Faith and Reason
In this post and in the following one, I will be analyzing the relationship between faith and reason. This issue can be quite thorny and is the fuel for many a fiery argument between non-believers and believers, and even between various believers themselves. Some people, especially the atheists today, claim that people who believe in a divine being, God, are extremely foolish and just blindly accept some random ideas and hold them up as divinely-revealed, binding truths. Some people might characterize faith as holding something to be true without any evidence, reason, or authority. This action, according to many, is utterly unreasonable and is only done by ignorant people. On the flip-side, there are some believers in God who hold that reason and human reasoning is contrary to the essence of the faith and is, in fact, even toxic to the Christian walk of life. In this post and possibly in future ones, we shall see why these views are wrong because right reason and right faith can never contradict one another.
So, let's consider the relationship (if any) between faith and reason. First, as with any fruitful discussion or comparison of things, we should offer some definitions and clarifications. Faith can be defined as the act by which the intellect assents to all of the truths revealed by God, on the authority of God Himself. This act has an object, a thing it is directed at, namely, all the truths revealed by God. So, we can distinguish between the act of faith and the object of faith. The term 'faith' is a very important one for us as Christians and much more will be said about it later in subsequent posts.
Now, let's define and examine reason. Like faith, reason has both an act and an object. The object of reason is all the truths that can be understood, discovered, and proved logically by our natural human abilities, through the natural light of human reasoning. The act of reason is simply all the acts of the mind by which we understand, discover, or prove any truth. It is clearly evident that we can attain truths about many things through just the natural light of reason apart from the supernatural light of faith. For example, we don't need God's divine revelation to know that we exist, that the world around us exists, that the whole is always greater than the part, and so on. We can say that there are three ways for us to come upon truth: By reason alone, by both reason and faith in God's divine revelation, and by faith in God's revelation alone, to clarify, those truths that are above reason and thus could never be attained by it. To be sure, however, these truths of faith can never contradict those truths attainable by reason. Only falsehood can contradict truth, not other truths.
Now, let's quickly look at some concrete examples of how this all works. First, we see that reason alone is able to understand what, let's say, a star, a horse, or an atom is. God's divine revelation does not deal with this material. We also see that certain truths can be found both by faith in God's revelation and by natural reasoning. Some examples of this are the historical fact of Jesus Christ's existence, the fact that murder is objectively wrong, and many other truths. Finally, there are some truths that can only be attained by faith in God's revelation to us. Such truths would be the reality of the Trinity, the three Persons in one God, or God's plan to save men from their sins. While neither of these truths contradict reason, they nonetheless surpass our natural human abilities of reasoning. As the renowned apologist and preacher Francis de Sales declared, "The gospel soars far above all the most elevated reasonings of nature; it never goes against them, never injures them nor dissolves them." This is how we should view the relationship between faith and reason. They are not mutually-exclusive but are complementary. After all, when rightly exercised, both faith and reason have truth as their object.
In the writings of Augustine, we see most clearly how the mutual relationship between faith and reason is quite important and is not something to disregard or deny. He said in one of his sermons: "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe." Indeed, in his timeless Confessions, Augustine writes, "My greatest certainty was that 'the invisible things of thine from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even thy eternal power and Godhead.' For when I inquired how it was that I could appreciate the beauty of bodies, both celestial and terrestrial; and what it was that supported me in making correct judgments about things mutable; and when I concluded, 'This ought to be thus; this ought not'—then when I inquired how it was that I could make such judgments (since I did, in fact, make them), I realized that I had found the unchangeable and true eternity of truth above my changeable mind."
So, we should definitely side with Augustine in saying that true human reasoning really does strengthen and affirm the true faith. In this passage from his Confessions, he actually quoted Romans 1:20 which says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." The relationship between faith and reason is not and should not be a hostile one for us as Christians. To be sure, reason can never replace faith nor should we as Christians believe that reason alone is sufficient to know, love, and serve God apart from grace which moves us to have faith in God. As Aquinas says in the Summa Theologiae concerning the relationship between the realities of reason and faith, "Science begets and nourishes faith, by way of external persuasion afforded by science; but the chief and proper cause of faith is that which moves man inwardly to assent... To believe does indeed depend on the will of the believer: but man's will needs to be prepared by God with grace, in order that he may be raised to things which are above his nature."
So, in the end, we can see that faith and reason, rather than being like oil and water, are rather like husband and wife. They are definitely separate and distinct but are nevertheless both needed and both supportive of each other. In our day and age today, believers in God and in the truths He has revealed must, as we read about in 1st Peter 3:15, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." In the combat against falsehood and heresy, faith and reason are like two powerful knights, fighting side-by-side against the common enemy.
So, let's consider the relationship (if any) between faith and reason. First, as with any fruitful discussion or comparison of things, we should offer some definitions and clarifications. Faith can be defined as the act by which the intellect assents to all of the truths revealed by God, on the authority of God Himself. This act has an object, a thing it is directed at, namely, all the truths revealed by God. So, we can distinguish between the act of faith and the object of faith. The term 'faith' is a very important one for us as Christians and much more will be said about it later in subsequent posts.
Now, let's define and examine reason. Like faith, reason has both an act and an object. The object of reason is all the truths that can be understood, discovered, and proved logically by our natural human abilities, through the natural light of human reasoning. The act of reason is simply all the acts of the mind by which we understand, discover, or prove any truth. It is clearly evident that we can attain truths about many things through just the natural light of reason apart from the supernatural light of faith. For example, we don't need God's divine revelation to know that we exist, that the world around us exists, that the whole is always greater than the part, and so on. We can say that there are three ways for us to come upon truth: By reason alone, by both reason and faith in God's divine revelation, and by faith in God's revelation alone, to clarify, those truths that are above reason and thus could never be attained by it. To be sure, however, these truths of faith can never contradict those truths attainable by reason. Only falsehood can contradict truth, not other truths.
Now, let's quickly look at some concrete examples of how this all works. First, we see that reason alone is able to understand what, let's say, a star, a horse, or an atom is. God's divine revelation does not deal with this material. We also see that certain truths can be found both by faith in God's revelation and by natural reasoning. Some examples of this are the historical fact of Jesus Christ's existence, the fact that murder is objectively wrong, and many other truths. Finally, there are some truths that can only be attained by faith in God's revelation to us. Such truths would be the reality of the Trinity, the three Persons in one God, or God's plan to save men from their sins. While neither of these truths contradict reason, they nonetheless surpass our natural human abilities of reasoning. As the renowned apologist and preacher Francis de Sales declared, "The gospel soars far above all the most elevated reasonings of nature; it never goes against them, never injures them nor dissolves them." This is how we should view the relationship between faith and reason. They are not mutually-exclusive but are complementary. After all, when rightly exercised, both faith and reason have truth as their object.
In the writings of Augustine, we see most clearly how the mutual relationship between faith and reason is quite important and is not something to disregard or deny. He said in one of his sermons: "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe." Indeed, in his timeless Confessions, Augustine writes, "My greatest certainty was that 'the invisible things of thine from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even thy eternal power and Godhead.' For when I inquired how it was that I could appreciate the beauty of bodies, both celestial and terrestrial; and what it was that supported me in making correct judgments about things mutable; and when I concluded, 'This ought to be thus; this ought not'—then when I inquired how it was that I could make such judgments (since I did, in fact, make them), I realized that I had found the unchangeable and true eternity of truth above my changeable mind."
So, we should definitely side with Augustine in saying that true human reasoning really does strengthen and affirm the true faith. In this passage from his Confessions, he actually quoted Romans 1:20 which says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." The relationship between faith and reason is not and should not be a hostile one for us as Christians. To be sure, reason can never replace faith nor should we as Christians believe that reason alone is sufficient to know, love, and serve God apart from grace which moves us to have faith in God. As Aquinas says in the Summa Theologiae concerning the relationship between the realities of reason and faith, "Science begets and nourishes faith, by way of external persuasion afforded by science; but the chief and proper cause of faith is that which moves man inwardly to assent... To believe does indeed depend on the will of the believer: but man's will needs to be prepared by God with grace, in order that he may be raised to things which are above his nature."
So, in the end, we can see that faith and reason, rather than being like oil and water, are rather like husband and wife. They are definitely separate and distinct but are nevertheless both needed and both supportive of each other. In our day and age today, believers in God and in the truths He has revealed must, as we read about in 1st Peter 3:15, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." In the combat against falsehood and heresy, faith and reason are like two powerful knights, fighting side-by-side against the common enemy.
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