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Faithful Reason
by L Cruz III2007
(Under Construction)
I have met several people who firmly believe that philosophy is the opposite of religion and that reason destroys of faith. They believe that in order to adopt a "proper" theological mindset, faith should take center stage while all reason should be checked at the door.
I don't know about you, but I would kick and scream if my rights to reason, question or philosophize were removed from my church. However, by the same token, if faith were removed, church would stop being church altogether.
So, which is it; faith or reason? Should we believe everything blindly with an open heart or should we only believe that which our intellect can comprehend and support?
When one reflects upon the question, "Who says that faith has to be unreasonable?" it becomes obvious that arguments against reason would be foolish.
Conversely, when pondering the question, "How much can mortal reasoning really teach us about an immortal God?" one comes to understand that arguments against faith would also be a mistake.
So, what are we to do? Should we appeal to our comforts, fears and prejudices and choose a direction that best compliments our personality...much like one might select a shirt or a purse that appeals to our tastes?
I believe that would be a mistake.
When considering whether to live by faith or reason, we are making an important and decision about how we will live and how we will think so that we may come to understand Truth...truth that will set us free.
Imagine the internal conflict of a person who lives solely by reason (devoid of faith) stepping foot onto an airplane for the first time. Similarly, imagine the internal conflict of a person who lives solely by faith trying to balance his checkbook.
The answer (the road to truth) must lie somewhere between faith and reason. In other words strength lies in faithful reason and reasonable faith.
Phaith and Filosophy
A popular definition of philosophy is the rational investigation of the truths and principals of being, knowledge or conduct. I am indeed a fan of philosophy.
Unbeknownst to some, a crucial time in Christian development was the middle ages. During this period, many theologians with powerful minds not only discovered the benefit of philosophical reasoning, but they also found that Christianity was what philosophy had always strived to be.
But, another question still remains, which should come first...faith and then reason, or reason and then faith? For the answer, I would like to turn to two theologians of the middle ages who explored the union between faith and reason so successfully that they changed the face Christian understanding, and were later sainted for their contributions.
AUGUSTINE.
One such theologian was the brilliant Saint Augustine who was a philosopher, theologian and bishop of the North African city of Hippo Regius. St. Augustine was a fan of Platonic thinking.
Plato believed that we could learn little to nothing about anything via our five senses. He believed that our senses can really only perceive imperfect copies of what is ultimately real because reality is constantly masked by our mortal enticements of pleasure and other sensations. Similarly, Saint Augustine held that the only way to truly know God is to leave the natural world of the senses and enter the supernatural world of reason. Could that be why we close our eyes when we pray?
Furthermore, because Saint Augustine considered physical sight far inferior to intellectual sight, he had an interesting take on scriptural interpretation. He believed that having knowledge of the actual words found in the Bible should not be considered the destination but rather a means to get us to our desired destination. In other words, the Bible was never intended to teach us what to think but rather how to think.
This brand of reasoning devoid of experience is called a priori. The converse of a priori is a posteriori - reasoning based on experience. A posteriori reasoning is where another famous theologian found his home. His name was Thomas Aquinas.
SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS.
Saint Aquinas lived some 800 years later, and he too brilliantly combined philosophy and Christianity in ways that would change the face of Christian understanding.
Unlike Augustine, however, St. Aquinas was a fan of the Aristotelian line of reasoning. Aristotle held that all human knowledge originates from the natural world as observed through sensation (the five senses).
Although Thomas Aquinas knew that Aristotle's brand of natural reasoning is finite and God is infinite, he suspected that we should still be able to detect God's Fingerprints on all of creation by doing nothing more than using our five senses and natural reasoning.
Fortunately, his hunch was correct. What Saint Aquinas discovered was astounding. He learned that by exercising this sense-based system of logic one could actually prove that:
-God exists.
-God is one.
-God is all powerful.
-God created the universe
-God is spirit, and that those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.
-And so many other things!
In fact, Saint Aquinas claimed that there are many, many examples of scripture telling us what we should have already been able to figure out on our own. However, he wrote with assumed bouts of frustration, that the reason so few people are able to see these truths is because most people are either "too stupid", too lazy or too busy to do the intellectual work needed to discover them. He said that metaphysics is not an easy thing.
Saint Aquinas said that such reasoning ought not be looked down upon, because such reasoning is natural, and nature is a Gift from God.
He also said that discovering these truths via these methods of deduction is not merely important, nor is it the foundation of understanding, but rather "the pinnacle of knowledge" itself.
Saint Aquinas called such discoveries the preamble of faith.
COMBINING PHILOSOPHIES
Some may consider Augustine's brand of a priori reasoning and Aquinas' a posteriori reasoning to be contradictory. I think such a belief would be incorrect.
Though Aquinas and his findings came some 800 years after Augustine's, when looking at them as a whole, I think we should actually consider flip flopping them. By putting Aquinas' philosophy first I believe the answer to the question, "should faith come before reason?" starts to sneak into view.
1. Our logical reasoning of our experiences observed through our senses teaches us about nature. Our logical contemplation of nature teaches us about God. This a posteriori exploration is dubbed "the pinnacle of knowledge". It accounts for the largest percentage of our spiritual learning. (Saint Aquinas)
2. Once a posteriori reasoning has reached a high enough level, and the obviousness of God's existence is proven to us, we discover that the forcefulness of our natural reasoning has added unquestionable justification for transforming our belief in God to clear knowledge of God's obvious existence; otherwise known as faith. (Saint Aquinas).
We then discover, based on faith and reason, that a predetermined "plan" or a "way" (the moral law) was burned upon our hearts at birth. In other words we discover an a priori knowledge; a foreknowledge; a knowledge that was gained without experience, reason or our five senses. (Saint Augustine.)
(Saint Aquinas stated that the great mysteries of Christianity- the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection-can only be understood via faith, not natural reason.)
3. As we experience one a priori truth after another, they become a posteriori and we developed heightened line of experiences from which further reason and faith can grow. We discover that people can be healed and mountains can be moved by faith.
So, in regard to the question, "Which is more important - faith or reason?", the answer is both. Faith and reason are valuable tools in our Christian walk.
While I believe blind faith can lead people to accurate deductions about God, it can also lead us to wrong deductions. I believe reason grounds our faith. By employing our God-given abilities to reason naturally, our faith can be strengthened by evidences of truth that were left by God for our discoveries. I fear that without adequate grounding, one could have faith in God's existence just as easily as one could have faith that we will be saved by flying sugary-pastry monsters from Mars.
While that may seem funny at first, imagine the horrifying actions of a person who believed you were sugary-pastry monsters' enemy.
True reason adds force to faith and faith adds force to our relationship with God.
The Truth shall set you free.
God bless!
