized as the ebb and flow of

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...

and

irrationalism Irrationalism is a philosophical movement that emerged in the early 19th century, emphasizing the non-rational dimension of human life. As they reject logic, irrationalists argue that instinct and feelings are superior to reason in the research ...

Rationalism

In this context Frame defines rationalism as any attempt to establish the finite human mind as the ultimate standard of truth and falsity. This establishing of the autonomous intellect occurs within the context of rejecting God's

revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

of himself in both

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

and the Bible; a rationalist, in this sense, states that the human mind is able to fully and exhaustively explain reality. Yet, when Frame speaks of "exhaustive explanations" he does not mean these systems seek omniscience; rather, he means that the history of non-Christian thought (though, admittedly, his focus is

Western philosophy Western philosophy refers to the Philosophy, philosophical thought, traditions and works of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the Pre ...

) is the history of various attempts to construct systems that account for everything (a distinctive metaphysic, epistemology and value theory). According to Frame, examples of attempts to explain reality are found in

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

's form/matter

dualism Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another * P ...

; the debate between the

nominalists In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are two main versions of nominalism. One denies the existence of universals—that which can be inst ...

and the realists over the status of universals and particulars, and the "all is ... ire, water, atoms, etc of the

pre-Socratics Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...

. More examples would include Descartes' mind/body dualism,

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

's God or nature, and

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many ...

monadology The ''Monadology'' (, 1714) is one of Gottfried Leibniz's best known works of his later philosophy. It is a short text which presents, in some 90 paragraphs, a metaphysics of simple substances, or '' monads''. Text During his last stay in V ...

Plotinus Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...

' "The One" and his teaching on

emanation Emanation may refer to: *Emanation (chemistry), a dated name for the chemical element radon *Emanation From Below, a concept in Slavic religion *Emanation in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a belief found in Neoplatonism *Emanation of the state, a lega ...

, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

empiricists In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological view which holds that true knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience and empirical evidence. It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along ...

' attempts to limit knowledge and possibility to that which can be empirically verified,

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...

's worlds of the

noumena In philosophy, a noumenon (, ; from ; : noumena) is knowledge posited as an object that exists independently of human sense. The term ''noumenon'' is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to, the term ''phenomenon'', which refers to ...

and the

phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...

, and

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

dialectic Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...

Awards and recognition

Belhaven College awarded Frame an honorary

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...

in 2003.

Personal life

Frame married Mary Grace Cummings in 1984, and has two sons and three stepchildren. As of 2024, he lives in Orlando, Florida.

Selected works

* Introduction to Presuppositional Apologetics Part 1 & 2 * ''Van Til: The Theologian'', 1976 * ''Medical Ethics'', 1988 * ''Perspectives on the Word of God: An Introduction to Christian Ethics'', 1990 * ''Evangelical Reunion'', 1991 * ''Apologetics to the Glory of God'', 1994 * ''Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of his Thought'', 1995 * ''Worship in Spirit and Truth'', 1996 * ''Contemporary Worship Music: A Biblical Defense'', 1997 * ''No Other God: A Response to Open Theism'', 2001 * ''Salvation Belongs To The Lord: An Introduction To Systematic Theology'', 2006 * ''Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief'', 2013 * ''A History of Western Philosophy and Theology'', 2015 * ''Theology of My Life: A Theological and Apologetic Memoir'', 2017

Theology of Lordship series

* ''The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God'', 1987 * ''The Doctrine of God'', 2002 * ''The Doctrine of the Christian Life'', 2008 * ''The Doctrine of the Word of God'', 2010

References

External links

''Frame-Poythress.org''
a current web source of the writings of Frame and

.
Frame's article on "Remembering Donald B. Fullerton".
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frame, John 1939 births Living people American Presbyterians Presbyterian Church in America ministers Calvinist and Reformed philosophers American Calvinist and Reformed theologians Christian apologists Writers from Orlando, Florida Westminster Theological Seminary alumni Westminster Theological Seminary faculty Christian ethicists Princeton University alumni Yale Divinity School alumni Writers from Pittsburgh 20th-century American writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 21st-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Westminster Seminary California faculty American critics of atheism Reformed Theological Seminary faculty