The age old question of the relationship between Faith and Reason in the Christian worldview is just as relevant today as it has ever been and may I say just as challenging to resolve.
The Church has struggled with this issue from the very beginning, much like it has regarding the question of the relationship of Faith and Works.
The Bible is filled with references as to the importance of right thinking, correct understanding, the gaining of sound knowledge and the renewing and enlightening of the mind; and so we see that reason plays a huge role according to God's list of important priorities, in the bringing of salvation to those that are lost in the darkness of wrong thinking, who are ignorant of proper understanding, who are without knowledge of the truth, and those who are blinded in their minds to the things of God.
Equally abundant throughout the scriptures we find the admonition to believe in God, to believe in Jesus, to believe in the word of God, to believe in the Holy Spirit, to have faith in the Gospel and to exercise our faith in order to receive the blessings of God.
Let me say right at the beginning that I believe that the Church in our day has erred on the side of promoting the idea that there is some kind of virtue in proclaiming Faith without Reason, as though reason is somehow the inferior component of belief and that it somehow defiles "pure faith."
Nothing could be further from what the Bible has to say concerning the matter, but the problem is that sound biblical exegesis has fallen out of favor for the very same reason that rationality has fallen from favor, that being the emergence of Pietistic Skeptical Fideism as the darling of modernist, post modernist, existentialist, contemporary theologians. The philosophers of the past two centuries have relentlessly attacked the foundations of reason, logic and the continuity and consistency of the meaning of language, particularly as they relate to God, the things of God, the soul of man and the dependability of the historical record of the Gospel. The result is a lack of concern for, lack of appreciation of and dismissal of the ability to know, objective truth.
Preaching now, in many cases, has been reduced to lip service to a few passages from scripture followed by feel good story telling, anecdotal experiences, a good joke or two, heart pounding sensual music accompanied by repetitive chanting of simple phrases, and the abandonment into mindless "praise" and empty meditation, this has become so called worship for thousands and has replaced sound biblical exegesis and proper reverence before a Holy God.
The Christian Faith is more than reason but it most emphatically is not less! Faith without reason is credulity, and reason without faith can never save a lost sinner. Both components must be in place to bring new life into the heart, mind and spirit of one dead in trespasses and sin, bound in the chains of ignorance and deception, hardened with the obstinacy of self will, defiled with the relativism of the world system, foolish in their embrace of such concepts as gradual spontaneous generation and naturalistic evolution, darkened in their imaginations and slaves to the lusts of their flesh, worshiping a reality reflecting their own image and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness all their futile meaningless days. If I have painted a bleak and alarming picture of those who reject Christ and the Gospel then I have accomplished my intention. In truth their condition is even worse than all that I have stated, for all of these sad conditions are yet temporary at this point, but they will produce permanent grave results after this life is ended if there is no change.
Back to the idea of skepticism in the Church as regards man's knowledge of God and the deep things of God. The idea being that God is so far above man and so transcendent to His creation that we lack any good point of reference for comparison with Him, and therefore cannot know anything positive about Him, only what He is not, He is not like us. The problem is that this is not what Jesus is recorded as saying in the Gospels. Jesus said things like "If you have seen Me you have seen God," and "I am the way the truth and the life...the truth will set you free...if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed." So what place for the setting aside the need for truth and the laws of reason? How is it helpful to relate to a lost and dying world the idea that there is no real reason for the hope that Christianity offers and in fact no place for and no need for a reason. Where is the motivation for trust if we say, "just take it on faith!"?
Let me share a passage from the Bible with you that I think will help make the point.
II Corinthians 4:3-6- And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to
those who are perishing, in
whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so
that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God. For
we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your
bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For
God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in
our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Christ.
Notice that it is the mind that lacks the light of understanding that defines the unbeliever. The content / notitia / data of the gospel is veiled to their blinded mind. The job of the Christian is to introduce Jesus Christ by the proclamation of the gospel through which shines the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is accomplished by the power of the God of creation in the same way that He created light in the first place. In this way He produces the opportunity for the darkened heart of unbelief to see the light of the truth and the choice to believe and exercise faith in the entire process which amounts to an affirmation of the existence of God, the acceptance of the truth claims of the gospel and the belief that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord and Savior. We need to consider the impact of this section of scripture. You see that two components are required to attain to belief or saving faith, first there is a mind capable of receiving and retaining knowledge, but incapable of attaining that knowledge due to the state of that mind. Second we see that the supernatural illumination of God's Spirit is ready, willing and able to assist that mind and to enable it to see out of the darkness and understand the truth claims of the gospel. Only after the mind considers the facts, accepts their validity and exercises faith in them does salvation come. Leave out the role of the mind in understanding the truth or of the heart in the exercising of faith in the God who revealed that truth and you fall short of saving faith.
