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Yes, there is -- and for the same basic reason: it, too, must be done in order to do Christian theology, which itself must be done in order to bear Christian witness. Also thus necessary to bearing Christian witness is doing philosophical -- specifically metaphysical and ethical -- research, and one reason it has to be done is that it is the only way to establish critically the other necessary presupposition of Christian witness: that radical monotheism is justified in conceiving the strictly ultimate reality but for which there would be nothing real at all as "God." The other reasons why such philosophical research is necessary all follow from its being the only way by which other necessary presuppositions and implications of Christian witness can be critically validated as credible and so cognitively significant assertions about reality.

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Question: To what extent, if at all, can the general principles implied by these two answers serve to answer parallel questions about the necessary conditions of bearing the witness of faith of religions in general?

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