Claim of Harmony of Faith and Reason in the Christian Confession – Priest and the Philosopher co-workers in service to Christ
"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves."
~ From Fides et ratio (English: Faith and Reason) a papal encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998
The law of non-contradiction which is simply unsurpassed in Aristotelian logic, that Aristotle (in Metaphysics IV (Gamma) 3–6 ) says on denying the principle of non-contradiction we could not know anything that we do know, finds employment in works of Justin a 2nd century Christian apologist. Justin in his Hortatory Address to the Greeks destroys arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and takes every thought captive to obey Christ(2 Cor 10:5) declaring the poets and philosophers unworthy authorities of metaphysical truths his Greco-Roman World held as orthodox, for they proposed warring opposites and contradicting ideas.
The Christian faith is strongly rooted in certain historical facts as Paul declared 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile' (2 Cor 15:17) and thus has an empirical foundation. Justin (100-165 CE) was certainly an empiricist too when he showed the Greeks that their own historian Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BCE) had made record of the antiquity of Moses in Egypt. As an empiricist he is certainly not alone in Ecclesial Tradition, Sir Francis Bacon through his popularization of an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, which has since become known as the scientific method. Another British Empiricist Bishop George Berkeley published "The Analyst", a direct attack on the logical foundations and principles of calculus and, in particular, the notion of fluxion or infinitesimal change which Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz had used to develop calculus. Berkeley saw this as part of his broader campaign against the religious implications of Newtonian mechanics and against Deism. It was arguably as a result of this controversy that the foundations of calculus were rewritten in a much more formal and rigorous form, using the concept of limits.When empirical science ran into conflict with revealed word during the Galileo controversy, Galileo maintained “Holy Scripture could never lie or err...its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.” and in the lines of Francis Bacon “There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power”. The scope of resolution then lies in the fact that while Scripture remains supreme and infallible our understanding of it is fallible, capable of err. Certainly the contemporary world is no short of evidentialists who take for empirical evidence of God's action in history, off events recorded in the Bible. Almost 27% of Biblical material at the time written was prophetic and have come to detailed fulfillment and some impending ( Israel's election, exile & destruction, promise of restoration and gentile inclusion and conflict and final Triumph over her enemies ). Historicity is a serious issue for the evidentialist. There are numerous extra-biblical sources that attest Biblical events names and cities. Claims are made that in about 150 years of Jesus’ existence 52 authors of friends and foe in all 72 sources reference him, Archaeologist assert that while the heavens declare the Glory of the Lord there is also plenty of evidence in the rubble and ruin. A number of Biblical cities and events are attested by Archaeological finds, a total of 50 people in the OT and 30 in the NT can be attested by seals and inscriptions in the findings.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, American rabbi, archaeologist, president of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, who is credited with discovery of 1,500 ancient sites, said: "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted [overturned] a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries." Time Magazine.
John Scotus Erigena (815-877 CE) the Irish theologian who was a part of the Carolingian Renaissance said " And if someone thinks we are wrong for employing philosophical arguments, Abraham (father of our faith) for example, knew God not by the letter of Scripture, which did not yet exist but by the movement of the stars. For just as one proceeds from sense to understanding, so by way of the creature one goes to God. "
Certainly the medieval schoolmen were rationalists. Saint Thomas Aquinas(1225-1275 CE) in The Quinque viae (In Engluish "Five Ways" or "Five Proofs") asserted the strong metaphysical necessity of God's existence; causal factual & logical necessity. Peter Lombard placed rational justification for belief in God in the first book of the Sentences, which was used as standard textbook in medieval universities. Yet 'If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous. Saint Augustine says "Reason would never submit, if it did not judge that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit. It is then right for it to submit, when it judges that it ought to submit." Submission is the use of reason in which consists true Christianity.'(Pensees Section IV, by Blaise Pascal) . Thus medieval schoolmen placed reason subservient to revelation. Aquinas In the Summa Contra Gentiles proposed a "two fold truth" about religious claims, "one to which the inquiry of reason can reach, the other which surpasses the whole ability of the human reason."
“Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”
-Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE)
Immanuel Kant in his critique of pure reason redefined the role of reason in metaphysics to understand itself, to explore the powers and the limits of reason. Presuppositionalists' like Cornelius Van Til often have this habit of taking a jab at the evidentialist and rationalist on the grounds that everyone has presuppositions. Beliefs assumed to be true without evidence or justification, something the Cartesian philosopher René Descartes would call foundational beliefs. These ideas are found in the writings of Aquinas itself, that Theology defined as queen of all sciences(Letter from Galileo to Madame Christina, 1615 CE) subservient to none but utilizing the service of others ; philosophy as its handmaid( Stromata, Clement of Alexandria 150–215 CE) ; that Theology so defined its non-demonstrable first principles contained in the articles of faith can only be accepted on account of its own persuasion that " No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit." 1 Cor 12:3. Presuppositionalists' emphasize basicality of belief in God. Perhaps this is why Jesus being God, truth himself the source of all truth & its highest authority couldn’t qualify his statements anymore than in himself. " Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. " " John 14:6
It does not hurt to mention the thesis (reformed epistemology) of American analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, whose contention in 3 vol. warrant series is that Christian belief is warrant basic and does not require any evidence. The argument it yields against evolutionary naturalism is definitely worth reading. It goes something like this. If your belief producing cognitive faculties were formed by an unguided natural process you have to reason to trust them as reliable.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
- C.S.Lewis
"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves."
~ From Fides et ratio (English: Faith and Reason) a papal encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998
Christians as Logicians
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord " Isaiah 1:18The law of non-contradiction which is simply unsurpassed in Aristotelian logic, that Aristotle (in Metaphysics IV (Gamma) 3–6 ) says on denying the principle of non-contradiction we could not know anything that we do know, finds employment in works of Justin a 2nd century Christian apologist. Justin in his Hortatory Address to the Greeks destroys arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and takes every thought captive to obey Christ(2 Cor 10:5) declaring the poets and philosophers unworthy authorities of metaphysical truths his Greco-Roman World held as orthodox, for they proposed warring opposites and contradicting ideas.
Christians as Empiricists
"I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He." John 13:19The Christian faith is strongly rooted in certain historical facts as Paul declared 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile' (2 Cor 15:17) and thus has an empirical foundation. Justin (100-165 CE) was certainly an empiricist too when he showed the Greeks that their own historian Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BCE) had made record of the antiquity of Moses in Egypt. As an empiricist he is certainly not alone in Ecclesial Tradition, Sir Francis Bacon through his popularization of an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, which has since become known as the scientific method. Another British Empiricist Bishop George Berkeley published "The Analyst", a direct attack on the logical foundations and principles of calculus and, in particular, the notion of fluxion or infinitesimal change which Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz had used to develop calculus. Berkeley saw this as part of his broader campaign against the religious implications of Newtonian mechanics and against Deism. It was arguably as a result of this controversy that the foundations of calculus were rewritten in a much more formal and rigorous form, using the concept of limits.When empirical science ran into conflict with revealed word during the Galileo controversy, Galileo maintained “Holy Scripture could never lie or err...its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.” and in the lines of Francis Bacon “There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power”. The scope of resolution then lies in the fact that while Scripture remains supreme and infallible our understanding of it is fallible, capable of err. Certainly the contemporary world is no short of evidentialists who take for empirical evidence of God's action in history, off events recorded in the Bible. Almost 27% of Biblical material at the time written was prophetic and have come to detailed fulfillment and some impending ( Israel's election, exile & destruction, promise of restoration and gentile inclusion and conflict and final Triumph over her enemies ). Historicity is a serious issue for the evidentialist. There are numerous extra-biblical sources that attest Biblical events names and cities. Claims are made that in about 150 years of Jesus’ existence 52 authors of friends and foe in all 72 sources reference him, Archaeologist assert that while the heavens declare the Glory of the Lord there is also plenty of evidence in the rubble and ruin. A number of Biblical cities and events are attested by Archaeological finds, a total of 50 people in the OT and 30 in the NT can be attested by seals and inscriptions in the findings.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, American rabbi, archaeologist, president of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, who is credited with discovery of 1,500 ancient sites, said: "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted [overturned] a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries." Time Magazine.
Christians as Rationalists
"For since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made" Romans 1:20John Scotus Erigena (815-877 CE) the Irish theologian who was a part of the Carolingian Renaissance said " And if someone thinks we are wrong for employing philosophical arguments, Abraham (father of our faith) for example, knew God not by the letter of Scripture, which did not yet exist but by the movement of the stars. For just as one proceeds from sense to understanding, so by way of the creature one goes to God. "
Certainly the medieval schoolmen were rationalists. Saint Thomas Aquinas(1225-1275 CE) in The Quinque viae (In Engluish "Five Ways" or "Five Proofs") asserted the strong metaphysical necessity of God's existence; causal factual & logical necessity. Peter Lombard placed rational justification for belief in God in the first book of the Sentences, which was used as standard textbook in medieval universities. Yet 'If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous. Saint Augustine says "Reason would never submit, if it did not judge that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit. It is then right for it to submit, when it judges that it ought to submit." Submission is the use of reason in which consists true Christianity.'(Pensees Section IV, by Blaise Pascal) . Thus medieval schoolmen placed reason subservient to revelation. Aquinas In the Summa Contra Gentiles proposed a "two fold truth" about religious claims, "one to which the inquiry of reason can reach, the other which surpasses the whole ability of the human reason."
Christians as Presuppositionalists
“Unless you believe, you will not understand.” Isaiah 7:9“Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”
-Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE)
Immanuel Kant in his critique of pure reason redefined the role of reason in metaphysics to understand itself, to explore the powers and the limits of reason. Presuppositionalists' like Cornelius Van Til often have this habit of taking a jab at the evidentialist and rationalist on the grounds that everyone has presuppositions. Beliefs assumed to be true without evidence or justification, something the Cartesian philosopher René Descartes would call foundational beliefs. These ideas are found in the writings of Aquinas itself, that Theology defined as queen of all sciences(Letter from Galileo to Madame Christina, 1615 CE) subservient to none but utilizing the service of others ; philosophy as its handmaid( Stromata, Clement of Alexandria 150–215 CE) ; that Theology so defined its non-demonstrable first principles contained in the articles of faith can only be accepted on account of its own persuasion that " No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit." 1 Cor 12:3. Presuppositionalists' emphasize basicality of belief in God. Perhaps this is why Jesus being God, truth himself the source of all truth & its highest authority couldn’t qualify his statements anymore than in himself. " Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. " " John 14:6
It does not hurt to mention the thesis (reformed epistemology) of American analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, whose contention in 3 vol. warrant series is that Christian belief is warrant basic and does not require any evidence. The argument it yields against evolutionary naturalism is definitely worth reading. It goes something like this. If your belief producing cognitive faculties were formed by an unguided natural process you have to reason to trust them as reliable.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
- C.S.Lewis
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