{"id":2212,"date":"2011-07-25T13:52:13","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T20:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=2212"},"modified":"2011-07-25T13:52:13","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T20:52:13","slug":"the-beauty-of-the-christian-faith-introduction-sources-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2011\/07\/25\/the-beauty-of-the-christian-faith-introduction-sources-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty of the Christian Faith: Introduction: Sources: Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m working on an adult curriculum titled “The Beauty of the Christian Faith.”\u00a0 It explores the basic elements of Christian faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed.\u00a0 I’ll be posting excerpts as they’re done.\u00a0 Here’s the fourth part of the introduction.\u00a0 Prior posts can be accessed through the Beauty of the Christian Faith Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

The sources of Christian theology are scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.\u00a0 Every variety of Christian theology draws on each of these sources.\u00a0 One of the first decisions we must make when thinking theologically is how to understand the nature of, and relationship between, these sources.<\/p>\n

Reason<\/h2>\n

\u201cReason\u201d is the application of the tools of the intellect, including language, observation, logic, and rational argument, to the available data.<\/p>\n

The relationship between \u201cfaith\u201d and \u201creason\u201d is a rich and sometimes contentious area of reflection in the Christian tradition.\u00a0 Christians have always been aware of the limitations of human reason.\u00a0 Some of these limitations are \u201cnatural\u201d \u2013 humans cannot know and understand everything that God knows and understands, precisely because we are human creatures and not God.\u00a0 Some of these limitations are the result of sin.\u00a0 Because of sin, apart from God\u2019s grace humans tend to ignore and distort many basic truths.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Nevertheless, Christians have always agreed that theology must be informed by human reason.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most profound statement of this relationship comes from the 11th Century theologian St. Anslem:\u00a0 \u201cfaith seeks understanding\u201d (\u201cfides quaerens intellectum\u201d).<\/em>\u00a0 Right \u201cunderstanding\u201d \u2013 the correct application of reason \u2013 presupposes faith.\u00a0 This is true even for a person of no religious faith at all.\u00a0 In order to believe that reason is a reliable process, we must at least assume that the universe we observe is in some sense real, orderly and predictable.\u00a0 If the observed universe were an illusion brought about by a feverish dream or a malicious demon, for example, or if the laws of nature were radically different in the past than they are today, there would be no basis upon which to believe that our beliefs about things like cause and effect are true \u2013 we could not make any inferences<\/em> from our observations of the world.\u00a0 But there is no way to prove for certain that the observed universe is not<\/em> a grand deception with a false history \u2013 for if it were a grand deception, we would be deceived in our attempts at any such proof!<\/p>\n

This problem is called \u201cDescartes\u2019 Demon,\u201d after Renee Descartes, a brilliant 17th Century mathematician and philosopher.\u00a0 \u00a0Descartes sought an indubitable foundation for rational knowledge.\u00a0 As he reflected on this problem, he realized that, at the very least, he must really exist \u2013 or else he could not reflect on the problem of his own existence!\u00a0 The fact of his own existence, he believed, was beyond doubt, because to doubt that fact is to presume a \u201cself\u201d capable of doubt.\u00a0 This led him to make his famous statement that \u201cI think therefore I am\u201d (\u201cCogito ergo sum<\/em>\u201d).\u00a0 Descartes believed that from this sure foundation of self-knowledge, using observation and reason, he could establish many other facts for certain.<\/p>\n

Most contemporary philosophers recognize that, even if the Cogito<\/em> is correct, it fails to provide the sort of firm foundation Descartes sought.\u00a0 Perhaps self-consciousness is itself an illusion.\u00a0 Perhaps what appears to be \u201cconscious\u201d thought is really an epiphenomenal delusion based in entirely mechanistic biological processes.\u00a0 Some modern neuroscientists believe precisely this about the human mind.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 And even if self-consciousness cannot reasonably be doubted, the \u201cself\u201d might be deceived about what kind of \u201cself\u201d it is, and about what exactly it is capable of perceiving and what kind of mental tools it can apply to those apparent perceptions.<\/p>\n

In fact, over a thousand years before Descartes, St. Augustine made a similar observation about self-knowledge and the certainty of one\u2019s own existence.\u00a0 Augustine, however, was more attuned to human fallibility than Descartes.\u00a0 When Augustine peered into his own soul, he saw an enormous capacity for rebelliousness and self-deception, along with a yearning for God.\u00a0 Augustine therefore understood self-knowledge as a springboard to faith in God.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

This exercise shows that everyone<\/em> must employ \u201cfaith\u201d as a basis for reason.\u00a0 Even people who claim to believe nothing but that which can be rationally \u201cproven\u201d must rely on assumptions that cannot be proven about their own minds, their own perceptions, and the universe we inhabit.\u00a0 \u201cRationalism\u201d is self-defeating.<\/p>\n

It is tempting at this point to discount reason entirely in favor of faith.\u00a0 Some Christians and other religious people take this approach, at least in some areas of their lives.\u00a0 For example, some Christians continue to follow certain \u201chealth and wealth\u201d preachers even when those preachers are exposed as cheats and frauds.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 This is the opposite error to \u201crationalism\u201d:\u00a0 \u201cfideism<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian theology is neither rationalistic nor fideistic.\u00a0 \u201cReason\u201d is an important source of Christian theology because we are informed by faith commitments about God, ourselves, and creation.\u00a0 These include that: \u00a0God exists; God is the creator of all things; God is a reasonable being; God created humans in His image, with a capacity for observation and reason; creation bears the characteristics of order and intelligibility because creation proceeds from and depends upon God\u2019s will; and God is not a deceiver and is the author of Truth.\u00a0 We might summarize it this way:\u00a0 \u201call Truth is God\u2019s Truth.\u201d\u00a0 Faith and reason are not at odds; they are in fact necessary to each other.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> The precise manner in which sin distorts human reason is a subject of intense debate across different Christian traditions.\u00a0 Christians in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions tend to hold a \u201chigher\u201d view of human reason, even though affected by sin, than Christians in the Protestant traditions.\u00a0 Among Protestants, Calvinist-Reformed Christians tend to hold a \u201clower\u201d view of human reason than those informed by the Arminian-Wesleyan-Pietist streams of the faith.\u00a0 We will explore these differences in more detail in the module on \u201cHumanity as Creation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> This claim, however, is self-defeating.\u00a0 How could a neurobiological machine with no true consciousness \u201cbelieve\u201d anything?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a> Augustine\u2019s reflections on this process are contained in his Confessions<\/em> \u2013 a classic of Christian spirituality and of Western literature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a> The point here is not to suggest that God never miraculously heals or miraculously provides for people today.\u00a0 We have many reasons to believe God sometimes acts today in ways we must call \u201cmiraculous.\u201d\u00a0 Moreover, God is always<\/em> the source of every <\/em>good thing we receive.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it is sadly the case that there are many false \u201chealth and wealth\u201d preachers seeking their own gain, who prey on gullible, desperate, and poor people throughout the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m working on an adult curriculum titled “The Beauty of the Christian Faith.”\u00a0 It explores the basic elements of Christian faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed.\u00a0 I’ll be posting excerpts as they’re done.\u00a0 Here’s the fourth part of the introduction.\u00a0 Prior posts can be accessed through the Beauty of the Christian Faith Page. Introduction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,19,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beauty-of-the-christian-faith","category-historical-theology","category-theology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-zG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}